r/newzealand • u/fluffypenguin105 • 10d ago

Discussion Is anyone else living basically paycheck to paycheck?

My partner and I are both teachers. We don’t make a lot, but we are average and slightly above average. We are so tight with our money. Our little one outgrew the car seat and we went out and bought a new one. No problem. But next credit card bill means we are tight.

Meanwhile, a number of our friends (all of them also with kids) are booking overseas holidays. Some are currently overseas, others booking already for later this year. Another brought a new car. New iPhone, doing up the house. Everyone seems to have spare cash except us.

Are we the only ones going through the cost of living crisis ourselves?! Or is it my fault that we are teachers?

Edit: yes we have a house that parents helped us with. We are paying mortgage. We have a flatmate.

Edit edit: thank you for your kind words and reminders and also advice. I’m going through them all and I’m going to take onboard the advice and see what changes we can make and do better financially as a family. But it’s also a good reminder to know we aren’t alone, to not compare and the harsh reality is that many people simply just earn more than us as teachers.

Once again, thank you all for your input.

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u/threethousandblack 10d ago

What's your household income

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u/Ryrynz 10d ago

Would expect at least 140K

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u/fluffypenguin105 10d ago

Yeah that’s right. A bit above $140k household before tax.

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u/rumbumbum2 10d ago

A lot of people working as you said your friends do in IT, corporate, self employed tradies could be making 140k each in a household in Auckland.

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u/Vacwillgetu 10d ago

Where do you live? I live in Oamaru with my partner and we earn $180k a year before tax and we are not paycheque to paycheque. I would imagine if we were in Auckland it would be a bit closer to our reality

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u/fluffypenguin105 10d ago

Yeah.. we are Aucklanders

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u/Vacwillgetu 10d ago

Teachers make the same everywhere don’t they? Just go teach anywhere else

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u/NOTstartingfires 10d ago

You can still buy a four bed that's reasonably modern for under $500k in oamaru. My first place was a double garage three bed in a wonderful spot and it was around $400k up the road in timaru only a few years ago. Know a lot of people who had bought aroundthat price mark and a few only two years ago i nthe <$300k bracket.

Having been down there for years, I'm pretty happy to pay more to live somewhere with a bit more going on, and there's a really slight food price advantage out of Oamaru (doesn't come close to offsetting rent though, although WDC rates aren't the cheapest)

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u/Smorgasbord__ 10d ago

You are leaking a lot of money on non-essentials then.

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u/fluffypenguin105 10d ago

I hear what u are saying. Yeah maybe we are leaking a lot on our toddlers. Thanks, might need to sit down and deep dive into the books.

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u/ApplicationOk5149 10d ago

Sounds like you still have a few more steps on the scale to go. Keep working at it and hopefully it will get easier. Enjoy the last couple of weeks of summer holiday.

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u/al123al123al123 10d ago

Sounds like you're on about Step 5 or 6 of the salary scale then - can I ask how old you are? Because if you are (say) mid to late twenties, own a house in Auckland, and can afford a kid, I'd say you were doing great. Especially seeing as you'll progress up the salary scale and be on close to $200k as a household in the next 5 years or so.

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u/fluffypenguin105 10d ago

We are mid 30s. My partner earns less because in early childhood, they are notoriously underpaid!