As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a data analyst shares her financial reality.
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Gender: Female
Age: 32
Ethnicity: Pākehā
Role: Senior data analyst
Salary/income/assets: Salary: $130,000. Assets: Co-ownership of a ~$700k house with a $450k mortgage. $100k in index funds and $60k in Kiwisaver.
My living location is: Urban.
Rent/mortgage per week: $400 per week mortgage repayments each, with two of us living here.
Student loan or other debt payments per week: No other debts, beyond my mortgage. Paid off my student loan about four years ago, managing to clear it out just before I moved from renting to owning.
Typical weekly food costs
Groceries: Approx. $70 a week for myself, my cat and any household essentials I grab.
Eating out: Maybe $75 a week on average? I love food and the whole experience of going out, so I tend to splurge when I do. This would include drinks with the meal though.
Takeaways: $50 per week. In my defence, this is because my main hobbies are board games or TTRPGs – activities where a bunch of people hang out at someone’s house for extended periods of time. Popping in a takeaway order is a good way to get everyone fed, meet all the dietaries, and not put too much pressure on the host.
Workday lunches: Maybe $20? I grab lunch out once or twice a week, but mostly go for sub-$10 deals.
Cafe coffees/snacks: Negligible. We get free instant coffee at work, and I’m enough of a philistine that that does me just fine. Occasionally I’ll grab a little pastry or something, but maybe once a month?
Other food costs: $81 a week for Woop meal kits. I get one per fortnight, which is portioned for three meals for a couple and does me nine meals.
Savings: My Kiwisaver’s set to 10% – I know there are probably better investments out there, but can’t beat the ease and fact that it’s taken before it hits my bank account for guaranteeing that that money gets saved.
$175 per week to a general bonus saver account. This is automated, and just sits there as a spare cash stash in case something goes wrong until it reaches $7-8k, at which point I transfer most of it to my investments and begin again. That’s also where I put anything extra I’ve just randomly saved intermittently.
I worry about money: Never.
Three words to describe my financial situation:Ridiculously fortunate, secure.
My biggest edible indulgence would be: Just one?? I’ll give you this week’s, which is the Toscano Tiramisu. Got it out of curiosity, since I love tiramisu but have struggled to find a good pre-made one, and it’s been a delightful treat.
In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be: Maybe $18? I order my wine and cocktail ingredients online (shout out Moore Wilson’s and EveryDay Wines) pretty cheaply, and then very occasionally will get a drink while at the movies or at a bar.
In a typical week my transport expenditure would be: I don’t drive. In winter or terrible weather, about $20 per week on bus fares in and out of work for the three days a week I’m in the office. In summer and on nice days, I walk.
You’d think that’d average out to $10 a week, but given Wellington weather, plus occasional extra trips in the evenings/weekends, let’s say $15 per week.
I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was: Maybe $400?
My most expensive clothing in the past year was: $99.81 – black and white denim dress from Gorman, with big puffy sleeves. It’s a good work dress, weird enough to be interesting while still work appropriate.
My last pair of shoes cost: $112.40 – black leather combat boots. My old pair reached the point the cobbler had to break it to me that we couldn’t keep repairing, so I gave up and replaced them. Still not 100% as keen as I was on my old pair, but that’s just because I like things to stay the same.
My grooming/beauty expenditure in a year is about: I have no idea… maybe $500? I don’t wear make up or dye my hair, but I do use a high SPF moisturiser in the morning and Cerave night cream in the evenings. I also use a Lush hair mask once a week despite not knowing if it does anything, because I like the Sunday ritual. And then 3-4 haircuts a year that I’m always aghast at the price of.
My exercise expenditure in a year is about: See combat boots above, which also get taken hiking. I’m not fit, but I average 2-3km walked per day and carry a heavy work backpack around for most of that, and that plus some morning stretches are my entire exercise.
My last Friday night cost: $11.50. I grabbed a couple steamed pork buns on my way home, since I’d worked through lunch and was starving, caught the bus back, and then hung out with the cat watching Dimension 20.
Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was: An online purchase of a one-shoulder romper that turned out to be non-adjustable and much wider across the chest than I could sustain. The dream was Grecian beach goddess, the reality was Greek exomis. It’s gone straight on the op shop pile!
Most indulgent purchase (that I don’t regret) in the last 12 months was: Flights up to Auckland for one night. Went to one of my best friends’ birthday party, stayed over with a clutch of girls like we were at a kids’ slumber party, and then spent the next day having a cuppa at my grandma’s house and visiting my mum and all the family pets. It was really nice!
One area where I’m a bit of a tightwad is: Clothes and technology. I’m still regularly wearing items I got given as hand-me-downs when I was in high school, and I’m on my second smartphone ever. I’m aided in this tech tightness by only wanting phones that fit comfortably in one hand, which apparently is not something tech companies are interested in producing for women?
Five words to describe my financial personality would be: Organised, calm, conscious, aware, insulated.
I grew up in a house where money was: Not discussed much. We grew up in very rural Northland, so there wasn’t much interaction with money at all – going “into town” was a big deal. We got almost all our fresh food from home supply or trades with neighbours, supplemented by maybe a monthly trip in for things like flour. Now I’m an adult, I think we were probably not doing great, but not in a way that ever impacted us kids. Now, it comes up more, as Mum in particular wants to check how we’re doing financially and let us know what estate planning she’s doing. I think after her mother died younger than expected, she wants to make sure there’s no surprises, just in case.
The last time my Eftpos card was declined was: Never.
In five years, in financial terms, I see myself: Doing well. Probably earning around $150k, having taken a decent chunk out of the mortgage through overpayments. Enough to simultaneously live well in terms of food/drink/entertainment/travel and set myself up for the future.
I would love to have more money for: Nothing. Anything I’m not spending now is due to personal miserliness, not lack of funds.
Describe your financial low: Undergrad, 2011. The only time I ever had to make a call home to ask for money. It was because my uncle was in hospital in Palmerston North and I wanted to make my aunt some vegetarian food to have in her motel room, since I knew the local options at the time near there were limited. I was so on the wire then though that doing so left me in a really tough spot for my own food that week. I felt so guilty and embarrassed, and am so lucky that my mum could spot me $50 without worrying about it.
I give money away to: Regular payments are approx. $250 a month to a mix of Wellington homelessness and other shelters; NZ animal protection agencies; and international causes like Red Cross and Wikipedia. I also try to donate whenever disasters hit or fundraising drives happen, but hard to put an average weekly value on that, since they’re so irregular.
I’ll soon be adding a nibling fund to this, since my little sister’s just announced her pregnancy, and I’d like to help set them up for their future.
I also try to donate time when I can too, but I’m conscious that money’s probably more valuable for the organisations than my unskilled labour! Still, it’s good to spend as much time as I can doing something that helps people directly as well.