A Week in Wellington on a $124,000 salary

Welcome to Money Stories, where we ask New Zealanders to tell us how they spend their money over a seven-day period.
 
Today: A marketing manager on $124,000 per year salary who spent 80% of his money this week on a new vacuum cleaner

• Occupation: Marketing Manager
• Industry: Education
• Age: 59
• Location: Wellington
• Salary: $124,000
• Net Worth: $617,000
• Salary Amount (month): $7,420
• KiwiSaver Member? Yes

Monthly Expenses

• Rent: $0
• Student Debt: $0
• Phone: $115
• Car Insurance: $93
• Contents Insurance: $38
• House Insurance: $111
• Health Insurance: $218
• Electricity: $105
• Gym: $0
• Renters Insurance: $0
• Spotify and Netflix: $0
• Vodafone Broadband & TV: $100
• Parking: $250
• Savings: $140
  
  

Day One

7.30am – we both have the day off, so sleep in until the sun comes up and then read in bed with a cup of tea. Decide to finish my chapter, so make a coffee and stay in bed, sun streaming in until about 10.

10.00am – have a fruit breakfast banana, mandarin and a couple of kiwifruit.

10.45am – vacuum cleaner died in the weekend, so order another, to be delivered, for $509 (including delivery).

11.00am – potter about with housework. Find that a torch has flat batteries and we have no spares. Order some rechargeable ones online, using my Airpoints at Mitre 10 ($109.50). Partner is cleaning autumn leaves off the driveway.

12.45pm – lunch is a homemade bun with ham, tomato, cheese and lettuce.

1.15 pm – continue pottering and catch up on emails.

4.20 pm – we decide to have a relaxing afternoon and catch up on long ago recorded TV.

5.45 pm – early dinner of assorted leftovers with a glass of chardonnay and then off for an early night as we both have work tomorrow – and will have to catch up from having a long weekend.

Daily Total: $618.50

Day Two
7.15am – wake and make a cup of tea

7.45am – get up, shower, breakfast of fruit and wheat biscuits, with a fresh coffee.

8.15am – work today – still working from home. Spend a few hours catching up on yesterday’s emails and new tasks and then get on to todays.

10.20am – have a break and take the recycling bags down to the street and put the kitchen composting into the bin.

10.30am – back to working.

12.35pm – quick lunch of tomato, cheese, crackers.

1.10pm – weekly power bill comes in, so set that to pay. My share of that is $21.30.

1.15pm – afternoon is more work.

5.10pm – finish for the day.

5.15pm – grab a bottle of Wairarapa Pinot Noir and enjoy a nice glass while winding down.

5.20pm – order online groceries for delivery tomorrow. That comes to $126.19 (my share). Best way to shop is online, sipping wine!

​6.45pm – we do the dishes, make dinner (duck, spuds, mushrooms, tomatoes), watch TV for a while.

8.35pm – head to bed as we are both tired and have a lot to do tomorrow.

Daily Total: $147.49

Day Three
6:30am – wake up, still tired unfortunately. Make a cup of tea and sort through emails in bed, on the phone. An hour later, get up, shower, get dressed and all that. Same breakfast as yesterday.

8.30am – head downstairs and start work.

11:20am – get a text from Countdown saying the groceries are on the way. Driver is here about 10 minutes later. Unpack and put the groceries away. Realised that I haven’t had a break yet, so grab a cold water from the fridge (tap water in an old Pump bottle – why waste money on bottled water?) and head upstairs for quarter of an hour.

11:55am – back downstairs and back to work.

1:05pm – time for some lunch. A sandwich and some fruit does the trick.

1:35pm – back to work.

5:15pm – finish work for the day. Pretty tired, so kick back for an hour.

6.20pm – have dinner – we can’t be bothered with much, so mushroom, tomato and cheese toasted sandwiches, wash and dry the dishes.

7.30pm – another early night, but we end up watching a bit of tele in bed until about 9.

Daily Total: $0.00

Day Four
3:45am – a terrible night of strange dreams and loud snoring next to me. Get on the phone and sort a few emails, read the news, and then a few online articles and reviews about whether it’s worth upgrading my computer yet (it’s not, thankfully).

6:30am – make a cup of tea and watch the sky lighten as the sun comes up.

7:00am – breakfast of toast, fruit and orange juice, then shower and dress.

7:45am – still working from home, so fire up the computer, run some software updates, then re-boot.

8:20am – logged into work and the workday begins – lots of meetings today unfortunately.

11:00am – take a break. Make a hot chocolate and have a muesli bar.

11:20am – back to the PC and get ready for the 11:30 meeting. Happy days 😊

12:45pm – quick lunch break: cheese and cracker and some fruit.

1:05pm – more work. Time just slides by.

5:05pm – have caught up so, switch off and wind down for 30 minutes with a glass of chardonnay and a good book.

5:45pm – start heating up some frozen leftovers for dinner – lots of roast veg and some lovely beef.

6:30pm – dinner hot; TV on; catch up on a few British dramas.

9:15pm – eyes are closing so hit the TV off-switch and head off to bed.

10:00pm (I think) – am asleep.

Daily Total: $0.00

Day Five
​5:15am – annoyingly, am awake early again. Read for 30 minutes and fall back to sleep.

7:35am – wake up feeling a bit more refreshed, but with a headache. Just what I need… not. Get up, shower and dress and head to the kitchen.

8:20am – breakfast done (wheat biscuits, yoghurt, banana, OJ) and teeth cleaned it’s time to boot up the PC for another day of working from home. Respond to a few emails that came in overnight, and then it’s into the first meeting for the day.

9:00am – Teams meetings starts.

10:45am – call the meeting organiser and we debrief. All good – a few things to do so I get onto to those. Headache has almost gone now.

10:55am – courier has dropped at the door the vacuum cleaner that we ordered. Bring it inside but don’t unpack it as still have work to do.

12:15pm – one advantage of working from home is being able to multi-task. Take a break for lunch and prep dinner as well. Friends are coming over, so a slow roast pork is possible!

1:05pm – back to the PC and finish a few things off before a 1:30 afternoon online seminar starts.

5:15pm – finish work and start getting the rest of dinner ready. It’s been a long week, even if only four working days!

5:40pm – our friends turn up and we open a bubbles and chat for a while, and have a chardonnay. I keep an eye on dinner.

6:50pm – I finish the dinner and we’re eating just after seven. Rest of the night is catching up over a few wines.

12:15am – our friends are staying (no drink driving!), so they head off to bed while, we tidy up for 15 minutes.

12:30am – bedtime for us too.

Daily Total: $0.00

​Day Six
08:15am – a decent sleep for once. Everyone else is still asleep so I doze a bit too.

09:05am – my partner is awake and soon after we hear our friends moving about. She asks them (and me) if we’d like a cup of tea… four it is.

09:45am – after a nice tea in bed, our friends are up and using the bathroom.

10:25am – my turn to shower and dress.

10:45am – we have coffee and toast and chat for a while. Our friends pack up and head home.

11:40am – we clean up, do the dishes and have a light lunch.

12: 35pm – my partner heads into the gym. I stay home and do a bit of housework and paperwork (updating the budget, filing some bank statements) for the rest of the afternoon. Rates bill and a credit card statement have has arrived – check those login to the bank to and set up the payments for their due dates in a few weeks.

5:15pm – partner is home and we decide on an early dinner of leftover roast pork and veg, and an early night with a bit of reading and tele.

7:45pm – dinner is over, and so’s the day. It’s a cold night, so being warm in bed with a good book is perfect.

10:15pm – she is asleep and I’m feeling drowsy, so light off, book down and eyes closed. Probably asleep about 15 minutes later.

Daily Total: $0.00

Day Seven
6:50am – awake and partner is awake a few minutes later. I make us a cup of tea.

7:45am – we decide to have a lazy day so we laze about and read for a while and watch a TV programme we recorded a while ago – a very funny Live at the Apollo.

10:15pm – time for some toast in bed. Why not? It’s work tomorrow after all.

12:15pm – lovely lazy morning done, it is time to get up and finish off the housework – washing, pull out some weeds,clean the oven, and use the new Miele vacuum cleaner – it seems to clean a bit better than the old one, but that could well just be wishful thinking!

4:50pm – sit down with a beer and have a break. Discuss what to have for dinner and quickly decide on using the chicken in the fridge – especially as the Use By date is today. My partner offers to make crumbed chicken with scalloped potatoes. Seems a no-brainier to me.

5:25pm – she starts dinner and I deal with a couple of family emails.

6:50pm – dinner is ready, so we turn on the TV and have a tasty ‘TV dinner’.

7:35pm – dinner is done and so are the dishes. We watch a bit more TV and call it a night.

9:15pm – bed, sleep… work again tomorrow!

Daily Total: $0.00