Rockingham family on $130k reveal ‘terrible’ spending habits

PerthNow’s Cash Confessions asks a wide variety of West Australians what their income is and what they spend their money on in a week.

This week, a part-time administration worker on $40,000 a year and her public servant husband on $90,000 a year share what they spend their salaries on in a week.

Age: We are both 34 and have a six-year-old child.

Live: Rockingham

Jobs: I work three days a week in an admin role. My husband works full-time for a government department.

Salaries: I earn around $40,000 per year and my husband is on around $90,000 per year.

He used to earn more but recently got an exciting career opportunity and has to start it in a trainee position which meant he took a pay cut.

My husband has a trade so he is able to make extra money out of his usual work hours doing that if required.

For example, if we have a holiday coming up he will take on some trade work on a weekend to give us some extra spending money.

Fortnightly expenses:

Mortgage: $500

We are really grateful in these economic times to have a low mortgage.

Petrol: $250

Groceries: $500

Utilities/rates/vehicle registrations: $550

Since I first moved out of home in 2008, I’ve Bpaid all of our expenses fortnightly. This keeps all of our utilities well in front, enabling us at expensive times of the year to skip a few Bpays and have more spending money that fortnight.

Private health: $122

Streaming services: $50

We have pretty much all the streaming services including Netflix and Spotify.

School fees and after school care: $140

My daughter attends a private primary school which costs about $2,000 a year but I pay $100 of her fees per fortnight so we are always ahead on payments and at the moment, we are already about a year in advance for her school fees which is a good feeling. I like to pay fortnightly instead of waiting to receive an invoice, keeping the account well ahead.

Gym: $22 each ($44 in total)

Dental: $200

My husband is currently undergoing orthodontic treatment so we are saving $200 every fortnight so that we know that there is more than enough sitting in a separate account for him to pay the fees each time he has his monthly appointment.

Loan repayments: $200

I’m currently repaying my dad about $17,000 which he lent us for a car. If I was paying a bank for this, I’d be paying interest so I can repay this loan faster by paying higher amounts directly to dad.

Child’s savings: $20

We don’t touch this and will put it towards their first car or something similar.

Child’s extracurricular activities: $110 for music tuition and gymnastics classes.

Spending money: $1,400

This is for leisure/social activities, food, alcohol, clothing, beauty treatments, hobbies and that kind of thing.

With all the bills and necessities being paid fortnightly, we then have a clear picture of how much we have left over for “spending”.