Time flies so fast when you're super busy. I can't believe that it has been 3 weeks since I returned to work from maternity leave because it feels like a long time. I've just been really busy with work and parenthood. Being a mom surely changed my lifestyle, such a turn around from childless life. My folks already left and so that's minus 2 full time caregivers. That's a giant change and we're taking it well I think.
Child Care
Financially, we're doing better. Our major spending this week was feeding bottles. You know what? Something annoys me with these bottles. They are made in such a way that consumers will end up using one and only one brand. So I started with Avent just because that's what I saw a lot in most stores. When I checked out other brands to possibly try them out, hey now, I can't get them because the teats don't match the Avent bottles and vice versa. Urk. Avent's definitely not cheap. Imagine a 330ml bottle for $15.99. I'm not breastfeeding anymore. I tried expressing everyday but the last time just didn't make it to 30ml. The baby now finishes a 900 gram formula in less than a week. That's $23 per can on average. Last time I did grocery shopping at Pak'nSave, the brand and type that I buy was gone! It was selling for $22 and somebody must have hoarded all of them.
KiwiSaver
So yes, that's mostly our shell out this week. Oh, my Kiwisaver also kicked in! Yay! That was quicker than I thought! J took almost 3 months, and mine was just less than a month! I'm impressed with ING and my workplace!
Fuel
Fuel prices in NZ are up to $2/litre! Aacckk! Check out fuel$aver to show you an overview of how much you could be spending for fuel.
Tax Cuts
Have you read about the tax cuts the government will start in October? John Campbell said that the weekly money a worker will get can just buy him/her 2 blocks of cheese! Man. Life is getting tougher, eh? I really feel for those households who aren't earning over $90k. It's really tough living below that especially if they have kids. It's just unimaginable to me.
Windfall
Apparently AA had been debiting us more than they should so they sent us a check for $51. Windfall! I checked our latest payment and it was still the same amount. Uhm.
Tasha, I'm very curious about your budget--ie, what you pay for phone, cell phone, cable, internet, electricity, gas, etc. Can you do a post sharing that kind of information?
ReplyDeleteI will try that. Hopefully that would give you an idea about NZ prices! :)
ReplyDelete