{"id":379151,"date":"2026-04-14T15:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/379151\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:22:17","slug":"the-cost-of-being-a-recluse-in-response-to-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/379151\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of being: A \u2018recluse\u2019 in response to the economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0part of our series<\/a> exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a case manager explains where they spend their money.<\/p>\n

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

Gender: Male.<\/p>\n

Age: 30.<\/p>\n

Ethnicity: Indian.<\/p>\n

Role: Case manager (single, no dependents, only child I am responsible for is myself).<\/p>\n

Salary\/income\/assets: $90,000 annual \/ $1,250 weekly.<\/p>\n

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

Rent\/mortgage per week: $300 (flatting, my portion of rent and utilities).<\/p>\n

Student loan or other debt payments per week: $0 (started 2026 debt free!)<\/p>\n

Typical weekly food costs<\/p>\n

Groceries: $130, My Food Bag (three meals x two portions).<\/p>\n

Eating out: $40 (food is absolutely an area where I could save money, but it\u2019s the one line I allow myself to splurge).<\/p>\n

Takeaways: $40 (I can\u2019t help but feel the pull of KFC after a long week).<\/p>\n

Workday lunches: $40 (I aim to save at least $40 each week from eating out \/ takeaways \/ workday lunches, so the full $120 isn\u2019t always used).<\/p>\n

Cafe coffees\/snacks: $0 (hate the taste of coffee, and just can\u2019t bring myself to spend money on a tea bag and hot water from a cafe).<\/p>\n

Savings: $300 weekly goes into a no touch savings account (a combination of being in a position to just build savings in general for the first time ever, and eventually buying a car). $100 goes into a discretionary account (this is separate from any weekly\/monthly\/frequent expenses, and anything taken from this pot is weighted against getting a tattoo instead). Plus KiwiSaver (4%, which will soon increase to 6% once I hit a savings goal in that no touch account).<\/p>\n

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

Three words to describe my financial situation: Not Sh*tting Bricks! (Aka living without financial anxiety for the first time in my life.)<\/p>\n

My biggest edible indulgence would be: Uber Eats (which I rationalise by the money saved without the running costs of a vehicle).<\/p>\n

In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be: $0 (but to be fair, $30 weekly does go towards a cannabis prescription).<\/p>\n

In a typical week my transport expenditure would be: $30 on the Hop card (I am fortunate to live both close to town\/work, and on a great bus\/train route, which is extremely rare in Auckland). I ditched my car last year as it was barely getting used, but still put away $25 weekly for insurance (to put towards an annual premium when I eventually get my next vehicle).<\/p>\n

I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was: Other than the expensive item below, around $1,000? I have everything I need for work\/home, so it\u2019s really just replacing things as they wear out at this stage.<\/p>\n

My most expensive clothing in the past year was: A $500 Barbour wax jacket (perfect for that bipolar Auckland weather).<\/p>\n

My last pair of shoes cost: $50, Vans.<\/p>\n

My grooming\/beauty expenditure in a year is about: $40 every few months on the same specific roll-on deodorant from Farmers, plus $70 every few months on a haircut (because monthly trims in this economy?!)\u2026 Let\u2019s round it up to $500 a year.<\/p>\n

My exercise expenditure in a year is about: $12 weekly gym membership, discounted through work (also I should really cancel this as it barely gets used), and $300 every couple of years on running shoes\u2026 Let\u2019s round it up to $800 a year.<\/p>\n

My last Friday night cost: $20 for a big night in, sponsored by BK, pirated movies and falling asleep on the couch.<\/p>\n

Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was: $250 on a pair of loafers that were far too big and I sat on for too long to return for a refund (so the voucher was re-gifted to a sibling as an Xmas present).<\/p>\n

Most indulgent purchase (that I don\u2019t regret) in the last 12 months was: $250 on a comic book\/omnibus (shoutout to Auckland Libraries and The Pirate Bay for supporting my comics obsession as a child, but I can now finally afford to buy them myself and contribute directly to the creators).<\/p>\n

One area where I\u2019m a bit of a tightwad is: Being a recluse is a valid response to this economy.<\/p>\n

Five words to describe my financial personality would be: Ponder first, then panic buy.<\/p>\n

I grew up in a house where money was: Something we knew that we didn\u2019t have much of (raised by a single mother who just made things work, the legend that she is).<\/p>\n

The last time my Eftpos card was declined was: Can\u2019t remember the last time, fortunately (although, constantly worrying = constantly prepared).<\/p>\n

In five years, in financial terms, I see myself: Not scared to look at my account balance (maybe even excited?).<\/p>\n

I would love to have more money for: I am more than content with my current lifestyle, so I don\u2019t really need more. Any extra funds would go towards giving mum the retirement she deserves.<\/p>\n

Describe your financial low: Technically not mine, but my father declared bankruptcy, forfeited the family house and walked out on us when I was seven. It can only really go up from there, right?<\/p>\n

I give money away to: Buskers, especially any children (used to do it as a kid and my social anxiety hated it, so this is my way of paying it forward).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As\u00a0part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a case manager explains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[492,300,111,43,139,69,2935,13087],"class_list":["post-379151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-comments-enabled","tag-money","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-society","tag-the-cost-of-being"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379151","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=379151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}