PerthNow’s Cash Confessions asks ordinary West Australians what their income is and what they spend their money on in a week.
This week, a blended family from Armadale consisting of five children and full-time working parents — one paying $2,000 a month in child support and the other receiving none at all from her ex — reveal what they spend their salaries on in a week.
Age: I am 29, and my partner is 46
Live: Armadale, WA
Job: I’m an office manager in an electrical business, and my partner is a manager for an environmental company.
Salary: I earn almost $95,000pa, full-time, and my partner earns $115,000pa full-time which is around $12,000 per month after tax
Monthly expenses:
Mortgage repayment – $2080
Phone – $35
Streaming services – $100 a month (Stan, Netflix, Disney)
Groceries – $500 a month
Our groceries are so low because I shop at Aldi and Costco to buy all snacks in bulk (chips, Rollups, etc.) and shop online so I can keep track of how much I’m spending and to make sure my stomach doesn’t tell my brain to buy any extra foods. We all eat the same meals every night, which makes it easy to cook.
Utilities – $200
Petrol – $600
The $600 in fuel is for one car, a 2022 seven-seater 4WD. It chews fuel up like no tomorrow.
Child Support – $2000
The child support payments are from my partner to his ex. They are for their three teenage children, whom we have every fortnight for the weekend.
I have sole custody of my two children and receive no child support for them. Yes, it is unfair, given my partner pays $2,000 a month for his kids that he sees (which is a good thing!), and I get nothing for my kids, who I have 24/7, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I have never chased my kids’ father up for child support and have always had the mentality of providing for them by myself. I don’t want to depend on someone who doesn’t even want to be around, and their dad hasn’t wanted to be.
Car Payment – $800
I pay $200 a week for car finance on our 2022 4WD, and we have three years left to pay for it. The loan for it was $52,000.
Ongoing Expenses
Kids’ sport – $1,000 a year (soccer and ninja school)
Tuition – $15,000 (for all the kids at a private Christian college nearby)
Twice yearly vacation – $8000 a year
We try to take one overseas and one interstate vacation every year. For example, over the past three years, we have been to Bali, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Sydney, and Singapore.
Additional superannuation – $5000 a year
Rego – $1200 a year
Insurances – $3700 a year (contents, health and car)
Assets/savings:
Savings – $50,000 (we are saving for new house deposit)
House – $300,000 in equity
About us
I’ve been with my partner for a couple of years. We are a blended family that is passionate about sports and vacationing throughout the year. All of our children go to a private school in the area. I have two children aged 6 and 9, and my partner has three children aged 13, 15 and 17.
I bought my house for $300,000 in 2016, and its value has since doubled. We live in a four-bedroom, two-bath home built in 2012 on about 500 sqm of land.
We are looking at upgrading to a larger farm property in the next five years when/if (hint, hint, banks) the interest rates lower. We don’t have any experience in farming, but we love animals and would love to raise animals and grow local produce; just different vegetables, herbs, citrus trees and things like that.
We’d love to buy a little farm in the Perth Hills area to remain close to our family in the Armadale area. We would want to live full-time on our farm.
To help keep our finances in check, we try to pay the majority of expenses upfront rather than monthly, such as our insurance, kids’ tuition, and rent. This helps us get upfront discounts and lower costs.
All in all our expenses are quite low. My partner is provided a car and phone through his work and enjoys a few daily coffees and that’s generally his only expense.
We do ‘bill smoothing’ where you elect a weekly or fortnightly amount to come out of your account, and when your actual bill is generated, you only pay the difference, or you may even be in credit. So with electricity, for example, I pay $50 a fortnight, and gas is $25 a fortnight. Then, by the time my bills are due, I’m normally ahead about $40.
I’m the spender in the family and a bit less frugal with our money. I splurge a lot on stuff for the children, like new drink bottles and new clothes. I’m also prone to buying new clothes for myself and even furniture items like clothes hangers and drawers.
Our main goal going forward is to set ourselves up with a hobby farm in the future that hopefully generates a small income for us to retire on.
Day 1: Monday
I was back at work today after two weeks off on leave, so we had an easy dinner of frozen foods and only needed to buy chips.
Tonight’s dinner consisted of chips, nuggets, one loaf of garlic bread, and one pizza to share. When we have leftover money, we usually try to put it toward our car loan.
Frozen chips: $14
Partner’s daily coffees: $13.00
Extra car payment: $200
Total spend – $227.00
Day 2: Tuesday
Our weekly car payment is due on Tuesdays, and a relative’s birthday is coming up, so I had to purchase a gift.
The birthday present I bought was a new Apple car play screen for my older sister. This will allow her to connect her phone whilst driving hands-free. She has an older car that doesn’t have Bluetooth.
My partner had a long drive to work today, so he drank more coffee than usual. He loves a regular flat white with full cream milk but drinks them like water!
Birthday gift: $155
Car payment: $200
Partner’s daily coffees: $22.50
Total spend – $377.50
Day 3: Wednesday
My office is doing a work syndicate for the upcoming Powerball, so I contributed to that.
I also received a Medicare rebate for a prior doctor’s appointment.
I ‘bill smooth’ electricity and gas fortnightly, so that came out today
Work Lotto: $7
Medicare rebate: -$82.80
Partner’s daily coffee: $13.00
Utilities: $100
Lunch: $18.70
Total Spend – $56.90
Day 4: Thursday
Thursday is a day for my partner’s weekly child support deduction. It is our biggest weekly expense, other than our house payment, but it’s a necessary one.
My kids also have their extra-curricular activities after school, so we also get takeout on this night.
Tonight, we opted for McDonald’s. My children each got a Happy Meal, my partner got a McCrispy Chicken Meal with water, and I got a Quarter Pounder on its own (no pickles, of course!).
I also had to fill up my car, which was nearly empty, with unleaded petrol.
Child support: $500
McDonald’s: $57.00
Petrol: $130.01
Total daily spend – $687.01
Day 5: Friday
I worked from home today, which gave me time to do our fortnightly grocery shop.
We also decided to buy a movie (Kung Fu Panda 4) from Google Movies to watch at night while eating dinner.
Friday is also the day our fortnightly house payment comes out.
Groceries: $249.34
Movie purchase: $29.99
House: $1040
Total daily spend – $1319.33
Day 6: Saturday
I came down with the flu, so I didn’t do too much today. My partner and kids went to watch a few games of sports (to give me a rest in the morning) which involved coffee and breakfast. Then we just had a movie day at home.
Coffee: $3.00
Breakfast: $57.89
Total daily spend – $60.89
Day 7: Sunday
We didn’t do too much today, it was raining so we just did things around the house together and had a relaxing day. It was a perfect way to end the week.
We watched the new King Kong movie and played Monopoly. My nine-year-old is very clever at building his hotels!
We didn’t spend anything today.
Total daily spend – $0
TOTAL WEEKLY SPEND – $2,728.63
Reflection:
I think we, as a family, and I especially, need to spend less money on takeaway food and work on meal prepping more to help us meet our goal of owning a hobby farm.
I think we do it because our schedules are so hectic. My partner and I both work full-time, and we waste a lot of money buying food at extra costs instead of planning more carefully.
Looking back at the coffee bills, my partner also needs to work on his coffee habits a bit! I’m going to see what he thinks about bringing a thermos from home!
I would really love to learn more about investing and how to make wise investment choices, so that will probably be our goal for 2025.
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