Image: Tina Tiller
Image: Tina Tiller

SocietyApril 4, 2023

The cost of being: A family living off the grid in the Hokianga

Guest writer
Image: Tina Tiller
Image: Tina Tiller

In the first of a new series on how the cost of living is affecting New Zealanders, a mother of two in the Far North breaks down her budget.

Gender: Female

Age: 25

Ethnicity: NZ Pākehā

Role: Stay at home mother to two daughters, (six-month-old and two-year-old)

My living location: South Hokianga, rural

Rent/mortgage per week

We are paying off a “mortgage” which is made up of multiple personal loans. We are currently paying $100 + $134 = $234/ week.

Typical weekly food costs

Groceries: average $100/week. Two adults; six-month-old is exclusively breast-fed and our toddler eats very little. Grocery shop every three weeks. We are part of a food co-op so we buy dried goods in bulk if it works out cheaper than at supermarket.

Eating out: $0

Takeaways: $20/ month (fish and chips)

Workday lunches: $0 (leftovers from dinner and homemade bread)

Cafe coffees/snacks: $0

Other food costs: We live off homegrown kūmara and other homegrown veges during summer, but it’s hard to quantify costs spent.

Savings

If we have something to save for we budget. But we aren’t saving much at the moment. There’s always big expenses for developing our land – for example extending our car park so we can park more than two cars, and a bigger solar energy system so we can run a washing machine and freezer. But we won’t be able to afford either of these for a while.

‘We know our lifestyle is pretty out the gate.’ (Photo: Getty Images)

I worry about money…

Always

Three words to describe my financial situation would be…

Precarious

Careful

“Living-off-the-smell-of-an-oily-rag”

My biggest edible indulgence would be…

It has been plunger coffee but now that’s gotten too expensive so we just buy the cheapest option which isn’t always that nice to drink… Now it is probably a block of butter per week.

In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be…

$0. However, our neighbour just gave us some old home-brewed plum wine which was pretty rugged but alcoholic nonetheless.

In a typical week my transport expenditure would be…

We have two cars. Our family car (Toyota Wish 2006) is probably filled once a month. Around $120 to fill. My husband’s work car is a Toyota Corolla and was filled once every two weeks at around $100. Two weeks ago, however, he totalled it when a ute was driving too fast on his side of the road. Neither car had insurance. He was offered to be paid off in weed but since it goes against our morals he didn’t accept! Now we’re buggered car-wise.

That car has not had a warrant or rego for about three months, because we can’t afford to take it to the mechanic which means doing the work ourselves, but it’s hard to find time and just ordering parts is another trip to town. We also haven’t had any spare money to pay for the warrant or rego so will have to save a bit for that! Luckily, living in the Hokianga means you can drive an illegal car without getting pulled up by the cops. One cousin of my husband’s who lives up here is 40 and still doesn’t have his licence but he’s been driving illegally for about 25 years anyway. None of his cars are younger than him.

I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was…

Maybe $20. I only buy opshop clothes except for underwear. I recently bought three new pairs of knickers. My children get hand-me-downs from cousins.

My most expensive clothing in the past year was…

Two breastfeeding bras from Kmart which were about $10 each. They were my only brand new purchases, only because it’s hard to find good secondhand bras.

My last pair of shoes cost…

$80 – Red Band gumboots, bought 2019. I’ll need a new pair soon as these ones are getting holes. I have been given a few pairs of hand-me-down shoes over the years.

My grooming/beauty expenditure includes…

I don’t wear makeup, I cut my own hair, I don’t get my nails done. I wash my hair about once every two weeks so I probably go through one bottle of shampoo and one conditioner every year. Our friend makes rongoa and healing balms which she gives us as gifts.

And the annual cost would be about: $20

‘I hand wash everything in concrete tubs with a wringer.’ (Photo: Getty Images)

My exercise expenditure in a year is about: $0. I scrub-wash laundry almost every day so that’s a good arm workout.

My last Friday night cost…

My sister-in-law and cousin came around for dinner. We had fried kūmara and curry, and talked all evening.

Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was…

This old kitchen cabinet we saw on Facebook Marketplace for $80. We thought it would be decent wood but it turned out to be in quite bad condition and mostly mushboard.

Most indulgent purchase (that I don’t regret) in the last 12 months was…

A 1977 Bernina 830 sewing machine. I paid $120 which apparently was a good deal. No regrets. I’m hoping I might be able to make money making things with it.

One area where I’m a bit of a tightwad…

Everything. Supermarket, clothing, general lifestyle.

Five words to describe my financial personality would be…

Stingy

Anxious

Opportunistic

Cautious

“Make do without”

I grew up in a house where money…

Was taboo to talk about. We never couldn’t afford things. But we were not spoilt either. We had to earn money by doing chores or getting a job. My parents both worked, they owned their house, could buy new cars, and there was always plenty of food around. We were taken on holidays and road trips around NZ and a little bit in Australia.

The last time my Eftpos card was declined was… 

Six months ago. I’m always aware of how much I have in my account and if I can afford to buy something.

In five years, in financial terms, I see myself…

Hopefully closer to being freehold on our property. My husband would go out to paid mahi less. We would have more time to do the things we want like working towards being self-sufficient and raising our family. We will probably have two more children.

I would love to have more money for…

A more powerful solar energy system so we could run a washing machine and freezer. Not having these things makes washing a huge daily chore as I use cloth nappies for my six-month-old. It makes cooking difficult not having a freezer and we don’t eat meat as we have no way to store it.

Describe your financial low…

A few weeks ago. We had to very carefully budget as we had a flurry of bills that needed to be paid at once. Both our accounts went to $0. We just lived off what we already had in the cupboards and only made necessary trips out to save petrol.

I give money away to…

No one at this stage. We hope to be more generous when we are in a better financial situation, potentially invite people to live on our land with us in the form of hospitality.

‘Help keep The Spinoff funny, smart, tall and handsome – become a member today.’
Gabi Lardies
— Staff writer

We know our lifestyle is pretty out the gate. My husband does three days a week property maintenance and the other days we work on a manuka nursery that we have just established as a way to make money from home to help pay off our loans. We have owned our land for just over a year now. This ownership has meant we have really had to order our priorities. It is land with no services – we had to pay for a road, buy a water tank.

We are making do living in our tiny house on wheels for now (2.4m x 7.8m). We have a very simple solar power setup (enough for lights, charging devices etc). We make do without a fridge/freezer and I hand wash everything in concrete tubs with a wringer. We can’t afford to upgrade our solar system for another couple of years so these are sacrifices that we make. Our parenting style is such that we don’t buy special gizmos for our kids; instead we just get given hand-me-downs and make do with what we have.

We feel very privileged that we can own land to raise our family on, but it’s only thanks to wealthy family members who could help us out. The banks wouldn’t even look at us as mortgage candidates, especially not during Covid times. We were lucky to know people in the area and through word-of-mouth were told about this property being available for private sale. We had a lot on our side and now our lifestyle choices reflect that as we try to be as frugal as we can.

I have gotten used to the way we live but sometimes I have to pinch myself because I realise that not many people live this way. Many of the families in our immediate community have similar lifestyles so it makes it easier for us to justify living like this. But it does feel pretty extreme some days, especially because I was not brought up like this.

We try to live by the idea: live simply so others can simply live.

Keep going!
black and white photo of goal on football field
Photo: Getty Images, additional design by Tina Tiller

SocietyApril 3, 2023

Auckland club football’s racist underbelly revealed in new report

Guest writer
black and white photo of goal on football field
Photo: Getty Images, additional design by Tina Tiller

Alarming incidents of racism among players and fans have been uncovered by new research on club football in Auckland – and there are concerns players are quitting the sport as a result.

This story was first published on Pacific Media Network

“Coconut”, “n***er”, “black piece of shit”. 

These are just some of the terms used in football matches around Auckland on any given weekend, according to a damning report on racism in New Zealand football. 

The report, published by Manukau United Football Club and funded by the New Zealand arm of Unesco, based on qualitative data from 18 participants, found that 83% had either experienced or witnessed racism both on and off the pitch. 

On top of the explicit verbal abuse players had been subject to, the report also revealed that many players of colour are leaving the sport prematurely because they believe institutional bias is stopping them from progressing to higher levels in the game.

Manukau United’s Rosie Leota has learnt to use the racism she experiences as motivation to play harder (Photo: Phototek/Shane Wenzlick)

For Manukau United’s Rosie Leota, the racism has become so common, she now uses it as motivation rather than let it rattle her.

“The most common phrase is being called a coconut when playing at a competitive club level,” said Leota, who is of Samoan descent. “But I guess what’s inspired me is seeing how someone like Tim Cahill [a former professional footballer who played at the Fifa World Cup for Australia] – who’s also Samoan – in how he’s dealt with it.” 

She said her partner, who’s from Chile, also gets abused in the men’s club competition. 

“I know a lot of Māori and Pacific players have been called the same thing as me,” Leota said. 

“And I know my partner, who can tan a bit more than me, has been called a n****r, and I know it’s something that really aggravates him.”

Lynaire Doherty, one of the co-authors of this report, said despite having been around the sport for over 30 years as a club volunteer, she was surprised by how widespread the racial abuse was.

“I guess for me, hearing from the children who were as young as eight or nine years old, who were already developing ideas about how different groups were treated and were also hearing racist things, was quite shocking – and clearly that is going to impact them staying in the sport.”

Red Tsonga sits on the board of the New Zealand Christian Football League, which runs an Auckland football competition that caters to teams from ethnic communities and local churches.  

He moved to New Zealand from the Congo, in part hoping he could take his footballing skills further here, and he’s concerned racism is diluting the talent in New Zealand football. 

He was called a “black piece of shit” in a festival tournament but says the organisers refused to ban or penalise the player, who also threatened to kill him.

“I saw first hand how casually racism is dealt with here and because the people running these events have never experienced these things themselves, they don’t know what the long-term consequences are for us.”

Red Tsonga shares his experiences of racism at the report launch (Photo: Justin Latif)

He said talented players of ethnic background are likely to quit the sport if their concerns aren’t taken seriously. 

“Coming to New Zealand, my dream was to play football but unfortunately, like many who come here, their football goes nowhere,” he said.  

“Usually young players of an ethnic background are experiencing discrimination when it comes to selection and access to resources, so we need to see an equal share of investment and opportunities to nurture the talent.”

Northern Region Football chief executive Laura Menzies, who oversees the club competitions in Auckland and Northland and attended the report’s launch, said her organisation has been aware of racism blighting the local game, but said “first-hand accounts are really valuable for us to look at for where we can make things better”.

“We’re certainly aware that there’s a number of accounts of racism each year which come through to our disciplinary process,” Menzies said. 

“And I’m sure there will be cases where people don’t feel safe or don’t feel they belong in our sport.”

Menzies said stamping out racism in the sport will require every club and football organisation, including New Zealand Football, to make changes.  

“I think there’s lots of really good examples around the country and overseas around how we tackle racism better – acknowledging that it exists in football – and looking at what we can change at a national and regional policy.

“It’s also the federations having the right conversations with referees and with our clubs, and it’s also about NZ Football taking a lead as well.”

The Racism in Football In Aotearoa report was launched at the Manukau United Football club in Māngere East (Photo: Justin Latif)

Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March is his party’s sport and recreation spokesperson and also attended the report launch. He said while the government has put a pause on hate speech legislation, there are other ways it can reduce racism in sport.  

“The Greens were quite clear that hate speech laws should have been strengthened rather than delayed,” he said. “But there’s still work we can do around ensuring more equitable funding for our sporting communities in lower-income communities. And there is still an opportunity [for government departments] to fund projects that specifically help tackle racism in sports.”

In a statement, New Zealand Football communications manager Tris Cotterill said the organisation had a “zero-tolerance approach to incidents of racism when reported”, and in the past 12 months had dealt with three such incidents occurring in national competitions or as appeals of regional competition decisions. 

“While we have made progress in this area, New Zealand Football agrees that there is work to do to ensure the leadership of our game reflects and represents the communities of Aotearoa New Zealand, and that the game, and in fact all sports, can provide a safe and enjoyable space for all participants.”

Cotterill pointed to a 2021 survey that found 35% of the 8,282 participants had occasionally experienced or witnessed inappropriate behaviour in the last 12 months, below the team sport average of 41%, “so this is not an issue specific to football and is in many cases worse in other sports”.

He said strategies to address such behaviour included coach education programmes, intervention strategies aimed at referee abuse and encouraging appropriate behaviour among parents, and an app that records referee feedback on team behaviour. NZF was also working with Māori Football Aotearoa and staff have participated in training sessions on upholding Te Tiriti.

Society