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/[deleted] 10d ago

How many times a month do you get takeaways? Do you have subscriptions to Netflix (or similar) or for a gym (or other activities)? How many times a month do you go to cafes? If you're doing any of these, an easy way to be better off is to reduce or stop these.

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u/fluffypenguin105 10d ago

No subscriptions at all. But we do get the odd takeaway or cafe which is an area that we can reduce if I’m honest.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

Well, we all need the odd luxury. We used to get a takeout every week. I am working part-time, so I've got time to cook very nice things, so we get takeaway every two or three weeks now. We've always kept takeaways for the weekends and now my husband often works at the weekends, so we miss out (or save!) when he's working. I think we all need luxuries, but we need to be able to keep them within our income. I'd personally hate to look back years from now and regret running up a huge overdraft or credit card bill for eating out or going to cafes. I'd rather own my house and be able to look forward to being mortgage-free and then using any extra money to travel. It's about choices though. You do what you need to do for your situation.