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I Interviewed Dozens Of Money Experts - This Was The Best Advice · Making Cents

• 0:00
  I don't want to spend my money on bills.
• 0:01
  I want to spend it on fun stuff.
• 0:03
  And this is why I'm a budgeting fiend.
• 0:06
  Because even in the midst of a cost of living crisis, there are hacks that can save you money.
• 0:13
  And using the means, you can keep that cash for something fun that you'd much rather have.
• 0:19
  There are fantastic guests who give us real expertise on this podcast, but my problem is that they often specialize in just one area, whereas there are so many areas of our that are costing us money.
• 0:33
  So what about if we take their best tips and then combine them into one episode to give you that wider view on taking care of everything?
• 0:46
  Like journalist Chris Scholz, who tested the apps that actually save you money and the ones that don't.
• 0:53
  And it'll tell you not only the historical prices of those products, but also if you're getting your basket the cheapest.
• 1:00
  Or Hannah Kumarcus, who went viral for the budgeting system she built after nannying for billionaires and realizing money both mattered more and less than she'd previously thought.
• 1:12
  Budgeting is not about being stingy.
• 1:13
  Budgeting is having visibility of your money like that is.
• 1:16
  That's budgeting.
• 1:17
  Jason Leong, CEO of PocketSmith, who's seen exactly where your money is quietly leaking out.
• 1:24
  I don't even need to think about metadata to tell you it's subscriptions and insurance.
• 1:29
  And chef Alice Taylor, who's built a career out of proving good food doesn't have to cost the earth.
• 1:36
  My best advice would be to build a staple pantry.
• 1:39
  Think to yourself, all right, what's my three favorite carbs?
• 1:43
  Three or four favorite sort of protein that I'm going to have in the fridge or the freezer?
• 1:47
  What's a few spices, three or four that I love, and just sort of build out that staple pantry.
• 1:52
  So welcome to Making Sense.
• 1:54
  It's the podcast people who want financial freedom without giving up their coffee.
• 1:57
  I'm Frances Cook, a financial journalist and fellow financial freedom seeker who makes money simple for you.
• 2:03
  This episode of Making Sense is brought to you in partnership with Odoo, the all in one business management platform that brings everything you need to run your business into one place, fully integrated and actually affordable.
• 2:16
  Go to odoo.com, that's o-double o.com for more I want to help as many people as possible reach financial freedom by taking control of their money.
• 2:26
  And you can help me in that mission.
• 2:28
  Two really easy ways.
• 2:29
  First hit subscribe wherever you like to listen.
• 2:32
  YouTube, Spotify, Apple, podcasts, or any other podcast player.
• 2:36
  Then send this episode to a friend so we can all level up our money together.
• 2:40
  Then the show grows and I can keep giving you the money info that makes a difference to your life.
• 2:46
  First up, let's take the mental admin out of finding savings.
• 2:50
  There are apps for every category of your money that can help you find the best price for the least mental effort.
• 2:58
  Journalist Chris Schills spent time at Consumer, where he helped find those apps, weed out the bad ones, and give awards to the good ones.
• 3:06
  So he knows what actually works.
• 3:08
  He came on the podcast to talk about the sneaky tactics that shops use to part you from your cash, as well as the ways you can actually fight back.
• 3:16
  Now, if you want to listen to that full episode, head to the episode from March 22nd and it's called Supermarket Tricks, Insurance Hacks, and Subscription Traps.
• 3:27
  How to stop overpaying.
• 3:28
  Until then, though, here are his best tips for the apps that help you get the things you want for the best price with the least mental effort.
• 3:37
  Price comparison apps.
• 3:38
  Yeah.
• 3:39
  So do you rate them?
• 3:41
  Which ones do you rate?
• 3:43
  Yeah, there's three of them.
• 3:44
  There's Grow, Save, and Grocer and Z, and they're both apps.
• 3:49
  So they're comparison apps.
• 3:50
  You sign up, you can put in your favorite supermarkets and then your favorite products, and then at the beginning of every week, you can see who's got those products the cheapest and sort of shop accordingly.
• 4:02
  They're really good.
• 4:03
  But my favorite actually is Pricepulse, which is a recent addition.
• 4:07
  It's an overlay for your website and it's a little broccoli that sits in the corner of your screen.
• 4:12
  And how it works is you load up your basket wherever you usually shop, New World, Pack and Save, Woolworths, whatever.
• 4:20
  And it'll tell you not only the historical prices of those products, but also if you're getting your basket the cheapest.
• 4:28
  And if you're not, it will transfer the items to a different supermarket or half the shop if you want to split the shop.
• 4:34
  And those the items that you can get cheaper elsewhere, you can.
• 4:38
  It'll load up a basket somewhere else.
• 4:40
  Oh, my God.
• 4:41
  Brilliant.
• 4:41
  Yeah.
• 4:42
  So it's taking all of that admin y work away and like, literally just doing it for you.
• 4:46
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:47
  It's really useful.
• 4:48
  That's how I do it.
• 4:50
  So, yeah, I, I hadn't come across that one before.
• 4:52
  That's a.
• 4:53
  That's a great hot tip.
• 4:54
  So that was Price Pulse.
• 4:55
  Price Pulse, Yeah, it's pretty recent.
• 4:57
  It's a little broccoli.
• 4:59
  That's great.
• 4:59
  That's really good.
• 5:00
  That's very cute.
• 5:01
  But yeah, you've.
• 5:01
  You've got to.
• 5:02
  You've got to be.
• 5:03
  You've got.
• 5:04
  Yeah, you've got to shop online, right?
• 5:05
  You've got to do what I do.
• 5:07
  And it's pay that $5 bagging fee.
• 5:10
  And then you've gotta have time to go through all this.
• 5:12
  This is what I mean.
• 5:13
  It's so time consuming now.
• 5:15
  It's not like I'm just gonna go to the supermarket and feed my family.
• 5:18
  It's just like you've gotta, like, go on these, like, food trip missions to get the best deals everywhere.
• 5:27
  You know, you walk into a supermarket, what's happening as soon as you walk in?
• 5:32
  So much, so much.
• 5:35
  Just visual overload.
• 5:37
  I went to a supermarket with a marketing expert from AUT and I was like, let's just walk around a supermarket.
• 5:45
  Tell me what's going on.
• 5:47
  And she just pointed out that there are.
• 5:51
  There's signage, there are sales signs coming at you from everywhere.
• 5:56
  There are these different tiers of loyalty, like membership specials and loyalty cards, and now boosts with those loyalty cards that you've got to navigate your way through.
• 6:04
  There's often three different colors of sale signs on each item now.
• 6:10
  And so every item you're putting into your trolley is like, you've got to try and work out what the price is, whether you want to pay that price.
• 6:18
  And it's exhausting.
• 6:19
  And that is the point it's designed to.
• 6:23
  It's called decision fatigue.
• 6:24
  So it's designed to get you to the point as quickly as possible that you just go, oh, don't care.
• 6:29
  Chuck it all in there.
• 6:30
  Let's get this over with.
• 6:32
  And so after that trip, I was like, I don't know.
• 6:36
  I was still skeptical.
• 6:37
  I was like, I'm going to go to a supermarket and I'm going to do my normal shop, and I'm going to spend as much time as I need to analyzing each item.
• 6:45
  And then I opened up one of these grocery comparison apps to see if it was the cheapest price.
• 6:51
  And then I was navigating the shelves.
• 6:53
  Which item is cheapest?
• 6:56
  I tell you, I got to the end of that experience.
• 6:59
  I was exhausted.
• 7:01
  I was just completely wrecked.
• 7:05
  There's so much information thrown at you that it's.
• 7:09
  Yeah, you do.
• 7:10
  Just get to the end of that experience and you go, I don't care.
• 7:13
  I want this to end.
• 7:14
  It's me, it's me.
• 7:16
  It was my experience.
• 7:18
  But we've all got a really.
• 7:19
  I feel like everyone has like a tiring job these days.
• 7:23
  If you've got a family that's tiring, maybe that's me bringing my own bias, but I love my family, but they're tiring.
• 7:30
  And then when you're trying to get through these life admin things, if they're deliberately then piling on the decision fatigue and making it tricky, of course, you hit the point where you're like, whatever, don't care, and you spend
• 7:41
  more than you intended to.
• 7:43
  And so that's deliberate.
• 7:44
  I mean, if you ask the supermarkets, they'd probably say it's not.
• 7:48
  You know, the best $5 I spend every week is paying someone to bag up those groceries for me.
• 7:54
  So you'll only online shop now for your groceries.
• 7:56
  I'll do, I'll sit at home, I'll, you know, one night I'll just load up our basket, compare it to the lists, make sure we're getting everything we need.
• 8:03
  It saves me time.
• 8:05
  I just roll up, open my boot, load the groceries and get out of there.
• 8:09
  So I'm not spending an hour walking around that supermarket and then overspending.
• 8:12
  And so it saves me money as well.
• 8:14
  Right.
• 8:15
  So reduce that decision fatigue by moving your main supermarket shop online.
• 8:20
  If you can afford to do that.
• 8:22
  And if you're busy like I am or you are, then, then it saves you an hour.
• 8:27
  Do you think it might end up saving you money too, though, with you know, not having the browsing through the shelves and the easier comparisons that.
• 8:35
  Yes, that.
• 8:36
  Yeah.
• 8:37
  And also like, you know, everyone's been to the supermarket when they're hungry and they end up buying way too much food.
• 8:44
  I loved that chat with Chris.
• 8:45
  It does make you realize just how powerful it can be, just keeping an eye on your money.
• 8:52
  Those apps do really well when paired with a solid budget.
• 8:57
  It is a basic tool, but it's one that can save you a lot of stress.
• 9:02
  Now, Hannah Kumarcus is someone who's been regularly going viral for sharing the money tips she had to learn the hard way, all the way from budgeting through to investing.
• 9:11
  She first got the money bug when she went on an OE and ended up nannying for billionaires.
• 9:17
  And she realized both how important money could be and also how sometimes it simply wasn't.
• 9:25
  So she came back home and decided to use her money to build the life that she wanted, to match her own values, creating that life which had security without the status symbols.
• 9:36
  Now you can listen to her full episode, get all those tips and tricks, but by heading to her episode on the 11th of October 2025.
• 9:43
  It's called I Nanny for Billionaires.
• 9:45
  It changed my entire money outlook.
• 9:48
  Until then though, here is the simple budgeting system that won her fans around the world.
• 9:54
  I still talk about me splitting my money off into my many different accounts.
• 9:57
  I've been doing that for I think two years now.
• 9:59
  And it's the same video, it's pretty much nearly the same script.
• 10:02
  Because I sit there and I think people love it because they know that it's every month, on the 15th of every month, my video will come up and it's me showing how I split off my $4,000 gross sale
• 10:10
  salary that I pay myself into my 15 different accounts.
• 10:13
  This is how I budget.
• 10:14
  I have accounts that are accumulating accounts that are non accumulating accounts, obviously that are set.
• 10:18
  And I really want people to learn the value of budgeting.
• 10:23
  And I always say budgeting is not about being stingy.
• 10:25
  Budgeting is having visibility of your money like that is.
• 10:28
  That's budgeting.
• 10:29
  Okay, 12 accounts.
• 10:30
  Yes, a little bit more.
• 10:31
  Tell me about that system because I also love a multi account system and I think it makes life so much easier.
• 10:37
  Run me through yours.
• 10:38
  Oh, okay.
• 10:38
  I have so many.
• 10:39
  So.
• 10:39
  So I remember the day clearly.
• 10:41
  I was at my chiropractic appointment and I was like 8 years old and I said to the lady, oh, it's really hard.
• 10:47
  I really want to save up for this Barbie doll.
• 10:48
  But I also really want to save up for this other thing as well.
• 10:51
  She goes, why don't you save up for both?
• 10:52
  I was like, what do you mean?
• 10:53
  It's just like, why don't you just like separate your money and save into both?
• 10:57
  And that chiropracting with a side of financial advice.
• 11:00
  I know, amazing.
• 11:01
  As an 8 year old, that lady, I should give her kudos because she has changed the way that I budget.
• 11:07
  And I realized with asp, with a lot of banks you can create different suffixes.
• 11:11
  And so I have my food, my shopping, a blessing.
• 11:15
  I have my rent, I have another account for random other things.
• 11:18
  I've got an emergency.
• 11:19
  I've got a long term saving, a short term saving.
• 11:21
  I feel like I should even like bring up my list.
• 11:23
  I've got a lot.
• 11:23
  I've got a lot.
• 11:24
  I've got a piano account because when I'm older I want to buy a grand piano.
• 11:27
  So I'm like, I may as well start saving now.
• 11:29
  I've got a piano account, I've got a holiday account.
• 11:31
  I have so Many insurance account because I pay my insurance annually because it's so much cheaper.
• 11:36
  And I put monthly, I put aside money monthly so that when my annual insurance is due, I have the money sitting there, can't be bothered every month.
• 11:45
  What a hass.
• 11:46
  But I'm like, well, actually it's gonna save you a lot of money because at any moment.
• 11:49
  So this is what I do.
• 11:50
  I only have about $50 in my eftpos account and I'll go to the shops and I standing at the checkouts and it's a little bit annoying, but then it goes $72, please.
• 11:59
  And I will open up my account and I will transfer the money from my food account into my EFTPOS account.
• 12:03
  So I should always have $50.
• 12:05
  I shouldn't have any less because if I have any less, it means that another account should have paid for that, should have reimbursed that money.
• 12:11
  It is frustrating because the lady's sitting there like waiting while you're quickly, quickly transferring it.
• 12:15
  But it is so worth it.
• 12:17
  So, so worth it.
• 12:18
  I wish more people had more visibility of their money because it could save people from so much, from so much debt and from so much financial hardship.
• 12:27
  Really.
• 12:28
  You have mentioned the pocket money system as well.
• 12:30
  That went wildly viral.
• 12:31
  Wildly.
• 12:32
  Yeah, tell me about that.
• 12:33
  It's clearly hit a nerve with a lot of people.
• 12:36
  Yeah.
• 12:36
  Okay, so the poker money system in 2007, I got $140 per month.
• 12:43
  So equivalent today's dollars is about 300, accounting for inflation.
• 12:47
  But let's just use the 140.
• 12:49
  So at the age of seven, I got 140, but half of that had to go to long term savings.
• 12:54
  So the age of seven, you're being taught to save for a house, that long term saving will only be touched for a house.
• 13:00
  Literally nothing else.
• 13:01
  Nothing else that gets locked away.
• 13:03
  So you're left with 70.
• 13:05
  10% goes towards tithe or charity giving back because you should be taught that you should be charitable, should be able to give back.
• 13:13
  10% is given back.
• 13:14
  So it's $14.
• 13:16
  Then we had to also give, I think it was about 20% towards short term savings.
• 13:21
  Our short term savings is for maybe your phone or for a car.
• 13:26
  But the caveat was, is that you were only allowed to spend half of whatever's in that account.
• 13:32
  So if you wanted a car for $5,000, you needed to save 10.
• 13:35
  So that was the rule with short term savings.
• 13:38
  It ended up leaving us about $36 per month.
• 13:41
  Now you'd be like, wow, like 2007, that was a lot of money.
• 13:44
  We had to buy everything.
• 13:47
  Everything.
• 13:47
  If we went out to McDonald's for lunch, we had to buy it socks, we had to buy underwear, we had to buy it.
• 13:52
  And what it meant, one thing was really cool, is that for Christmas, you know, if you give your kids socks, they're like, oh, mom like socks.
• 13:58
  We were stoked cause it meant we didn't need to spend our hard earned money on socks.
• 14:04
  Suddenly you're like an adult.
• 14:05
  I'm at the stage of life now if someone gives me socks for Christmas, I'm like, sweet.
• 14:10
  I know, I love it.
• 14:11
  So we became mom and dad.
• 14:12
  Say they went from being the no parents to the yes parents.
• 14:16
  Because it went from being no, you can't have that to yeah, of course you can.
• 14:18
  Can you afford it?
• 14:19
  How much money do you have?
• 14:20
  Oh, I've only got, I've got $20.
• 14:22
  But that means.
• 14:22
  Oh.
• 14:23
  And so there was, back in the day, there was lay by but you had to go in and pay it off and you wouldn't get the item until you actually paid it off.
• 14:30
  And I remember that.
• 14:31
  And it helped with delayed gratification, obviously because now you just get it with.
• 14:34
  Afterpay and then you're still paying for it.
• 14:37
  I know, exactly.
• 14:38
  So it really taught us how to, to learn the value of every dollar.
• 14:42
  As a seven year old, you would have no idea that that Barbie, mom, I want that Barbie.
• 14:47
  You would have no idea that that actually takes your mom one and a half hours to earn.
• 14:50
  You had no idea.
• 14:51
  So we would also have additional jobs.
• 14:53
  So we had to work for the money.
• 14:54
  We didn't get that money for free.
• 14:55
  We had jobs, we had to work for it.
• 14:57
  We also had Saturday jobs that we would also earn additional money for.
• 15:01
  Mum and dad worked out that they were saving money doing this way.
• 15:04
  So we didn't grow up with a lot of money.
• 15:06
  But mom and dad worked it out and went, how much do we actually spend on our children?
• 15:09
  And.
• 15:09
  And they worked out that they were saving money.
• 15:11
  So it gave us the ability of having control over our finances.
• 15:14
  It felt like a game.
• 15:15
  As I said before, I was homeschooled.
• 15:17
  So it was like this amazing economics and accounting lesson all in one.
• 15:21
  And we were able to learn to look for sales.
• 15:24
  We were like, hang on, if we just wait until Labor Day, we might be able to save $10 and I can use that money to spend buy something else.
• 15:31
  The power of budgeting, it's just the, the power of having visibility of your money.
• 15:37
  And I I want to count how many times I've said that this whole podcast, but I think it's just so powerful splitting your money off.
• 15:45
  For example, you're standing there at the checkout and you want to go buy a $50 top.
• 15:49
  You open up your account immediately.
• 15:51
  You can see you've only got $35 in your shopping account.
• 15:53
  You can't afford it that month.
• 15:54
  You can't, you know.
• 15:56
  So it's going okay.
• 15:58
  Oh, I do have $55.
• 15:59
  Oh amazing.
• 15:59
  I can buy it guilt free cause I've budgeted for that.
• 16:02
  I think life isn't about living this stingy life.
• 16:05
  It's about being able to go and buy things without feeling guilty.
• 16:07
  That can only happen if you've budgeted for it.
• 16:10
  This episode of Making Sense is supported by Odoo because they're all about making business smarter, easier to manage, and more affordable.
• 16:18
  Odoo is a software platform that gives you access to over 70 apps to help you manage your website, accounting, invoicing, sales, inventory and way more.
• 16:29
  But instead of Death by a Thousand Cuts, where you pay for all of those apps individually, it's just one affordable subscription which starts from $34.40 Aussie dollars per user per month.
• 16:41
  It's not just about the cost either.
• 16:44
  It's having all of those apps in one integrated dashboard to make your business or side hustle possible.
• 16:51
  Let your software work for you so you can handle the important stuff.
• 16:55
  Try Odoo for free for 15 days.
• 16:58
  No card details required.
• 16:59
  That's odooo.com for more.
• 17:03
  If this episode is your kind of thing, you'll want to check out the Market Memo too.
• 17:07
  It's my weekly newsletter where I break down how to actually invest or plain English chat about how the share market really works and how you can get it working for you.
• 17:17
  It's everything I wish I'd had when I was starting out.
• 17:20
  Head to Francisco Cook Co NZ Invest.
• 17:24
  I'll also pop that link into the show notes for you right back to it.
• 17:29
  Hannah nails it when she says that just keeping an eye on your money is often the key to all of this.
• 17:35
  Because there's an old saying that if you don't tell your money where to go, you'll end up wondering where it went.
• 17:42
  Now, someone who lives and breathes that perspective is Jason Leong, the CEO of PocketSmith.
• 17:48
  He built an entire company around software that helps you track your spending, so he has seen firsthand where our money ends up leaking out.
• 17:57
  If you want the full episode on how open banking is set to change things in your finances, as well as all the budget hacks that you've really never heard of before.
• 18:06
  It's a chat with him that was released on 20 December 2025, called New Zealand Banking.
• 18:12
  Just changed all the rules.
• 18:13
  Are you ready?
• 18:14
  Until then, though, here are the unexpected money leaks that can hit us and how you fix them.
• 18:19
  Are there certain categories where money tends to leak out more often and that if people are in a bit of a tough spot, they should check those categories first?
• 18:28
  I don't even need to think about metadata to tell you it's subscriptions and insurance.
• 18:34
  Yeah, insurance.
• 18:36
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 18:36
  I mean, they've doubled, tripled in price.
• 18:39
  It is insanely expensive.
• 18:40
  Yes, true.
• 18:41
  Yes.
• 18:43
  And these are things that, because they get renewed, my insurance got renewed, and I was honestly, a few months ago, I was horrified to find that in the last two years it doubled.
• 18:54
  This is just house insurance.
• 18:55
  Subscription prices are going up.
• 18:57
  And we know that, for example, we consume media, right?
• 19:03
  So everyone has probably at least one Netflix account or a Spotify account.
• 19:10
  And they've certainly.
• 19:11
  I mean, I remember when Netflix launched in New Zealand.
• 19:13
  What was it, 19?
• 19:15
  I know.
• 19:15
  Those are the days.
• 19:16
  What is it now, like, $33?
• 19:18
  Way more.
• 19:18
  Something like that, with different plans.
• 19:20
  Look, the leaks happen in the places that we don't see.
• 19:23
  To your point, like, if we're not looking at our finances, they could be anywhere.
• 19:28
  And because our finances are so diverse, they could be, like, someone could, for example, have a sneaking coffee habit because they drink coffee instead of water.
• 19:37
  So who could we be?
• 19:39
  Who could that be?
• 19:40
  And nobody.
• 19:41
  Look over here.
• 19:42
  And coffee prices aren't coming down.
• 19:45
  Right.
• 19:45
  Was horrified that I.
• 19:46
  I rarely buy coffees up, but I paid $15 for a soy flat white.
• 19:52
  It just.
• 19:52
  That's a lot.
• 19:53
  Blew my mind.
• 19:54
  Yeah.
• 19:55
  Was that at the airport or something?
• 19:56
  I cannot remember.
• 19:57
  Oh, it honestly wiped, like, you know, again, like trauma.
• 20:01
  My soul tried to leave my body again.
• 20:03
  It happens often.
• 20:04
  And I was like, look, I just.
• 20:06
  I need to taste this coffee.
• 20:07
  I pay $15 for it.
• 20:08
  I hope it was good.
• 20:09
  I honestly, if they burned it, I'd be so mad.
• 20:12
  It's always those 15 coffees as well that they burn it or something.
• 20:15
  And you're like, seriously, Seriously.
• 20:19
  And you're already like halfway up the street.
• 20:20
  You can't turn around and go, you know what?
• 20:22
  Oh, no, I'm too New Zealander for that anyway.
• 20:24
  I would just be like, yeah, no, it's great.
• 20:26
  And never go back.
• 20:28
  But with your feet.
• 20:30
  It's a tough One, everything's going up in price and so we'd actually have to really pay attention to.
• 20:35
  We've got to make choices.
• 20:37
  Right.
• 20:37
  So I'm probably going to cancel my Disney plus because again, I rarely use it.
• 20:42
  I am minorly concerned by some of the consolidation happening, but at the same time I'm like, well, I can't keep paying for these five different streaming platforms.
• 20:48
  Something needs to happen.
• 20:49
  And it's, it's a classic.
• 20:50
  Is that there's a reason that every business these days now tries to get you on a subscription model instead of just paying once.
• 20:58
  It's because you sign up for the subscription and then you forget you have it.
• 21:01
  I had a friend who I had done an episode like this.
• 21:06
  It's really funny having friends and this is my job because I never know how much they're paying attention.
• 21:10
  Yes.
• 21:10
  And I of course can't say to.
• 21:11
  My friends, did you see my post the other day?
• 21:13
  Like, what a loser.
• 21:14
  I'm not going to do that.
• 21:16
  But sometimes I'll say, I saw your post and then I.
• 21:19
  And I'm like, oh, yay.
• 21:21
  And so she'd seen something I'd said about go through your subscriptions, see what you've got.
• 21:25
  And she went through her subscriptions and there was a subscription that she'd found and was like, I don't even know what that is.
• 21:32
  What is that?
• 21:33
  And it had this weird name and she couldn't figure it out.
• 21:35
  She figured out, but it was some sort of gaming subscription.
• 21:39
  It might have been an Xbox One where you were like subscribed to some sort of Xbox box plan.
• 21:44
  She didn't even have an Xbox.
• 21:46
  She hasn't had an Xbox for two years.
• 21:48
  Oh, right.
• 21:49
  So this has been a monthly subscription coming out for years when she didn't even have it to, to use.
• 21:55
  And these things sneak in.
• 21:57
  They're, they're.
• 21:58
  And they're not cheap, you know, they're.
• 21:59
  This would have amounted to three or four hundred dollars over those two years, at least.
• 22:03
  Definitely.
• 22:03
  But here's a tip.
• 22:04
  You can ask for a refund.
• 22:06
  Can you now?
• 22:07
  Yeah.
• 22:07
  Well, I mean, it wouldn't hurt.
• 22:09
  You can ask for a refund.
• 22:10
  I'm not saying that you will get a refund, but I have had similarly horrified look at.
• 22:16
  I can't even remember.
• 22:16
  It might have been an Amazon prime subscription or something that I had no use for and I would have upgraded for cheaper delivery or something.
• 22:28
  It was a hook and I just paid four months for nothing at all.
• 22:35
  So I wrote to them and I said, Look, I, you know, would you consider refunding me?
• 22:40
  Because I've not actually used this subscription and I did get a refund.
• 22:44
  So it's worth, number one, taking a look at what you've got.
• 22:48
  Again, clarity over your money, right?
• 22:50
  So take a look at your subscriptions.
• 22:52
  And secondly, if you don't use it, cancel it and see if, you know, you could get a refund for the stuff that you haven't used.
• 22:59
  Now, coffee does get a shout out in that episode, as well it should because I don't think I have a bloodstream so much as a caffeine stream.
• 23:06
  But really, the food that we all need to stay tuned, well, alive.
• 23:12
  It's been such a tough category because those prices have been going through the roof.
• 23:18
  And sometimes at the end of a long day, the thing I am most looking forward to is just sitting down with food that I actually want to eat.
• 23:27
  Someone who has a great ability to take real food that doesn't cost the earth and show us all how to do it well is chef Alice Taylor.
• 23:38
  Now, Alice's chef training is key here because kitchens are not a place where they can really afford waste.
• 23:45
  So she has tried and tested so many tricks and hacks and then teaches the rest of us how to use them to eat well for less.
• 23:54
  If you want to listen to all of her tips and tricks, she's got a lot of them.
• 23:58
  She has actually been on this podcast twice.
• 24:01
  So One is on 15th November 2025.
• 24:05
  The other was 5th July, 2025.
• 24:07
  A rare double appearance because she is just that good.
• 24:11
  Anyway, check those tips and tricks out if you want.
• 24:14
  Until then, here are some of her best hacks that have personally changed the way that I cook at home.
• 24:19
  Where does someone start if they're someone who wants to eat well for less money?
• 24:24
  My best advice would be to build a staple pantry.
• 24:27
  Think to yourself, all right, what's my three favorite carbs, three or four favorite sort of protein that I'm going to have in the fridge or the freezer?
• 24:36
  What's a few spices, three or four that I love, and just sort of build out that staple pantry.
• 24:41
  And for us, like, we have a very clear staple pantry, it looks the same, it's really cost effective.
• 24:46
  And then every week you go to the shop, you don't actually come in with a strict shopping list, but you think, all right, I'm going to look at the specials.
• 24:53
  I know I need a piece of protein.
• 24:55
  I know I need, you know, vegetables and fruits for the week.
• 24:58
  So I'm going to look at special specials and sort of keeping a bit more of an open mind with how you cook.
• 25:03
  I think that's quite important also, I mean, in terms of protein sources, thinking of other forms of protein sources that are maybe vegetarian, I'm not a vegetarian, but meat is super expensive.
• 25:15
  So trying to come up with some alternatives and replacements as well I think is quite good.
• 25:19
  Sort of having a plan, but keeping kind of open mind.
• 25:22
  I think that's a good way to approach trying to kind of bring down those costs and also trying to eliminate the number of times that you go to the supermarket.
• 25:29
  And I know that sounds weird, but like, for example, our fridge right now is pretty bare.
• 25:34
  And in the past, maybe a year ago, I'd say, okay, I want to go to the supermarket, I want to cook this particular thing and I'm going to do that and that's what I'm sit on.
• 25:42
  But instead I'll be like, I know I can make something good from this.
• 25:45
  I'm going to keep an open mind.
• 25:47
  I'm going to pull everything out of the fridge and I'm going to try and make something delicious.
• 25:52
  Trying to stretch the shop as long as possible, I also think really helps because I think a lot of people go to the shop before, before we actually need to.
• 26:02
  I think we can be a little bit more resourceful with the food that we have and try to create something delicious.
• 26:07
  I also think as well, like, often I would be like, maybe it's a perfectionist in me or having the chefing.
• 26:13
  I'd be like, I want this really particular thing and I'm set on it and I want to get this thing, this piece of protein and these vegetables, even if they're not in season.
• 26:22
  And that's what I want.
• 26:24
  And I also think Instagram cooking has sort of trained us to think like this.
• 26:28
  Every meal's gonna be this like incredible luxury meal.
• 26:31
  When it doesn't, like, if you have a bunch of sort of dodgy looking vegetables, you can make a really beautiful soup from it.
• 26:37
  And that's completely awesome.
• 26:39
  So I think it's also just readjusting how we're thinking about food and dinner.
• 26:44
  It doesn't have to be this amazing sort of Instagrammable dinner every single night, but it's actually just using what we have and making something great from it.
• 26:54
  And I like what you're saying as well about the staples and things in terms of three favorite carbs, three favorite spices, all that sort of stuff.
• 27:03
  And then you can obviously mix it up with what's on special what's in season so that you don't get bored.
• 27:09
  But it's really smart to have those staples because.
• 27:13
  God bless.
• 27:13
  Just going to throw my mom under the bus.
• 27:15
  She.
• 27:16
  For a while.
• 27:17
  Right before she retired, she moved to Australia to do, like, a little bit of extra work, earn some extra cash, get it in the bank before retirement.
• 27:23
  Great plan.
• 27:24
  Went really well for her.
• 27:26
  But that also meant she was like, clearing out her house.
• 27:28
  And so I went through her pantry and was like, steal, steal, steel, steel, steel, steal, steal.
• 27:32
  But there was stuff in there that literally had an expiry on it five years ago.
• 27:37
  Yeah.
• 27:37
  And it had been so sitting in there, not being here.
• 27:40
  Oh, we all.
• 27:41
  We've all been there for sure.
• 27:42
  For sure.
• 27:44
  And like, spices, sauces, all those sorts of, like, extra things.
• 27:49
  The flavory things can actually get really expensive.
• 27:53
  And you cannot realize that you're stacking up on those, right?
• 27:57
  Oh, yeah.
• 27:58
  And I'm a big.
• 27:59
  I really believe that so many food products that are sold are, like, not necessary.
• 28:05
  Like, for me, a spice mix.
• 28:07
  I don't get it.
• 28:08
  I really don't get it.
• 28:09
  I think you need like, curry powder, paprika, and some sort of green dried herb that you like.
• 28:15
  And you've got a spice mix.
• 28:16
  You just mix them all together.
• 28:17
  Like, I just.
• 28:18
  There's some things that I don't fully understand.
• 28:21
  Even things like chili oil.
• 28:23
  You can totally make your own chili oil.
• 28:24
  You literally just need oil and chili flakes, and it's delicious.
• 28:28
  And so it's sort of just.
• 28:30
  I think that even now, supermarkets are trying to sell you.
• 28:33
  You know, you need this thing for this specific purpose, for this specific day, and you have to get it.
• 28:39
  No, you don't really.
• 28:40
  You just need two or three spices that you love, couple of sauces that you really like, and some sort of grains that are great and just mixing them up.
• 28:51
  And I think that it's just changing the way that you think about things, because even, like, recipes, for example, I produce a lot of recipes, but I hope that people understand there's no need to follow my recipes like
• 29:03
  to the T.
• 29:04
  Just use what you have.
• 29:05
  It's completely fine.
• 29:07
  If you have this oil, that's great, a different oil, that's fine.
• 29:10
  It's just understanding that you don't need specific things for every single different day and every single different recipe.
• 29:17
  I think that's quite a good way of thinking about food.
• 29:19
  It helps you sort of cut down on the food costs and what you have in your pantry.
• 29:24
  Well, on that as well.
• 29:25
  You Know what you're saying there about keeping it simple?
• 29:27
  Absolutely love it.
• 29:28
  What about if you are wanting specific things like the chili oil or whatever?
• 29:33
  How much do you need to put in more time if you're wanting to save money?
• 29:38
  Because you know, people will talk about, oh, you just can make pasta sauce or tomato sauce, whatever, from scratch, or you can do all these other things and.
• 29:47
  Yes, true.
• 29:48
  And sometimes those things are really quick, sometimes they're not.
• 29:51
  How much do you think you need to invest in terms of time?
• 29:55
  I mean, it depends.
• 29:56
  I think, like, I mean, I think you've probably seen some of my rants about time poorness and me getting very upset with people that say, oh, you need to spend, you know, a million hours a day and you'll
• 30:07
  save more money.
• 30:08
  When I have a full time job and work outside of work, time is a luxury and it's about, I guess, actually balancing out.
• 30:16
  What things can you make that that I have time for?
• 30:20
  So, for example, a chili oil we always make from scratch.
• 30:23
  It's five minutes of prep, that's it, it's done.
• 30:25
  It actually takes technically less time to go out, buy it and bring it back.
• 30:30
  But other things like pasta, sometimes we make it fresh, but sometimes, I mean, why would you.
• 30:36
  It's just ridiculous.
• 30:37
  I don't have hours to make pasta.
• 30:39
  And when we have it fresh, it's always my man that makes it because I just can't be bothered.
• 30:43
  So, like, it's sort of.
• 30:44
  So it's sort of figuring out what you have time for and understanding that week on week it may fluctuate.
• 30:50
  So some weeks I'll make my own bread.
• 30:52
  We definitely save money when we make bread.
• 30:54
  Some weeks I don't have time, so I just buy it.
• 30:57
  But I do think that there are certain things that you can be making at home that don't take too much time and will also save you heaps of money.
• 31:06
  And a really easy way to save money in general is just to cook more at home.
• 31:10
  And so I try to kind of create recipes that are relatively fast to make.
• 31:15
  Most of my recipes always consider time as a financial thing.
• 31:19
  Time and also the cost.
• 31:22
  And both of those things need to be relatively low.
• 31:24
  What about in terms of just making certain concessions, right?
• 31:29
  Like eating less meat?
• 31:31
  Is that something we just have to do if we want to save money on food?
• 31:35
  Or is there a way around some of those more expensive ingredients?
• 31:38
  I'd say yes and no.
• 31:39
  I would say that definitely meat is crazy expensive.
• 31:43
  I really feel it when we buy it.
• 31:45
  And so I love Meat.
• 31:47
  I don't have any dietary sort of restrictions, but I definitely have had more vegetarian meals.
• 31:54
  And I also think that's great, too.
• 31:55
  I eat more vegetables.
• 31:57
  I know for me, vegetables is the thing that always is first to go, just because I love carbs and meat.
• 32:02
  So it's probably good for me.
• 32:04
  But in terms of saving money, I do think cutting down on some meat meals is actually a really good way to do it, but also sort of finding things that you can bulk the meat out with.
• 32:16
  So can you add beans or legumes?
• 32:18
  That's also a really great way to stretch the meat kind of further.
• 32:23
  And then another thing that I'd suggest as well is cuts of meat, which I think kiwis have a thing about.
• 32:28
  I really do.
• 32:28
  I really do think this because we are a bit picky about what cuts of meat we like.
• 32:33
  For example, like, chicken drumsticks are so cheap.
• 32:36
  And I will always buy chicken drumsticks, but no one.
• 32:39
  I feel like no one buys them.
• 32:41
  Or maybe I'm just going crazy.
• 32:42
  Maybe they do.
• 32:43
  But I feel like everyone wants to buy chicken breasts.
• 32:45
  When you can buy chicken drumsticks, they're just as.
• 32:48
  Actually, they're more delicious and they're far cheaper.
• 32:51
  And then the other thing that you can do is start to break down meat as well.
• 32:55
  So buying the whole chicken, breaking it into parts, using the bones, you make a stock from it.
• 33:00
  You can use the chicken breasts, you know, in a sort of, I guess like a Japanese curry or something.
• 33:05
  And then you can use the other meat in other parts.
• 33:08
  So often, like, my partner, he'll buy a big piece of meat, and then he'll break it all down, separate the parts out, and then we'll cook several nights with it.
• 33:17
  And that saves us money as well.
• 33:19
  How much do you need to learn to do that?
• 33:21
  Because I wouldn't necessarily know, like, if I bought a chuck from the butcher or whatever, I wouldn't necessarily know where to start.
• 33:27
  Start with that.
• 33:28
  Are there any sort of easy guides?
• 33:30
  Is this just a matter of hitting YouTube or Google or whatever and being like, right, I'm just gonna learn?
• 33:35
  Well, I think I've actually thought about this, and maybe I need to do some videos about how we do this.
• 33:41
  Like, let's even start simply.
• 33:43
  You.
• 33:43
  You get a chicken.
• 33:44
  Let's say your first meal is a roast chicken.
• 33:46
  So you chuck the whole thing in the oven.
• 33:48
  Great.
• 33:48
  From that, let's say you eat half the chicken.
• 33:51
  So you have the other half of the chicken.
• 33:53
  You could shred it.
• 33:54
  You can make some sort of sandwich from it.
• 33:57
  You could use it in a stir fry.
• 33:59
  And then the bones, you could take all the bones, put some aromatics and some water in a big pot with the bones, boil it.
• 34:07
  You have a stock, so maybe you can make a noodle soup from it with.
• 34:10
  No, no, like actual chicken bits, but just the flavor from the bones.
• 34:14
  So that's like three meals and all you've done is just thrown the chicken in the oven.
• 34:18
  Oh, I'm down for it.
• 34:19
  Yeah.
• 34:20
  It's not as sort of difficult as it seems.
• 34:22
  I think that there's this, like, misconception that buying big pieces of meat is, like, really hard.
• 34:27
  But even if you just take like the whole lamb leg, roast it, then you can break, like, you can shred it all up and then you've got potentially three meals from it, depending of how many people are in
• 34:36
  your family.
• 34:36
  So.
• 34:37
  And if you could.
• 34:38
  Yeah, I'm just going to put in my own request here.
• 34:40
  If you could do a bone broth sort of thing.
• 34:43
  Yeah, that would be so great.
• 34:45
  Because I'm super down for, like, buying those chunks of meat that have still got the bones in them, then I never know what to do with them.
• 34:51
  And it's like this big, heavy bit of bone that you've technically paid for.
• 34:55
  Bone broth is insanely expensive and I'm just like, I'm sure this is doable, but, like, I'm just feeling the overwhelm.
• 35:02
  So I'm just going to put that request in while we're talking.
• 35:05
  Absolutely.
• 35:06
  I'll put it on my list to do this week.
• 35:08
  But really, that's like one of the things where I look at it in the supermarket and I'm just like, oh, my gosh.
• 35:13
  No.
• 35:13
  Like, it's literally just bones boiled with water.
• 35:16
  Yeah.
• 35:17
  And it's.
• 35:17
  You're going to save Lord knows how much money.
• 35:20
  I've looked.
• 35:21
  Some of those little, like, pouches of bone broth are 15 bucks.
• 35:25
  That's so much money.
• 35:26
  They're definitely like health washing it or whatever.
• 35:30
  Oh, yeah, there's a lot of that stuff.
• 35:31
  Oh, my gosh.
• 35:32
  Don't even get me started on some of that.
• 35:34
  That health washing, like, for food and supplements and drinks, like draining people's bank accounts as well.
• 35:40
  And a lot of.
• 35:41
  I think for me, like, I'm no nutritionist, so I don't want to give any nutritional advice, but I honestly think if you've got some veggies and some meat and you cook at home.
• 35:51
  Bravo.
• 35:52
  Good job.
• 35:53
  That's what I.
• 35:53
  That's my approach to health, so not that that's at all professional.
• 35:57
  That's it for this week.
• 35:58
  Don't forget to send this episode to a friend if it helped you so we can all level up with money together.
• 36:02
  Until next time, have a great day.
• 36:06
  This podcast can only give you two general information about how things work in most situations.
• 36:11
  It's not individual financial advice.
• 36:13
  If you're after that, a financial advisor is always the best bet.