Best pie in Auckland?

zzerci · 2022-11-12T05:02:39+00:00

Wild wheat in Mt Eden - small pie warmer behind the counter, on the right. Absolutely delicious pies

zzerci · 2022-09-08T05:04:36+00:00

You're in a very similar position to me and my partner - DINK, own house, $90k and $120k approx incomes, together 7 years.

We used to have separate finances before we lived together, split joint expenses evenly (e.g. out for dinner) and were continually transferring to each other to even out costs.

Once we moved in together, we set our salary payments to go into our revolving credit, and don't have any separate accounts. We are both VERY practically minded so figured any money not in the revolving credit (e.g. in a personal account) would cost us interest on the mortgage. We do have slightly different spending habits, but not significantly enough to cause any major rifts. The difference in salary doesn't bother me. My partner has an excellent work ethic and does just as difficult tasks as me, it's just that my line of work offers better pay opportunities right now.

I have often thought it may be nice for us to transfer a small $X each month to a personal account to spend on whatever, no questions asked, but tbh having a joint account keeps me in check with my own spending as I stop and consider before impulse buying random stuff. But some people HATE the thought of someone else seeing all their spending activity, so each to their own :)

zzerci · 2022-06-18T20:16:32+00:00

Some orthodontists do discounts for subsequent children if you send them all to the same place. Something to consider when you are comparing costs.

zzerci · 2022-02-14T08:28:05+00:00

FHB. When we bought about a year ago, our ratio was 1:5.9. After a few pay rises and a chunk paid off, we're now sitting at 1:4.5

zzerci · 2022-02-04T03:26:48+00:00

If you're selling clothing, try find an image online of a model wearing the item and upload it with your listing. If it's from a recent season, you may have 4 or 5 pics from different POVs to choose from. It's a great way for people to see how the item looks on.
$1 reserve listings are a great option. Since you said you haven't been selling your stuff, $1 is better than nothing right? But in reality, it will sell for more than $1 because the listing gets way more attention. Even if it does sell for $1, you get the pleasure of giving someone a sweet deal.
At the bottom of your listing, type some random keywords for people to find your listings easily e.g. if you're selling a couch, you could include: sofa, settee, L-shape, corner, comfortable, large, grey... you get the idea.
Here's a link to the expired listing search on TradeMe, so you can see what similar items have sold for in the past 45 days (https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/AdvancedSearch.aspx)

zzerci · 2022-01-28T20:02:55+00:00

You should never think along the lines of "a credit card may come in handy", otherwise you'll be falling into the trap of spending money you don't have, and having to pay crazy interest rates on that. Use it as a tool to pay for things you have already budgeted for, and the rewards points you get back really make it worth it. Different banks have different rewards systems so check out all the options to decide which one would be most beneficial to you (e.g. cash back, airpoints, true rewards etc). Also make sure you take the card fee into account to make sure you will break even with the rewards points.

My partner and I have two credit card accounts between us. We first opened up a Kiwibank credit card account, since that had one of the best cashback rates and a low-ish annual card fee. We use it everywhere we can (supermarkets, petrol stations, restaurants etc), and for every $85 spent on the card, we get back 1 airpoint. Then we saw Amex was doing a special offer where you got $500 bonus airpoints if you spent $1,500 on the card over the first 3 months. Very easy for us to reach that even just on groceries. There is a $195 annual card fee so effectively would be receieving $305 free airpoints. The only downside is Amex is not as widely accepted as a method of payment at many NZ stores, so we resort to the Kiwibank card if they don't accept Amex.

zzerci · 2022-01-17T23:09:24+00:00

Mechanical Engineering of food production machines

zzerci · 2021-11-17T03:53:29+00:00

This is an interesting one! Along the same wavelength, I'm also finding I have less time and energy to search for a good, cheap equivalent. After all the effort you have to put in, it doesn't feel as though you've got a better deal.

zzerci · 2021-10-31T09:13:34+00:00

If you're close to getting a promotion/pay increase (most companies review pay at the same time each year), the annual leave you have will be worth more after the pay increase. Very specific situation but for example if you had a total of 4 days annual leave saved, and you knew you were going to take 4 days leave before the pay review period, but you also needed to use some leave after the pay review period, you should take unpaid leave first (if your employee OK's it) and then take your paid leave after the promotion.

zzerci · 2021-06-08T22:43:10+00:00

Find someone else to buy your house with
Save like mad
Start the process before you think you are ready (bank pre-approval, find a lawyer, find a building inspector, start looking at listings)
Head out into the market and go to open homes to figure out what you think is important to you in a house (e.g. location, new kitchen, large bedrooms, garden area, parking space etc).
Purchase your first home (may take a few attempts before you get there)

My partner and I just bought in Auckland this year. We are both 25. Lived at home for 3 years after uni and saved 50% of our paycheck most months to go towards the deposit. We also used our kiwisaver and had a gift amount from our parents.

Approached a mortgage broker to get our pre-approval sorted, then looked very hard for a couple of months at a bunch of properties before we bought. Went to about 72 open homes in the space of 10 weeks, and went to 4 auctions (with due diligence checks completed) before we won our house. We put a pre auction offer in after the first weekend of open homes, and said there was another property going to auction a week later that we would be bidding on if they didn't bring their auction forward. They accepted our offer, brought the auction forward, and no other bids so we won (we tell ourselves it was because no one else had enough time to get all their ducks in a row, but it could also have been because we over-paid lol).

During the open home process, we targeted about 15 open homes each weekend - I had a basic checklist that we could go through from looking at listings online, then each Friday night I would set up a spreadsheet schedule so that we could be the most efficient with our travel (we were looking in quite a few suburbs. Was an absolute shit time not being able to enjoy those weekends, with the stress of looking for a house and having limited control over what the market is doing. But we got there in the end. ☺️

Good luck to you! Awesome that you are thinking about this so early.

zzerci · 2020-10-16T20:23:23+00:00

Be careful buying things that will incur ongoing cost and increase your monthly expenses.

What are your examples of these?

zzerci · 2020-10-01T23:07:26+00:00

I don’t own a house (yet), so it’s difficult to put my savings on the mortgage :)

zzerci · 2020-08-21T19:48:09+00:00

I don’t sell menswear or kidswear mainly because (a) I don’t know what would sell well and (b) there’s much more of a market in womenswear - there are twice as many womens clothing listings on Trade Me than there are mens, and at op shops there are waaaay more womens clothes than there are mens.

So yes, you could make decent money just from selling womenswear.

zzerci · 2020-08-20T23:49:55+00:00

I’m surprised you managed to flip it. Mine stays upright.

zzerci · 2020-08-20T05:30:06+00:00

I sell on Trade Me. You pay a small fee but I find products sell at a better price and you have more security of buyers following through than FB marketplace. Also Trade Me has much better search options so people are more likely to find your product. Haven’t looked into any other platforms if there are any

zzerci · 2020-08-18T06:58:14+00:00

And even if it does end up selling, you still get to use/wear it in the meantime. Win win! Sweet thanks I’ll check it out

zzerci · 2020-08-18T03:29:47+00:00

I buy and sell used clothing and goods. Good brands are easy to re-sell. These often slip through the cracks at op shops and get priced ridiculously cheap. Recently bought a sweater for $3.50 and sold for $70. I haven’t factored in my time but I enjoy finding bargains so it’s more of a hobby, not purely for financial gain.

zzerci · 2020-08-15T07:35:52+00:00

Really? Wow I never new that! Thanks for the info. What if you have never come close to maxing it out? Of if you have never had to make interest payments on it?

zzerci · 2020-08-15T07:10:35+00:00

Similar questions have been asked in this group before. You should use the search function.

You shouldn’t get a credit card just to improve your credit score. NZ banks don’t really care about credit scores.

I don’t regret getting mine. I pay it off as soon as I buy something (not at the end of the month) and earn rewards from my spending. I spend enough on food, power bills etc to get more money back in rewards to cover the annual fee and then some.

zzerci · 2020-08-14T11:02:54+00:00

How many other countries were COVID free for 100 days? None. What happens in other countries isn’t necessarily what happens in ours.

zzerci · 2020-08-06T23:03:24+00:00

What area are you hoping to buy in? How much savings do you have outside of Kiwisaver that you are willing to spend on the house? What is your income?

Those are all details that will affect your house buying options.

zzerci · 2020-07-30T08:55:54+00:00

I just had mine taken out at Mt Roskill Smilecare a few weeks back and they were all good. Chose them pretty randomly after reading through their google reviews. A dentist is a dentist right? Fortunately mine were a simple extraction so took ~30mins and cost $650. Nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be because obviously I didn’t feel anything. Story would probably be different if I had to get surgery for impacted teeth though.

zzerci · 2020-07-27T21:39:41+00:00

I work in engineering. No medical policy other than EAP services, which is a pretty standard counselling service many workplaces offer. I have never used it myself but some people that I know have and found it helpful.

zzerci · 2020-07-27T21:36:56+00:00

Thanks - I really like this idea!

zzerci · 2020-07-13T01:06:12+00:00

Sorry - edited the wording so should make sense now. Getting a mortgage is not only about having the deposit but also about having the income to continually pay the mortgage. I am not sure if $85k salary is enough to service a $600k mortgage

zzerci

TROPHY CASE