{"id":381766,"date":"2026-04-16T02:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381766\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T02:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:36:12","slug":"the-cost-of-being-a-dual-income-no-kids-government-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381766\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of being: A \u2018dual income, no kids\u2019 government worker"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0part of our series<\/a> exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a government department team lead lays out their financial situation.<\/p>\n

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

Gender: Female.<\/p>\n

Age: 33.<\/p>\n

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

Role: Team lead in a government department.<\/p>\n

Salary\/income\/assets: $130,000ish per year, $480 a year from a small side gig and I own a house.<\/p>\n

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

Rent\/mortgage per week: Around $1600 a fortnight between two people. I live with my husband and my cat.<\/p>\n

Student loan or other debt payments per week: Paid off my student loan in my 20s \u2013 only debt is a car payment, around $200 a week. Splurged on a brand new car this year.<\/p>\n

Typical weekly food costs<\/p>\n

Groceries: $200 per week for two people.<\/p>\n

Eating out: $30-40 per week.<\/p>\n

Takeaways: $50-60 per week.<\/p>\n

Workday lunches: None, I bring from home.<\/p>\n

Cafe coffees\/snacks: I am dedicated to my coffee \u2013 $7 a day, five days a week! I couldn\u2019t face the day without it. On a Friday I get myself a sweet treat from a bakery as a reward.<\/p>\n

Savings: Around $5,000 currently. It has been wiped out as we just paid all of our debts off \u2013 including a $20,000 loan from my dad to buy our first home.<\/p>\n

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

Three words to describe my financial situation: Grateful, careful, optimistic.<\/p>\n

My biggest edible indulgence would be: Not even for me, my cat needs special food. I spend about $300 a month on wet and dry food. She is a princess! <\/p>\n

In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be: $0 \u2013 only drink a few times a year at social occasions.<\/p>\n

In a typical week my transport expenditure would be: I budget $120 a fortnight for petrol between two people, but have recently purchased a hybrid so expecting that to go down. I cringe to say we spend about $100 a week on parking.<\/p>\n

I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was: I would say around $1000 \u2013 I am really bad for buying dresses. I try to have a one-in-one-out policy, by selling my older dresses on Facebook Marketplace, but it doesn\u2019t always work in practice. <\/p>\n

My most expensive clothing in the past year was: I brought three dresses in a Farmers sale on Boxing Day. I hate paying full price and try to wait for sales.<\/p>\n

My last pair of shoes cost: A pair of leather Birkenstocks brought in France for around 180 Euro \u2013 I didn\u2019t even pay for them; they were a birthday present. I love them.<\/p>\n

My grooming\/beauty expenditure in a year is about: Around $700 \u2013 I get my hair done two or three times a year and my eyebrows done every six weeks \u2013 I don\u2019t buy expensive skincare and don\u2019t wear makeup. <\/p>\n

My exercise expenditure in a year is about: $150 for a good pair of shoes \u2013 I love walking for exercise and have a kettlebell for at home workouts.<\/p>\n

My last Friday night cost: $30 \u2013 takeaways on the couch and going down weird YouTube rabbit holes. Bliss!<\/p>\n

Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was: Not regrettable in the cost, but more the need \u2013 vet bills to diagnose my cat with kidney disease. Not a fun time! <\/p>\n

Most indulgent purchase (that I don\u2019t regret) in the last 12 months was: A doorbell camera \u2013 we don\u2019t get many visitors, but I just like to be nosy!<\/p>\n

One area where I\u2019m a bit of a tightwad is: Most things that aren\u2019t a need or a habit (leave my coffees alone!). I try not to buy bigger items full price and will generally always pick the cheapest version of something I can. <\/p>\n

Five words to describe my financial personality would be: Dual Income, No Kids, Cat. <\/p>\n

I grew up in a house where money was: Tight and a stressful topic. Raised between single parents with my mum on the benefit. I appreciate how hard it would have been to raise three kids in that environment.<\/p>\n

The last time my Eftpos card was declined was: Can\u2019t recall this happening (what did we do before internet banking?)<\/p>\n

In five years, in financial terms, I see myself: Having a bigger saving account.<\/p>\n

I would love to have more money for: Overseas travel \u2013 saving for a few trips this year.<\/p>\n

Describe your financial low: Brought my house in 2021 at the height of the \u201cbubble\u201d and paid way too much for it. I was very fortunate to have family help with a loan for our deposit. In the years after we got smashed with 7-8% mortgage rates on top of paying back the family loan, so things sucked for a few years. Still really grateful and would love to do the same for my kids or nephew if I ever get the chance. <\/p>\n

I give money away to: I volunteer my time to charity. This has reminded me to set up something longer term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As\u00a0part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a government department team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381767,"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-381766","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\/381766","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=381766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}