{"id":367041,"date":"2026-04-07T00:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367041\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T00:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:42:16","slug":"the-cost-of-being-a-recent-graduate-now-living-and-working-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367041\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of being: A recent graduate now living and working in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0part of our series<\/a> exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a young New Zealander who moved to Australia after graduating shares where their money goes.<\/p>\n

Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gender: Male.<\/p>\n

Age: 24.<\/p>\n

Ethnicity: P\u0101keh\u0101.<\/p>\n

Role: Graduate.<\/p>\n

Salary\/income\/assets: $75,000 AUD.<\/p>\n

My living location is: Urban.<\/p>\n

Rent\/mortgage per week: $530 split between two.<\/p>\n

Student loan or other debt payments per week: That awesome $5000 mandatory repayment for every year spent outside NZ.<\/p>\n

Typical weekly food costs<\/p>\n

Groceries: $60 for just me.<\/p>\n

Eating out: $30.<\/p>\n

Takeaways: $0.<\/p>\n

Workday lunches: Included in the eating out\u2026 I usually bring in a lunch!<\/p>\n

Cafe coffees\/snacks: $10 a week while at work.<\/p>\n

Savings: I manage to save a decent amount?? But having moved here, it drained my savings soooo much, so now back to basics. Have a heap of different savings accounts: travel, general savings, ring \/ wedding saving, and one for student loan repayments.<\/p>\n

I worry about money: Sometimes.<\/p>\n

Three words to describe my financial situation: Surprisingly kinda lucky?<\/p>\n

My biggest edible indulgence would be: I love trying out new ramen places, so always on the hunt for that!! I\u2019ll also always get a sweet treat when at the local markets\u2026<\/p>\n

In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be: $20 max if going out with friends.<\/p>\n

In a typical week my transport expenditure would be: $20 if using bus around the city, but usually I walk to most places. And owning a car is too expensive in Aus for my poor old graduate wage!<\/p>\n

I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was: Around $1000 \u2013 I had to buy a bunch of new work clothes, and some new shoes as well. <\/p>\n

My most expensive clothing in the past year was:\u00a0A new pair of Dr Martens boots, around $240? I love them so much despite the pain they have caused my feet!<\/p>\n

My last pair of shoes cost: See above.<\/p>\n

My grooming\/beauty expenditure in a year is about: Around $100 every few months for a haircut and a beard trim.<\/p>\n

My exercise expenditure in a year is about: My workplace has an on-site gym, but I also pay around $1000 a year for a local climbing gym!<\/p>\n

My last Friday night cost: $40, shouted some beers for my coworkers!<\/p>\n

Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was: Probably a pair of Dickies I bought that were way, way too big for me. They sat in my drawers for ages and I had to give them away when I moved to Australia.<\/p>\n

Most indulgent purchase (that I don\u2019t regret) in the last 12 months was: Bought some cool artwork from a favourite artist of mine! One of them has an orangutan and the other has a gorilla with a banana.<\/p>\n

One area where I\u2019m a bit of a tightwad is: N\/a<\/p>\n

Five words to describe my financial personality would be: Carefully calculated but love spending.<\/p>\n

I grew up in a house where money was: Tight growing up, but as we got older and my siblings moved out, it freed up more money for my parents to renovate the house.<\/p>\n

The last time my Eftpos card was declined was: About last December? I often forget to put money in the account lol<\/p>\n

In five years, in financial terms, I see myself: On my way to getting a deposit down on either a house or apartment with who I hope will be my wife!!<\/p>\n

I would love to have more money for: Travelling\u2026 now being in Australia, I\u2019m desperate to get all over Asia, but don\u2019t have nearly enough money. Oh and to get more tattoos!<\/p>\n

Describe your financial low: After fourth year of uni, I had literally $0 in my accounts. I had to rely on asking my parents to cash in FlyBuys points to get New World vouchers.<\/p>\n

I give money away to: My parents whenever I can, they\u2019ve done so much for me so I love being able to help out any way I can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As\u00a0part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a young New Zealander…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[492,42,300,43,2935,13087,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-367041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-comments-enabled","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-money","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-society","13":"tag-the-cost-of-being","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}