How much is it costing you to survive each month?
I earn myself not a bad income. But I do work very hard for it. 7 days a week on the go do drag out sometimes. But I love what I do. But lately I have struck a bit of a snag and I know it’s just not me having this problem. Over the past few months my cost of living has increased by massive proportions. I can’t give you an average weekly income because I don’t have one but I can tell you how much it’s now costing to survive, now I am not doing anything different in my day to day activities but the cost has gone up hugely.
Every month I analyse my spending and my income and work out a plan for the next month, so you could say I am well disciplined when it comes to money and spending. But I’m now struggling.I will go through some of my monthly spending so you can compare today to yesterday….
Item Last year This year
Fuel $350 $500
Power and Gas $120 $180
Food $350 $500
Work Costs $500 $750
Mortgage $900 $1300
Each of these are in proportion and aren’t the actual figures. But I have used the percentages on each to make it easier to read and understand. But if you read this my personal costs that I am paying have gone up 60% in the past year alone. From my reading and understanding most of this is attributed to the rising cost of fuel and rising interest rates to take the fire out of the Real Estate market. As fuel is the main driver of our total economy if that goes up so does our living and transport costs. But at what extent has this had on our pockets and our condition of living in New Zealand. For myself with the rising costs I have had to get out there and make more money. So I have a lot less time with my family just to keep up with things. But I know I am not the only one in this boat. New Zealanders must be hurting. I know a few of my friends who have good jobs have gone out and got a second job just to stay afloat.
The government is telling us that job vacancies are at an all time low, but how many of those jobs are only a second job for someone. What about the people on fixed wages that aren’t going up at the rate of the living costs? Whats happening to them. We are in a bit of a terrible way here; it’s no wonder the latest poll showed that 1 in 10 New Zealanders are considering moving to Australia to live. The cost of living in Australia is more expensive yes but the wages over there are just that so much better that it is so easy to start saving some money. In the past couple of months I have had former and current colleagues move to Australia to work in the mines. With the promise of jobs offering in excess of over $100,000 AU a year and all living costs included while on the job why wouldn’t you.
Please leave a comment and tell us your situation. I would be very interested to know how other real people like you are fearing with the increasing costs of living.
Many Thanks
Deon