Hey, team, it's Frances.

Look, just as we thought, we were about to catch a break, it feels like the cost of living squeeze is back up again.

So the lovely Jessie Mulligan from RNZ Afternoons asked me to come on the show to talk about some ways we can tackle this and maybe get our money feeling a bit more under control in all sorts of different areas of our life.

You know, if the food prices are up and the petrol prices are up and the insurance bill is up, what can we do about all of this?

And we do know I like to focus on controlling the things that we can control.

So here are the things that I think you should be looking at.

Some easy wins, some longer term wins, a whole bunch of stuff.

If even one of them works for you, awesome.

Blocking that win, we could all do with one enjoyment.

Things are feeling a little grim financially for many of us.

Food prices are up and heading further up.

Petrol prices are up with no signs of relief.

And bills, well, for most of us, they are up too.

It feels like just as the cost of living crisis was beginning to subside, things are getting worse again.

So we thought it'd be a good chance to get some tips and tricks on where you can save money.

To help with that, I'm joined by independent financial journalist and and host of the Making Sense podcast, Francis Cook.

Hello.

Hello.

Are you feeling it too?

Can you feel a change in mood?

Oh, yeah.

I've gotta say, I'm very lucky in many ways to have quite a tight relationship with the audience.

Good old social media these days.

But it does mean that the DMs can take a turn for the anxious at various times.

And I've gotta say, my inbox is looking extremely anxious these days.

And I see it too.

You know, you head into the supermarket and you're trying to pick up a few things and it's ridiculously expensive.

And you can feel that tension from people around you too.

So I really feel for everyone going through it.

What are people mostly telling you or asking you?

I think the thing is that they see the issues at the moment coming out of Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, where food and petrol and all sorts of things are going to be going up.

So everyone sees the headlines, but they're also seeing things like their kiwisaver wobbling around and it's the worries about where to next, the interest rates.

I think the big thing is the sense of the unknown and when the other shoe is going to drop, because people have been through it the last few years and there's not really much

buffer left if things are feeling tight.

Francis, what is the best first thing to cut back on?

Is there any such thing as low hanging fruit?

There usually is, yes.

And it's, I think it's always in these situations you want to be like, okay, what are the things that I actually still can control?

Because then you get back a bit of that power and you get to feel a bit less like doom scrolling relentlessly.

So looking at what can you actually control?

And I think often we're looking for, first of all, what things can you change that won't have much impact on your quality of life?

Most people, and when I say most people, I mean the vast majority of people can save money on their power bill.

And that is literally going to something like powerswitch.org nz and chucking in your numbers, comparing power bill power providers.

And you can get the exact same power, often for lower.

And I recommend people check their fixed costs about once a year.

Just chuck a little reminder in your phone, it pops up once a year.

Pick one of those fixed costs per week until you've rolled through all of them.

But your power is a really good one.

Also, if you're a renter, rents have been going down, so just jump online, have a little look at the rent prices in your area.

You can have a little check of the listings and you can see, you know, what are the rents looking like in my area?

Do I think that similar houses to mine are going for more or less than I'm paying?

You might be able to get in touch with your landlord and say, hey, I've seen that a lot of other places around going for less than I'm currently paying.

Would you be open to talking about a rent reduction?

And if they're not, I mean, do consider moving.

You don't get rent prices falling that often.

Take advantage when they do.

You want to aim for those big, big fixed costs.

Yeah, that's great advice.

On the power one one of our listeners has got in touch and now I don't expect you to have a thorough answer to this, Francis, but have you looked into solar at all?

They say we're about to get solar panels on our house, a zero percent loan for five years.

We've got enough money to pay it back in that time, but only just.

And they're wondering if solar is a good investment right now with price uncertainty, or should they stay within their budget and pay their electricity bill as it is?

It's a tough one, but because Jenny's asked, I thought I'D pass it on to you.

Oh, I'm actually so happy to jump into this one because I have made the step of investing into solar for myself.

So I have personal experience on this one and I would say solar is a big investment.

It's easier if you're a homeowner because then you can do things like you can access these green loans, these 0% loans that a lot of banks have these days and work really hard to pay it off within that time.

But if you're able to do that and you're able to pay it off quickly.

Now this is off the top of my head, so I can't remember how we calculated it at.

I think we calculated for our home and with our power usage that we would be, it would be all paid off and making money for us over the initial investment within seven years.

And we're quite a high power usage family.

We've got two kids and we work from home and I like using the aircon in summer, you know, so we are quite high usage and it really, really worked for us.

We also decided to lean into it further with things like electric vehicle.

So I think solar can be amazing where I would be cautious to people who are considering it, be really careful of.

You can get some schemes where they sort of rent your roof, you don't really own it.

There's been some real sticky situations with those.

I personally would approach that with extreme caution.

Probably not go there.

Thank you.

Which insurance should we cut first, Francis?

Oh, yeah, insurance has gotten really expensive for people and the warning is that it's actually probably going to continue to get expensive.

Sorry to be the bad news fairy.

I think we often get our insurance priorities upside down.

We often insure our stuff first because you can see it, you're reminded of it.

What you want to use for insurance is anything that would be really, really bad for your life that you couldn't deal with on your own.

So actually the priority for insurance is often people, then money, then stuff.

So you might be thinking about life insurance or health insurance or, you know, if you're the main earner in your family and you've got dependent kids and a mortgage, something like life insurance is probably a really good idea.

Whereas insuring your phone, maybe you could get by without that, even if it's, you know, a bit of a pain in the bum, or you could fund it yourself out of savings.

So what you really want to think about is what would really upend my life?

And then if you're trying to make it cheaper, don't forget that you can have a higher amount that you would pay yourself, but you can also look at things like if you're part of your union or if you are part of a workplace scheme, sometimes that can be a cheaper way to get hold of insurance and it's really worth looking into.

Thank you.

Is it understandable or even wise to pause kiwisaver contributions when the cost of living rises?

It's understandable.

I would say try not to if you can at all because it's going to have such a big impact on you later.

Even if you wind back your contributions a little bit, you know, try to make sure you're getting the maximum match from your employer because otherwise it's basically like giving up a pay rise at the same time and you're going to miss out on things like the government contribution.

And even though they have reduced that, it's still worth getting what is there.

So I would say cut other things before that.

If you really, really need to cut your kiwisaver, then I would say, you know, try and put it on a timer of six months or something so that you come back to it because you'll hit that 20 or 30 years in the future.

You'll really regret it.

If we know the prices are likely to go up in the supermarket, it's a good idea to stock up on.

On stuff that keeps.

Yeah, well, see, this is a tricky one, right, because I don't want to encourage people to panic buy.

I think we all remember the toilet paper from COVID Times.

I think some people are still working through their stash.

But things like there is an issue, right, where the food price is going up.

Things like wheat could be a real problem, which could be interesting.

That's such a staple food.

I think if you just pick up, you know, a couple of little extra cans here and there or a couple of bags of flour here and there.

As long as you're not panic buying, I don't think it's silly to pick up a couple of extra staples of things you get through a lot of.

And having that on hand just, you know, within reason.

Anything we haven't discussed that might be helpful for people to think about as things get tight.

I think the big thing is look for little money leaks that can sneak past you at a chronic one is subscriptions.

Businesses love a subscription model these days.

They're all trying to get you to subscription to subscribe.

And that's for a really good reason.

They make a lot of money from it.

And we often forget we have these subscriptions, we don't even use the service at all.

So just have a little go through, you know, pour yourself a glass of wine or get yourself a packet of chocolate biscuits, whatever is your little treat.

Bribe yourself, huge fan of bribing yourself and sit down with that bank statement and just look for any of those little subscription costs that go out because they're so, so easy to miss.

And then just with each one of them, ask yourself, am I using this?

Do I really want it?

Do I use it?

Do I enjoy it?

And if it doesn't fit those criteria, cut it and you won't even notice a difference in your life.

Hey, excellent session.

Thanks so much, Frances.

Thanks, Jesse.

Lovely to chat.

Independent financial journalist and host of the Making Sense podcast, Frances Cook.

Great stuff.

This podcast can only give you general information about how things work in most situations.

It's not individual financial advice.

If you're after that, a financial advisor is always the best bet.