Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
the Order Kerney Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome to She's on the the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where I get the absolute privilege of talking to one of our incredible She's on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because we got a message this week and it sounded like this. Hi, She's on the Money team.
I'm a thirty two year old mother of two who's a geophysicist in the energy industry making one hundred and fifty two thousand dollars only working four days a week. I followed in my father's career footsteps, but not before going through my own cycle of consumer debt. I'm passionate about pay transparency, and I wanted to shed some light on the earning potential in industries many people don't know about money. Garis welcome to the show.
Hello, thank you for having me.
Oh my gosh, do you get really excited being able to say, well, I'm a geophysicist, Like, I just feel like that's big dog energy.
I mean, it sounds a lot fancy than it actually is. But it's kind of funny to see people's looks for me, Like, I have no idea what that is.
I love that, Like, I'm not going to pretend I know what that is. I think it's got something to do with rocks, but I would love to get into it.
Yeah.
Yeah, it looks slowly, slowly. Let's not make me look too silly, too early, but let's get into it, because I'm really excited to learn about this. Pay transparency is obviously something I am wildly passionate about, but I also I need to know how a mum of two who's only thirty two, we're basically the same age as earning one hundred and fifty two grand, not even having to work a full work week. So let's get into it.
But first things first, I want to ask what grade would you give your money habits on a scale of A through F.
So I actually don't like this question most of it because it reminds me of doing performance reviews at work where you're having.
To, oh, sorry to trigger you to.
Straddle the line of like, you know, humble, but also trying to tell it how it is, but also trying to get that promotion.
Oh, this is anonymous. This is not the time to be humble, my friend. So let's be corporate. Let's circle back and answer the question. So gonna say a yes, queen.
Yeah.
We'll get into why when we're in how right after this. But I think that this is not the community to be humble in, my friend. Like I will celebrate any win. You bought your first house, let's celebrate you saved money on your groceries, let's celebrate you got out of consumer that I am partying with you, Like, I don't care how big or small your money in is, Like they're
all for me. Like humble is not a word that I think should exist in our vocabulary, and I think for so long, and I'm sure given the industry you're in, women have put themselves behind by trying to be too humble and like go, oh well, my own horn too much, and then it ends up biting you in the backside, and that's not a good thing at all. So like, let's just throw humble out the door and just be honest. How about that?
Great, Let's do that, all right?
Agreed? Agreed, Let's carry on with the interview. I'm gonna ask my favorite question of all time. Can you please tell us a little bit more about your money story.
Yes, I was thinking a lot about this, and I actually I don't think money has ever really stressed me out. I've always worked a lot, and even when I had no money because I was spending a lot of money, I'd never really I didn't really find it very stressful. I had three jobs in high school, and I was just always really busy, and I found money to be very fluid, like it came in and then it went
straight back out again. And that was pretty much happening for most of my teenage life and then into my twenties. I did the classic credit cards and got into quite a lot of consumer debt. And I'd go on a holiday and be like, oh, I just put that all in the credit card.
I'll pay for it later. It's fine.
But because I was always working so much, it never really stressed me that I couldn't pay it. It was just it just came in and out. Really, when I bought my first car, I got a car loan. It didn't actually occur to me that you didn't buy a car using a car loan. I didn't realize that people just paid cash for cars.
It was very I just thought that's what you did.
I was the same, don't worry, my friend. I just assumed that's how people acquired cars, Like who on earth would have fourteen one thousand dollars just in their account? To me, that was absolutely absurd. Nowadays, I'm like carloons, like I mean, I write my business and they're not the worst thing in the entire world. They can be quite constructive. But I wouldn't have one myself by yes, So.
It kind of all changed when I met my now husband, and we are very money transparent with each other from a really early in our relationship, and I remember him telling me that he had forty thousand dollars in savings, and I was blown away.
I was like, how do you have that much money?
That what made you get married? Because I would have been like, that's really.
Sexy, So basically like really doesn't.
So it actually became my sugar daddy, and I just say, I'm a geophysicist, and I just I don't do any.
Of that victoria.
You've just seen right through me here and maybe put a mirror to myself and be like, what are you doing. You're making a good income.
You need to sort this out.
So we didn't classic sort of barefoot investor and then really got into podcasts like She's on the Money and really turned it around to make our money, start working for us, and work to benefit from the great salaries that we have.
Yeah.
No, I think that that is such a relatable journey. I have a few questions, though, how do you meet a husband?
We met at work? Oh we met it?
Well, Hey, that's a really wholesome story. I feel like every man and his dogs met their partner on bumble at the moment, and that's the boat I'm in. So I just kind of expected any other thirty two year old woman to be like, yep, tinder bumble pinge something.
Yeah, he's an engineer and I'm a GEP physicist and we were working on the same project. And it makes it sound like we sort of like locked eyes across this like you know program that we were doing, and it wasn't like that at all. We just became friends and then it's sort of blossomed from there. But it's quite Hanny.
We not ruined the magic. Please. I've just got this idea. It's a bit like a Big Bang Theory style romance. So I would like to carry that on in my head for the of this interview. If that's okay, Money Diarist, absolutely, I also really want to ask, so you said a lot about Look, I worked a lot when I was in high school. Money wasn't really stressful to me. It was very fluid. That tells me a lot about your money story in itself. I kind of want to ask in a pervy way, I guess what was money like
growing up? So did your parents have a lot or a little? Is that something that you weren't too stressed about money because your parents weren't. Are they values that were instilled in you or was it you're going, you know what, I really need to work myself because I don't have enough. I want to know a bit more about that because it kind of helps to contextualize the information you've given us about how you currently feel about money.
Yeah, so we always had enough, like when it was never never an issue, I guess in our household. My dad is a dear physicist too, and he made you know, good money as well. But my mum didn't work. She was a stay at home mum, and then she did bunch of other bits and pieces, but mostly it was my dad supporting the family.
But they have a very casual approach to money as well.
I'm pretty sure my dad would just give everything he has a way and not even blink and eye like he just didn't. Really it wasn't stressful for him either. But I do remember my mum being very budget conscious and like, you know, we're going to spend one hundred dollars on gross fees this week and that's all we're going to spend. Or you've got, you know, fifty dollars to buy new clothes for this winter or whatever it is.
That's fifty dollars is not nearly enough nowadays.
But for the extra curriculus things, it was you can do it, but you have to pay for it yourself. So there was ski trips at school that I wanted to go on that I had to save money and pay for myself. There was a volunteer program that was two weeks in Africa that I had to save two thousand dollars for. And when I'm sixteen, that's you know, a huge amount of money. So that's why I just started working so.
Much, so much money. I'm so glad, I asked, because I feel like sometimes when people say, oh, yeah, money was really fluid, I didn't care too much. Often you find that the reality of that, I guess situation is that they just were given everything. And obviously money is
really easy if you're given a free thing. But to know that, I guess that came from your own work ethic and being taught Okay, well, we'll give you all the bare necessities and if you want to do all the fun stuff like going to Africa or going on a ski trip, like you've got to work for that. That probably set you up really nicely for a good work ethic going I guess into adult life. Do you think that that was the.
Case, definitely. I mean I was never shy of working, even when I was at UNI. Even when I was you know, it was always if you want something, you just work hard for it and then you'll be fine. So yeah, I think I think it definitely set me up work ethic wise. But it did sort of because they never really taught me about saving. I would save up for these trips and then I would go back to a zero bank account and have to start all over again.
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. All right, let's talk about your bank account though. I want to know what do you do specifically for work and how much money do you earn?
So I'm a geophysicist.
Well, actually currently I'm on maternity leave, so things are a little bit different right in this very second. But as of six weeks ago, I was a geophysicist earning one hundred and fifty two thousand, only working four days a week because I have a toddler at home and didn't want to go back full time. I'm in the energy industry, and I guess you probably want to know what a geophysicist is and does.
Yeah.
Yeah, if you could just make me not look too silly while explaining it. That would be fantastic, but you know what you do.
You so basically I work with seismic data. And you've probably heard the word seismic.
Frast oh yeah, totally yeah, yeah, seismic data.
M m yeah yeah from like earthquakes, emit seismic data, and it's basically sound waves. But a really good way of thinking about it is, I mean everyone knows what an ultrasound in is and what a sonographer does, yes, where they take pictures of your belly and your babies and everything like that and they use tiny little sound waves to see what's inside. I basically do that but to earth, so it's on a much bigger scale and it's a lot more expensive, but it's it's the same technologies.
Yeah.
I've had ultrasounds before and just one ultrasound cost me like three hundred and thirty dollars and I got like not that much back. So like, I can't imagine, now, when do they pay you one hundred and fifty two thousand dollars, my friend? Because like I'm pretty small, the Earth is pretty big.
Yeah, I mean it's not unusual for a seismic survey to cost about ten million dollars.
That's really not unusual at all.
Oh my gosh, but that's a really good way of putting it, And that's kind of a really cool job. But I need to know because like, obviously one hundred and fifty two thousand dollars, that's pretty sexy, Like a lot of people want to earn that. So, like, if I'm listening to you, you sound super relatable, you sound super fun. You obviously have really good work life balance. I mean at the moment, you've got a six week old, so maybe not that greater like life life balance, but
like we'll get there. How do we become a geophysicist? If this income sounds very attractive.
It's absolutely doable.
Like it's I did a Bachelor of Science majoring in geology and geophysics. There's not nearly as much maths as you think there is, and you get to go on a lot of field trips and spend a lot of time outside doing a geology degree. So I can recommend I read somewhere that geologists are the happiest people on campus because they just get to spend all this time outside like looking at the earth. And then I did an honors in specific geology in geophysics at a different university.
But that's it. It was a four year degree and then I got hired by the company i'm at now.
Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's it. It's real specific. Yeah, yeah, you are really playing, yes, my friend.
I just I mean, if you every university degree is difficult when you're in your early twenties and you're you know, struggling to focus and you've got to put the effort in and you've got to put the time in. But it's you don't have to be like, you know, a super whiz at maths or a super wiz at physics or a super like. It is an achievable thing to do and it's fun. And then I mean base salaries come out of that kind of degree into the energy
industry or into the resources industry. You're starting at one hundred thousand dollars easily, easily, Like I started at ninety two thousand dollars and that was ten years ago.
Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's really interesting as well, because I'm just going to back it up a little bit. Obviously, that is really epic, Like the idea that you did a Bachelor of Science and then you know, an honest in specific geology like all of that, you know, as much as I'm being silly, is really impressive. But it's also relatively specific. And when I was eighteen years old or I was seventeen, and I was putting down my preferences of which universities I wanted to go to, I'm
not going to lie. I don't think I even knew that this career existed, or that it was an option for me, or the earning capacity of that role looked like that. And I think that that's something that as a teenager trying to pick your future career, like you kind of just pick what you're passionate about. And obviously you had your dad, so you said, I followed in my father's footsteps. So I'm assuming that your dad probably helped you pick what you need to do to get
where you need to go. But I guess how did you forge this career path because obviously it's relatively specific, and if we want to do something as well, a lot of us are going to go, oh, my gosh, like, how did you even know that that was what you needed to major in? How did you know?
It's an interesting one because I took a gap year between school and UNI and did a couple of ski seasons as you do, and sort of fluffed about a bit. And I really didn't think I was going to go into science and into gear physics. I'd gotten into UNI to do something completely different. But I spent like about three months working for my dad and just went on, no, we are very similar, and I find this very interesting.
And then I just was like, oh, I'm going to become my dad, like just but then at the same time, going well, I've lifted the pressure from all my siblings, so I guess that's a that's good.
So I think that's one of the reason.
That's why I really wanted to talk to you guys, because if I didn't have my dad or know someone in the industry, you just don't know about it, and people just don't know about it, and they don't people
don't talk about earning potential and resources industries. I don't know why, because it's like very attractive and you're getting to do really cool stuff and now is a really great time to be into it because there's so much change happening in terms of like how we operate looking at climate change and the impact of all of that, like, it's a really interesting time to be looking into resources.
And if you don't know, you don't know. So that's one of the reasons why I really wanted to talk to you guys and just sort of be transparent about what's possible.
Thank you. I am obsessed with that. I think having conversations not only about pay, transparency about career progression is so important because, as I said, like, I wouldn't have had a clue, Like I didn't have a dad that could tell me how that worked, and I definitely didn't have anybody else in the family that I could do that.
I mean, I grew up with brilliant parents. And when you said, oh, I'm becoming my dad, like we have so much in common, I laughed because I was at dinner the other day with my parents and I was sitting there and my dad and I threw our heads back it exactly the same time and had like a cut paste laugh, and then we looked at each other and I was like, you are me, I am you like we are we like we are exactly the same.
And then later that evening, like my mom and I did something super similar again, and I was just like when I was younger, I think my worst nightmare was becoming my parents. Like I used to think, oh, like, I don't want to be anything like my parents, and now I'm like, what a privilege? Like these are the coolest people in the entire world, and I'm so similar
to them, it's not funny. I find that the biggest compliment when they're like, oh, you're so much like your dad, or you know, both you and your dad aren't funny at all, are you? And I'm like, ha ha ha, Like it's to me the best thing ever. But a lot of us don't have that privilege of education or just learning. I mean, my dad was an accountant, which is probably where I got some of my love of talking about money. But I so used to cry a lot when he was trying to teach me my time's tables.
So I'm not sure if that was constructive or if it was traumatic. I haven't decided yet, and I'm still like thirty one. And my mum she worked as a coroner, So yeah, I used to be in grade three telling people oh yeah, I no, my mom works with dead people, And to me that was really normal. Neither of those career paths I wanted so I forged my own. But it's just so interesting because I didn't even know that you could become a geophysicist in four years, like with
four years of study. I just thought that would be like ten twelve years of study. And now you're telling me, oh, yeah, like if you go do a Bachelor of Science, like obviously there's some specifics to it, but then you go and do an honors and you know you're in for a very good career and that's life changing, right, Like that changes the trajectory of people's lives. And if we can even have a small impact on that, I guess spheer of people who were relatively like me, Like, I
don't know what, I don't know. How do we learn what different careers do and what those trajectories look like because Google doesn't do this for us.
No, it's really interesting actually because you look at those charts that say what are the best careers to get into and the income next to it, and never does anyone say gear physicist.
It's not there, No, it's not something we've talked about.
I love that.
I feel like it's so important to be transparent, but also really important to just go Actually, I love my job. It's really cool. While we're still talking, I guess about your job. How are you able to work a full day work week? Is that because you have one of those workplaces that's taken the five day work week down to four or is that because you're part time or like, how does that work with? I guess work work balance?
So they actually they do do a nine day fortnite at my work currently, but I was working part time, so I was only working four days a week. And it's really project based and it's not as a g you can there's a whole bunch of different things you can do, like work in the field, you can work on roster, you can work you know, there's a bunch of different ways you can you can make it happened.
But I was just working at a desk and doing a nine to five and just when I came back from having my eldest, decided I didn't want to work full time, and they went, great, you can work however much or as little as you want.
And I just came back four days a week. Yeah.
Wow, so you have two bambinos. I got the aleage of seeing your youngest who is six weeks old, how old is your other child, she's just turned too. How sweet. I want to know how, at your age you made the decision Okay, now's the time to have babies, Like, what did you think of when you were I guess working out what your career would look like, because for a lot of women, the idea of stepping away might be a little bit daunting or scary. And now you're
telling me you've got what two under three? That's terrifying, especially to someone who doesn't have any kids yet. But how are you managing that and your career and what that looks like going forward.
That's a really interesting question because it wasn't a career decision per se. I did a test to see, how, you know, how many eggs I have left or how long I could have left to potentially have kids, and the results came back terribly and it was like, you either need to start doing this or risk not being able to do it at all. And my husband and I just went all right, well we'll just give it
a go. And we were really lucky and had my daughter quite quickly, and then we thought, well we may as well just keep it rolling and had the second one, and we were so lucky that we had the ability to make those decisions and had the information in order
to do that. So I'm a real advocate for getting tested, but it's sort of I was at a point in my career where I had enough technical background that I knew that if I stepped away, I'd feel comfortable coming back and not have lost too much in terms of credibility or in terms of career progression, which is really real. The other thing that made it a lot easier was that my work offers paternity leave for both men and women. It's eighteen weeks full time, which means we're get more
and more men who were taking Yeah, it's amazing. We're getting more and more men taking eighteen weeks full time away from work or thirty six week part time away from work, and so you're having more men stepping away from the job for long periods of time, which sounds like it shouldn't be benefiting women, but that absolutely is because they're getting that same separation and they're not just you know, pushing through for that next promotion, next promotion.
That was a huge benefit I'm starting to see now as well.
Ah, I love it. That's actually epic. You mentioned something that I haven't done. And I'm thirty one. You said that you went and got your eggs tested and your fertility tested. What drew you to say, all right, well, I want to get this done because up until I guess you know, this point in my life, I haven't really thought about it. I mean, I got engaged and that's when I thought, oh my gosh, like life's getting
pretty real. Like you know it always talked hypothetically about oh my gosh, when we get married, we'll then have babies. Like it wasn't a prerequisite. It was more that's just how I thought my life was going to pan out. What drew you to have your fertility tested because so many people don't.
I think probably two things. One, I'm such a scientist in that I just love data. I just want all the information to make the best decision I could possibly make. And to the women in my family are not good at having kids in their thirties, And that was a real eye opener for me to say, Okay, if this is something I want to do, let's just get as much information as we can and then we can, you know, be better prepared for whatever way it's going to go.
Yeah, I was a bit similar. You know what, I didn't even know that you could get your eggs tested. I'm assuming I would have had I known that that was an option. I did do genetic testing. I got my at the time fiance to also do it with me so that we could plan that way. I didn't know how easy it was going to be. I worked with a company called Eugene Labs, and like, that's not a sponsored mention, that's just the company I worked with. And I think it cost about eight hundred dollars to
get done. And they sent us a pack and we both just put saliva in a jar and then sent it back and that was honestly so simple. And then we had like a debrief with a doctor and that was done via zoom. So everything was super super easy. But that's about eight hundred dollars.
To have done.
How much did it cost to get your eggs tested? And I guess all that fertility testing.
Initially it's just a blood test actually really Yeah, you just go to the GP and they do it. It's like a proxy to sort of estimate how many eggs you have left, and it gives you like an age range, like you have the blood test results of someone in their forties or someone in their twenties or someone in you know, between thirty five and forty eight or whatever. I can't remember what the it was, but mine was
really bad, like forty five plus not good. And then you can take the next step of actually getting your egg your follicles counted to see how many you actually have left, or you can start going down like you can go see a fertility specialist. But I think for us, because it had come back and said that this is not you know, it's not looking good. It doesn't actually impact the quality of your eggs. You just have to start trying sooner.
And we went, well, yeah, because you've got less eggs.
Yeah, even if we did more tests, it probably wouldn't change the decision to just start trying.
So let's just start trying.
Wow, do you know what? That's blown my mind. I had absolutely no idea it was just a blood test and that it could be so simple. And I'm assuming I'm not the only one. So I'm glad that we've captured this on the pod because I think that there's going to be a few women maybe driving to work in their car going what the hell, like we should go and do this asap.
This chat took a real right hand hand.
Yeah, yeah, it literally did. I'm so sorry that I've gone so off track. Let's get back on track, but
that has been so helpful. To be honest, I've been thinking a lot about the cost of fertility, so there's probably a lot of episodes coming up on that and what it costs and how much costs to actually freeze your eggs and do all these things, because I feel like it can be such an overwhelming space to navigate, especially as a young woman who you know, you might might not even be ready to have babies, who might not even have a partner, so you're just like, oh,
I can't even consider this. So I kind of want to break that down. But let's get back onto the money track. Yeah, I really want to know. You're obviously making bank, but what is your big money goal? What are we currently working towards.
So we've got a few and I say wee because everything with my husband and I is very joint, so it's sort of like I don't have a specific one separate to him, but we really want to pay off our house by the time I'm forty, And that sounds like a really weird number to go for, but I felt like it was a stretch target that we could maybe hit. So having a goal, really specific goal like that,
I quite liked. So we're heading for that. And then we want to buy like a piece of land that has enough space for some chickens and an orchard and just that sort of rural lifestyle to be able to relax in as we sort of head into the peak of our careers and then sort of wind down and hopefully retire a bit early.
I adore that. I'm so excited about that. Tell me a little bit more about this goal of paying off your house by forty How much was your house, how much has left on the mortgage, and how are you tracking.
So we bought the house for seven hundred and fifty thousand, and it was at auction, and when they said sold, I just burst into tears so heavy, and.
Then I didn't know, you, this is weird to do this.
But when we went in to go sign all the papers, I gave her, the current owner, a massive hug.
I think she was I would have done the same pin.
She was very confused.
I've never won an auction, I've only lost them, so I've never had that experience, but I have every I guess belief that had I won any of the auctions that I've bid, I would have hugged everybody in the near vicinity.
It was, Yeah, it was. It was really exciting.
We actually got it for nobody else bid at the auction, which we thought was mad, so we did get it under.
The reserve price. Money win, yes, very big, huge money.
But we actually we now only have about four hundred and sixty thousand dollars left on the mortgage.
Yeah, we've just been pouring money into it basically love.
That's so exciting, So by forty is really achievable.
Yeah, if we keep on the current trajectory, I think we're we're looking good.
Very very sexy. Sorry to be so pervy, but this, after all, is she's on the money, and it's quite literally my job. So let's go to a really quick break because I actually have more pervy money questions right after this, all right, money diarist, we are back, and
I'm genuinely so invested in this conversation with you. I feel like you have so much knowledge to share with us, Like there's just so many interesting bits and pieces about either your money story or about what you've learned and about what you're sharing with us that I think a lot of people are going to get a lot of value out of this. But I want to know. The next question I've got is do you currently invest?
If so, what in we do invest?
And I should preface this by saying, my husband also makes a good wage, so he's in management now and is earning more than I am. So like it's we're in such a good position that we do have enough money to invest in different places. We have some shares and ETFs at about one hundred thousand dollars at the moment. There's some index ETF, some emerging industry and tech stock, and then our company shares that we get issued every year.
And then we have our super and my super sitting at about one hundred and fifty.
Thousand at the moment. And also my husband got crazy and decided to invest in some crypto, which he's holding, he tells me, So there's about twenty thousand dollars sitting in crypto at the moment. And then we saw a financial planner a few years ago, and just to make sure that we were on the right track of what we were doing with our income, and we started an education bond. Ah, yes, that they recommended that has really
good tax implications if you're spending money on education. So, because our kids are really young still, we thought, well, we'll start doing this now so by the time they do get to high school, university, whatever, there's money there that we can then leverage the tax benefits from. So there's about sixty thousand dollars sitting in the education bond at the moment.
I bloody love an education bond, Like, I feel like that's such an interesting addition because education bonds are not something that a lot of people know about. I've mentioned them on the show before, but I think a lot of people don't realize I guess the power in them. Do you think that that was something that you would have gotten into without an advisor?
Not at all.
It made getting the financial advisor really worth it because you just you don't know what you don't know, Like, we're not money you know, we're not financial specialists. And to have someone be like, actually, this is a really good way to make the most and let your money work for you.
We thought that. I mean, it just made it worth it really.
Yeah, airpic Oh my gosh, all right. So the next question I have my friend is we already know about your four hundred and sixty thousand dollars on your mortgage left, but do you have any other debts? If so, what are they?
No, my hex is all paid off.
I was actually really lucky when I went through Science was quite cheap because they were trying to get a lot more people through science degrees. So definitely, and I didn't know this until I started paying it off, that some of my classes were half price, and so I.
Can end up going and having a look.
Yeah, so it was really I just was like, oh, great, so that was a money win. But no, we don't have any other debt.
Love all I want to know. I feel like you've probably got a number of good ones, But what do you think is your best money habit?
I think I've got two really good ones. The first one is that the money transparency between my husband and I just makes everything so much easier. We share a Google Sheets account like spreadsheets, where we both update. It's all live, and we can see exactly what my money's doing and exactly what we've budgeted and exactly where things are being allocated every month, and we look at it quite regularly if something changes and the conversation is very open,
and that just makes everything so much easier. And then the other, the one is that we hardly ever go out to dinner or breakfast or anything. Like we're real homebodies and we just we're quite I love shopping at Audi, and I go and we do like our weekly shop. And for us, it's not, you know, we spend like less than two hundred dollars a week on groceries, but if we do go out, we go out hard. Like we'll go and do like a ten course degas station and just make it really worth it.
Yeah, we're a bit similar. But my friend, how are you doing all of your groceries for under two hundred bucks a week? Like what the heck in is that because you shop at Audi? Or is that because you're a super wiz meal planner or like what's the secret there? Because that's pretty good.
Yeah, I think meal planning definitely helps. And we do shop at Audi, but we'll go and we're very like simple meals. It's not everything's not too complicated, you don't have too many ingredients, You pay enough for good quality meat and then you just get fruit and veg and then whatever else you need, and like, honestly, my kids don't eat very much. I've got a two year old and someone who just drinks expres milk, so they're cheap at the moment.
So really it's just a family of two and.
Like a third and like a half third a third that probably just throws food and isn't that grateful for it at this point in time. That's right, All right, let's flip the narrative. What is your worst money habit?
This is probably going back to me still feeling like money is a bit fluid and if I'm in the mood to spend, it will just pour out of me, like I be like, we need new bed linen.
I won't even look for a deal.
I'll just go to Sheridan and spend eight hundred dollars and I won't even think about it. And it's terrible, but I'm I feel so lucky that I can do that and not like and obviously I don't do that very often, but when I do, I'm just like, oh, well, here it is, here's all my money.
Oh oh.
I feel like that's not the worst thing ever, especially if it's in line with your budget. And you have all these other savings and investing goals and you're kind of smashing it everywhere else. I mean, the best thing in this situation is you're super aware of it. So I'm not too worried about that, if I'm being honest.
Yeah, I think my husband probably worries about it a bit more than I do. That's always the way.
That is absolutely always the way. All Right, now that we've talked, I feel like I know the answer to this already, but I'm going to ask anyway, now that we've talked, do you still think that you would give yourself the grade of A?
Yeah? I think so.
We're in such a fortunate position, and I think we've really taken the steps to make sure the money that we have and the money that we're earning goes into really good places. So I'm really comfortable that we're doing a good job at the moment. So i'd give myself an A.
I love that. What do you think it would take to get you to an A plus?
Probably hitting some of the money goals that we have, paying off our house and getting that property and seeing us retire a bit early. But they're really long term goals. But I think if you don't have something to strive for, you stop trying. I think that's probably what's stopping me from saying, well, we're just amazing, because for us there's still stuff we want to achieve.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, I love that. Oh my gosh, I have adored this conversation. Money Direstic has been an absolute pleasure and a privilege having you on. I will let you get back to your six week old. Thank you so much for your time.
No, this has been great, Thanks so much for having me.
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