Emma Healey 
We’re staying home for Christmas this year, on a small budget and with a lot less pressure. So I asked the followers of my Facebook page for your best low-cost ideas, and you didn’t hold back. More than 40 of you shared gifts, meals, traditions and games that cost next to nothing, and I promised … Read more
Christmas has a way of filling the house with stuff nobody asked for. Somewhere between the advent calendars, the themed socks and the matching napkins, a lot of money goes on things that are used once, ignored, or in the bin by Boxing Day. We’ve been cutting back for a while now in a move … Read more
I didn’t have a name for it back then — there was no “life hack,” no plan, nothing clever. But looking back, it was the first time I ever got a real taste of time freedom, years before I knew that was even a thing worth going after. I was in my early twenties, freshly … Read more
In 2014, through some contract work I was doing in the travel industry, I found a last-minute cruise deal on the Mediterranean. In my pre-Mum life, I worked in the travel industry and I know how popular cruise travel has become. And for good reason – your holiday begins the minute you board. If you … Read more
Years ago, my husband and I packed up our little family and took off overseas. One kid, one suitcase each, and a vague plan to be gone for eight months or so. We ended up travelling for over a year. We lived in tiny Airbnbs across Mexico, Ireland, the UK, and Spain. We hauled too … Read more
When I shared our Gold Coast money-saving tips from our year of travel with the kids on Facebook, something brilliant happened. Hundreds of NZ families who’d been there themselves piled in with their own advice – things we’d missed, things we’d got wrong, and insider knowledge you won’t find in a tourist brochure. So here … Read more
I burst into tears in my accountant’s office at 23. I was filling out a loan application to pay a $5,000 tax bill I hadn’t saved for, and it was the first time I’d ever seen my whole financial mess written down in one place. Credit card debt, store cards, a personal loan, and nothing … Read more
New data from Kiwibank’s 2026 State of Savings Index landed this week, and one number stands out: a quarter of New Zealanders don’t have enough set aside to cover an unexpected $500 bill. Not a holiday, not a new car – a $500 bill. A broken washing machine. A trip to the dentist. A car … Read more
I get asked about this a lot, so I figured it was time to just lay it all out. This is not a “you should do this too” post. Personal finance is personal, and what works for our family is specific to our situation. But I’m a big believer in transparency – because when I … Read more
One of the best (and easiest) ways to save money is by making it happen automatically. Remove the human from the process, and things happen a lot more smoothly. When I first started automating our savings, I didn’t trust it – I was convinced I’d “forget” and overspend without noticing. Six months later, I barely … Read more