How much are we all earning? How does your profession add up? How are women your age spending their money? Is everyone in debt? And is the cost of living crisis biting everyone?
It’s time for some honest, candid conversations about money and budgets as we steer down a recession – so welcome to our series ‘Money, Honey’, where we’ll be diving deep into the bank accounts of wahine across the country to truly get a sense of what’s going on in our piggybanks.
Up this week it’s Auckland Credit Risk Manager Rachel!
Name: Rachel
Age: 45
Location: Auckland
Living situation: Married, three kids & dog!
Job: Credit Risk Manager
Salary per year: $118k
Any other income: No
Total income for your household per year: $213k
Take-home pay per fortnight: Mine is $1574
My situation: I live on Auckland’s North Shore with my husband, two teenage sons (the eldest has left home and moved to Australia after uni) and our dog. My husband and I combine our incomes, he’s self employed with a small business. Our sons have both left school and are working – their incomes aren’t high, so we don’t charge them any board and still cover their general expenses (car insurance, gym memberships etc). I manage their savings accounts & make sure they are making weekly deposits. Our house is a 1980’s do-up. Unfortunately we are stuck in a costly perpetual house renovation! We sold our old house & brought again during the 2021 Covid house buying frenzy and unfortunately like many others at that time,we paid overs!! We didn’t want to borrow more to do it up, so we save and are working on it over time.
Tell us your weekly budget: Rent/mortgage, Food, Bills, Childcare, Investments ,Debt payments, Savings, Spending
Mortgage: $1000 per week – it’s our only debt. We have a credit card for emergencies but it doesn’t have anything outstanding.
Food: $450 – but we don’t eat out a lot.
Petrol and parking: $25 a week in parking (I’m lucky that it’s subsidised) and I work from home two-three days a week.
Insurances: House/contents/kids/cars (2) $600pm, so about $150 a week: medical (subsidised through work) for whole family $200pm, life insurance $500pm (we recently reevaluated our insurances & saved money through using a really good adviser!)
Petrol – kids pay their own (plus the upkeep). My car is a business car and my husband’s business pays for his – so good cost savings there!
Power/internet – $350pm – we have a wood burner for heating during winter and bulk buy 5-6 cubic meters in summer when demand is low and it’s cheaper!
Spending: We don’t really have set spending limits – everything goes into joint accounts, bills are paid and if anything big comes up, we discuss it first. I’m more of a spender, but with the high cost of living, I am making a conscious effort to shop better.
What’s inside your bank account:
Savings: We usually have a base of $10k and a back up $5k credit limit available. Our savings could do with more attention. Surplus funds have been going into ongoing house renos – that feels like a bottomless pit!!
Kiwisaver: Our KiwiSaver accounts are ok, with just under $190k combined, the split is pretty even.
How do you approach budgeting? All bills and living costs get paid first!
Are you a spender or a saver? Definitely a spender – but I have been making a conscious effort to be better!
Do you have any debt, and what is it from? Just our mortgage. The total mortgage is $830k – we fixed for five years when the rates were mid 3%, so hoping they aren’t too bad when we come off fixed next year. We have a bit on revolving credit, so we’re concentrating more on paying that down at the moment.
How has the cost-of-living crisis affected you and your spending? I definitely spend less on the non-essentials. We are spending double on groceries compared to five years ago the cost of meat, dairy and insurance costs are really noticeable.
What are your financial goals? An overseas holiday!
What’s the best thing you’ve bought in the last three months? A Ninja double draw air fryer – best invention ever!
What’s the thing you regret buying the most in the last three months? A cheap vacuum cleaner – it’s already lost 80% of its suction power.
What (if anything) are you saving towards? Holiday!!
Aside from the big stuff (rent/mortgage, bills etc) what’s your biggest source of discretionary spending? Food & coffee
Do you worry about money? Of course!! I feel like I’ve gone backwards financially. Wages haven’t gone up but everything else has – food, insurance, rates, fuel… I have less disposable income and it’s noticeable.
How much money (honestly) do you think you’d spend on an average day? $20 – $30.
Where do you think it’s worth spending money, and where do you think you can save it? Spend: It pays to spend a little more on quality clothing, good fabrics last longer and look nicer (and don’t overlook secondhand stuff too!) Save: Shopping around for grocery specials.
Do you have any money-saving tips you’d like to share that work for you? Stock up when it’s on sale.
What’s the first and last thing you would cut from your spending if you had to make some savings? Better food choices – with teenagers we have a lot of snack foods. Biscuits, chips and nut bars would be the first things to go.