Cooking the Books podcast: Budgeting success comes from ditching your car, not your coffee

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB’s Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it’s why your big expenses often slip under the radar. Hosted by Frances Cook.

You’ll often hear the saying, to watch your pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.

Well, I disagree entirely.

Little expenses like takeaway coffees are easy to target because it’s an expense that’s right in front of your nose.

But it’s the bigger expenses that we take for granted, often assuming we can’t change them, that have the most potential for being cut back.

Cars are a notorious one, especially in New Zealand.

It’s not just the cost of first buying the car. It’s then the cost of fuelling it, keeping it registered, insurance, your WOF, maintenance and replacing your tyres, car parks.

This is what’s called the true cost of your car, and it’s much bigger than any small treat like a coffee.

In fact, a conservative estimate from the AA is that even a small car is…