As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a 32-year-old mother of a one-year-old shares her approach to spending and saving.
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Gender: Female.
Age: 32.
Ethnicity: East Asian – NZ citizen of 27 years.
Role: Insurance broker support; mother to a one-year-old.
Salary/income/assets: $73,000 individually, $156,000 as a household. My husband and I own a three-bedroom house and two cars, and I own another house with my siblings (our family home).
My living location is: Suburban.
Rent/mortgage per week: $521 weekly, shared between my husband and me.
Student loan or other debt payments per week: None
Typical weekly food costs
Groceries: $200-$220 per week, with $50 of this being for premium goat milk formula.
Eating out: $30-$60 for a weekly or fortnightly brunch.
Takeaways: $40 for fish and chips or pizza if we want an easy dinner.
Workday lunches: None – we both work from home.
Cafe coffees/snacks: None – we buy coffee and snacks in our weekly grocery shop.
Other food costs: $60 for Uber Eats once a week.
Savings: $8,800. Much more before I went on maternity leave, but we’re working on slowly building this back up! We save $200 per week when we can and don’t have any particular savings goals at the moment – our focus is on rebuilding three to six months’ emergency fund.
I worry about money: Sometimes.
Three words to describe my financial situation: Comfortable, modest, fortunate.
My biggest edible indulgence would be: Salmon sashimi.
In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be: $10 – we might have a small bottle of sparkling wine or whiskey RTD each if we have an at-home movie night.
In a typical week my transport expenditure would be: Maybe $25 for petrol – we work from home five days per week, walk to and from daycare, and spend our weekends at local cafes, beaches and parks.
I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was: Maybe $1,200 – $100 on clothing per month.
My most expensive clothing in the past year was: A $180 hooded puffer jacket from Forever New.
My last pair of shoes cost: $80 for a pair of white leather sneakers from Hannahs – they go with everything.
My grooming/beauty expenditure in a year is about: $97 for NARS foundation and $60 for NARS blush once a year; $50 for Too Faced eyeliner every six months; $20 for Directions hair dye every two months; $60 each for a Trilogy or Antipodes day and night cream every three months; $30 each for a cleanser and an exfoliator from The Body Shop every six months. I have my holy grail beauty products and am at a stage where I want to spend less time and energy researching and trying new products and prefer to just restock my favourites. All up it’s about $1,000 annually. I cut my own hair and don’t get any beauty treatments.
My exercise expenditure in a year is about: None – I own a treadmill which I run on a few times a week. Last year, I also did yoga, using my employer’s physical wellness subsidy on class passes at a local yoga studio.
My last Friday night cost: $300 – $250 on a hotel and $50 for takeaways on a cosy family getaway for a long weekend.
Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was: A brand new baby wrap – it was hard to use so we ended up buying a regular buckle baby carrier, which is so much simpler and feels more secure.
Most indulgent purchase (that I don’t regret) in the last 12 months was: A 2023 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, replacing our 17-year-old car.
One area where I’m a bit of a tightwad is: Junk food – I spend very little on chocolate, chips, cookies, etc as 1) they’re non-essential 2) I’m trying to be healthy 3) I only like to buy from ethical, fair-trade brands, which cost more.
Five words to describe my financial personality would be: Values-based, conscious, curious, authentic, open-minded.
I grew up in a house where money was: Plentiful but restricted. My parents were affluent but also very frugal and risk-averse, so they focused heavily on saving money for a rainy day. I found out as an adult that they had hundreds of thousands in the bank that could’ve grown substantially if invested elsewhere. Because of their frugality and refusal to spend money on anything deemed “impractical” and “frivolous”, we didn’t celebrate special occasions or buy seasonal decorations growing up, and my childhood and adolescent years were strict, sensible, and often sad. I reflected a lot on this when I was pregnant and have decided to give our son a better, happier childhood – I will spend generously and meaningfully on celebrating special occasions and creating memories with my child as they grow up.
The last time my Eftpos card was declined was: Yesterday when I forgot to transfer over money – we only keep up to $50 in our chequing account at any given time as we’ve had fraudulent transactions in the past.
In five years, in financial terms, I see myself: Honestly, about the same. Although our mortgage will likely refix on to a lower interest rate and we’ll be further along in our careers, if we have a second child this will mean extra food, clothing and nappies – and additional weekly daycare costing around $330.
Describe your financial low: I quit my job at a bank – one of the big four – several years ago due to a toxic culture of bullying at the branch I worked in. I had no back-up plan, I was just absolutely broken inside. It took me a year to pick myself back up again, during which I volunteered weekly, worked a casual part-time job, and lived very sensibly. I’m very thankful that a recruitment agency eventually helped me re-enter the workforce in my industry and that I’m now at a company where the culture is genuine, kind and respectful.
I would love to have more money for: The opportunity to work part-time or take a lower-paying but more meaningful job. I would love to have the time to study indefinitely (psychology, business, publishing, social work, communications, real estate etc) – not towards any particular career goal, but to be curious, to learn, to become a more interesting, knowledgeable, open-minded person.
I give money away to: My one-year-old, who I allocate $40 to every week. I invest $20 into his Sharesies and send $20 to his Kiwibank Notice Saver. I donate monthly to the Heart Foundation NZ, Kiwi Trust for Palestinian Children Relief, and Good Good Good (a news company that delivers positive news on climate change, LGBT rights, education, healthcare and more).