Watch Your Spending
New Zealanders’ household spending is way up, compared with late 2019.
Spending is OK if not getting into debt
Why spend on non-essentials?:
- Happiness. But often short-term.
- Appearances.
- Pressure to spend on special shopping days.
What to do:
- Use credit cards?: pluses and minuses
- Estimate spending in different categories, then keep track for 2 months
- Change a habit for just a month. Letter to futureme.org.
- 2 birds with one stone: Cut spending on unhealthy things
- Help w budgeting: MoneyTalks. Free, confidential and non-judgmental, around NZ.
Listen to the segment below, or click here to read Radio NZ’s summary.
You can listen to these sessions as podcasts. Subscribe free to Mary’s RNZ podcast here.
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Mary Holm, ONZM, is a freelance journalist, a seminar presenter and a bestselling author on personal finance. She is a director of Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL) and a former director of the Financial Markets Authority. Her opinions are personal, and do not reflect the position of any organisation in which she holds office. Mary’s advice is of a general nature, and she is not responsible for any loss that any reader may suffer from following it. Send questions to [email protected] or click here. Letters should not exceed 200 words. We won’t publish your name. Please provide a (preferably daytime) phone number. Unfortunately, Mary cannot answer all questions, correspond directly with readers, or give financial advice.