As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an office worker shares where their money goes, and their radical stance on pay. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here. Gender: Woman. Age: Late 20s. Ethnicity: Pākehā. Role: Full-time office worker. Salary/income/assets: $80k+ (Crazy I know – I’d love to get a job where I don’t have to sit in front of a screen all day, something wholesome and useful like teaching, but the pay cut… My radical belief is that everyone should get paid the same – teachers certainly work harder than me.) My living location is: Suburban. Rent/mortgage per week: $220 each, in a flat of four – a bit far out of the city, but it’s a huge warm house and soooo much cheaper than our old mould shack! Student loan or other debt payments per week: I chuck an extra $300 per payday towards my student loan repayment, and should be all paid off at the end of the year, yay! I used to send it straight to IRD like a fool but now I let it pile up in a savings account so I can pay it all at once (and get those sweet big interest payments in the meantime). Four years of study, four years of repaying – sure, I could leave it and not think about it, but you’ve got to pay the same amount over time anyway so why not get it over and done with? I just think of it as sending money back in time to my poor uni self. Typical weekly food costs Groceries: Usually about $150, but me and my partner take turns paying. We’ve started driving all the way out to Pak’nSave as a flat cos it’s cheaper. Eating out: Not often – maybe $60 a month. Takeaways: $50 for a curry or fried rice every once in a while. Workday lunches: $20 a week-ish for one salad/scone/sandwich – lunches are expensive… Cafe coffees/snacks: Not a coffee gal. Savings: I’m very lucky in terms of being able to save nowadays – I have a travel fund, an emergency fund, a few hobby funds, and a family-visiting fund, each of which I throw $100 or so at every fortnight. All up there’s about $7000 in there. I’m currently saving for an overseas trip with my partner, then I’ll turn the travel fund into a wedding fund :) I worry about money: Rarely. Three words to describe my financial situation: Secure, lucky, relaxed. My biggest edible indulgence would be: Whittaker’s – local, ethical, AND delicious. I avoid so many brands at the supermarket because they’re connected to various dodgy things, or because they’re just plain expensive. Butter is also now a luxury that I do grudgingly buy sometimes for baking. In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be: $20 – go out for a cider sometimes, but we’ve got a well-stocked cocktail-making cabinet at home too. In a typical week my transport expenditure would be: $50, jeez! Bus rides into the city used to be just a dollar, now I’m spending 10 bucks a day. It definitely impacts how willing I am to go out and about to do things in town. Luckily my flatmates have cars, which is great for groceries. I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was: $500ish – since becoming aware of the climate impact of the fashion industry I’ve mainly gone to op shops in the last year, except for undies and PJs etc. Some of my new favourite clothes only cost 15 bucks. My most expensive clothing in the past year was: A colourful and quality raincoat, finally – $300 or so. My last pair of shoes cost: $250ish – funky leather boots that I wear every other day. My grooming/beauty expenditure in a year is about: Just regular shampoo and moisturiser, nails done once in a blue moon – about $200 a year. My exercise expenditure in a year is about: Maybe $300 for yoga 10-trip passes. My last Friday night cost: $40: $20 fancy drink, then $20 kebabs, best of both worlds. Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was: Op shop pants that look cool but are on the brink of ripping… and iron-on patches to fix them that fell off on the first wear. Most indulgent purchase (that I don’t regret) in the last 12 months was: $200ish on new duvet cover and sheets from Spotlight – now I don’t have to wash and dry my only set in a single day! Also $50ish each for original editions of some of my favourite hard-to-find books. One area where I’m a bit of a tightwad is: Streaming subscriptions – I hate the idea of giving money to these massive overseas companies that treat artists badly and just feed you algorithms. I scrounge off other people’s accounts when I do want to watch a show, or rent movies from AroVision. I miss listening to music on a regular basis – I just have CDs and radio and my old iTunes now – but I’m not going back to Spotify and its crappy AI. Five words to describe my financial personality would be: “Yeah, she’ll be right, mate.” I don’t believe in hustling or investing or needing to be financially literate – just gimme a solid thrive-able salary. (Ideally, abolish money and 40-hour work weeks altogether and let us do things because we want to and because we care for each other! We already work enough to feed and house the world 10 times over…) I grew up in a house where money was: Fairly plentiful, in ebbs and flows. The last time my Eftpos card was declined was: A few months ago at the supermarket, when all my auto-payments had gone out at once. In five years, in financial terms, I see myself: Earning a bit more (thanks yearly pay rises), saving up for a house maybe, and/or possibly raising a small family with all the expenses that entails. I would love to have more money for: Taking time off work to have proper visits with my family, and to work on creative projects. If I was rich it’d be nice to hire someone to do a bit of gardening and cleaning, but that’s kinda bougie. “Millionaire” is a derogatory term in my books… Describe your financial low: Arriving at an airport at the tail-end of an OE with only $5 to my name to get food with while I waited for a generous family member to pick me up. I give money away to: All sorts of places – regularly to Greenpeace and KidsCan (recently upped that donation after sobbing at the Little Matchgirl short film), and random artistic things like book GoFundMes and local lunchtime concerts. I think it’s unfair that my flatmates and friends get paid less than me so I also try lighten the load by paying for things like bin bags and party food when I can.