Ed McKnight, 33, is an economist, finance podcaster and YouTuber. He lives in Orākei, Auckland with his wife Angela, 29, a financial advisor specialising in investments. They shop at New World Eastridge. Ed talked to Polly Wenlock .
I get that our grocery shop is quite different from other people's. When you don't have kids and are on a higher-than-average income, your grocery bill actually tends to be quite low (about $147 a week).
That's not to say 'hey look we're better with money', I look at it like 'actually we're profligate – we spend lots of money, we eat out a lot – it's just a different lifestyle
Growing up, my family was actually very tight on their budget because my father wanted to pay down the mortgage quite aggressively. Our budget was $100 a week for a six-person household, and that didn't budge at all despite rising costs. Because the budget was that tight, my mum always cooked at home.
For us now, cooking at home is not such a priority – rather, I see it as for pleasure or social occasions – like having family over on a Sunday. One dish I make is leg of lamb and salty roast potatoes like my Aunt Irene used to make on her Hāwera farmlet.
We believe in saving first and then spending what's left over. So I automatically have a payment that goes out the day that I get paid into an investment account. That works out to 20 - 25% of my income. And then I happily spend the rest.
Every morning I have the same thing: 65g oats, 250 ml oat milk, 50g frozen blueberries , half a scoop of protein powder and a spoon of peanutbutter.
For lunch we are often quite naughty and buy lunch at work, that could easily be $18-$20 a day.
Ordinarily, we come home for a frozen meal after work. We did that on Monday and Thursday night this week. On Tuesday night I was also down in Christchurch for work and they paid for my dinner, and Wednesday night, there was a work-paid event as well.
We went out for dinner Friday (my birthday), Saturday, and Sunday (to catch up with old friends), which obviously isn't seen on the budget. For my birthday we went to Gilt. It's a bit posh. But, usually we like a good Chinese hotpot.
For regular dinners we use a meal subscription called Swolefoods – although it averages out at around $16 a meal, it saves quite a lot of time and also means we're less likely to spend on conveniences like Uber Eats and DoorDash.
The Swolefoods frozen meals are used by a lot of gym people; They've got a breakdown of the fats, sugars, and proteins on the packaging. My favourite is the Southern-style chicken meal, which has chicken in gravy and a whole heap of kūmara, I also quite like the braised beef and mash... We've told them, 'Don't ever send us the blue cheese chicken pasta, we're NOT interested '.
The groceries that we do spend a bit more on are quality personal items; things like vitamins and supplements - we've just started taking apple cider vinegar gummies on advice from my PT [personal trainer], and I spent $20 on Gaviscon, which is a heartburn medication. My old Irish grandfather always used to have Quick-Eze which I thought it was an old person thing, but here I am, a 33-year-old business owner taking heartburn medication too.
If you would like to partake in our Receipt Reveal series, please email receiptreveal@tvnz.co.nz. Please provide your phone number and tell us where in New Zealand you live.
SHARE ME