 Hey, welcome back to my YouTube channel guys. Today we're going to talk about things I don't spend my money on anymore now that I live in New Zealand. So of course when you move overseas into a different culture, a different value system, different products that are even available, you change your spending habits. So today I'm going to go through 10 things that I just don't really buy anymore now that I live in New Zealand. So make sure that you click the like button and the bell and subscribe below. If you've been following me for a while and haven't subscribed, please subscribe. This channel talks about what it's like living overseas in New Zealand as an American. Here we go. Of course when you move to a different culture or maybe even a different city, if you're from a big country, you have to adapt to your environment. So I'm from the Midwest and so I have traded in my snow shovels for wetsuits, for expensive school uniforms and even a water jug to boil water for tea. Now they have these things in the US obviously but it's just the things that I personally started spending my money differently because I'm living in a different culture. So here we go. As an overall reflection, living in New Zealand I would say you generally have to buy quality over quantity. So unlike the US, New Zealand you can't buy anything and everything cheap. Now they have stores that are similar to Walmart and Target which would be like the warehouse here in New Zealand where you can get a lot of things at a reasonable price but not nearly as many as you can get in the US for a cheap price. And so you just end up having to decide what is important to you. And so you can't have everything when you live in New Zealand. You can only have a limited amount of money and things can be quite expensive. Things that you don't expect to be expensive are expensive and so you have to adjust. And so you adjust based on what's most important to you and where you're going to spend your money. So the first thing that I don't spend my money on now that I live in New Zealand is I don't own a house. The real estate in New Zealand is so expensive right now that it's it's can be very unaffordable for most people and including me like we continue to rent we're starting to get to a position where we can buy but it is the market is crazy and it's crazy expensive especially when you live in the bigger cities like Auckland or Wellington. And so in the States though we were heavily involved in real estate investment and so you I mean you could buy a house we bought houses for $20,000 $13,000 like really in bad shape and you have to put in like 10 or 20,000 to get it up and running and then renting it. But that's all reasonable and you can do that but here of course you can do fixed rubbers and of course you can get cheaper houses but we're talking like $300, $400,000 that's a little bit different and limits your investment possibilities for us. So for us personally we haven't been able to buy a house because a real estate is really expensive here in New Zealand. The second thing that we used to spend our money on all the time in the US was going out to dinner. It was very easy to go out to dinner multiple times in a week and it was not that expensive like I could feed my whole family for $20, $30. My kids were much younger I now have all teenagers so yeah that wouldn't be the case anymore but it just was there's so many options it's so at all different price points and it just was something that you do I think I don't know it was more in the culture to do that whereas here in New Zealand if we are going out to dinner as a whole family it's $100 and that's just not something that you can do often even takeaways can be quite expensive as well and so we just don't eat out as much and so then that kind of changes your culture as a family in terms of eating and going in options and you have to be a little bit more organized and you have to have meals kind of planned instead of like oh I'm not ready to cook we can just go out of course you can order takeaways here in New Zealand and that's fine but it's still quite expensive to feed a family of six so it's just you have to be on top of it and you just don't go out to eat as much when you live in New Zealand okay the third thing that we don't spend our money on living in New Zealand is packaged food you guys I think that if you have never been to the US and you're in New Zealander or from Australia I think you would be shocked how many things are packaged in plastic in the US and so that was an adjustment so when you grow up in a culture and that's normal and you know you can buy box cakes and box frosting and box everything like literally you want to make cookies you want to make macaroni and cheese you want to make any sort of meal it comes packaged for you so it's easy you know the cultures have changed men and women are both working there's the people don't have time and so the American market has adapted to that and has you know created products packaged products that supposedly make your life easier but definitely not better for the environment so it's very common especially with kids lunches so like lunchables would just be kind of like everything a kid needs in a lunch and you could just throw it in for $2.99 or just another thing that I don't buy here anymore in terms of food would be like cut up fruit cut up cheese cut up meats you know like cut up vegetables like they would sell those and you have them all cut for you and everything's easy like everything is real convenience in the US and not so much in New Zealand it's growing like I'm seeing it more and it's also just not acceptable in this culture in New Zealand to put everything in plastic in fact if you go to the grocery store there's no more plastic bags anywhere you cannot get a plastic bag and and that's a good thing and it's a good adjustment it has forced us all to bring our own bags or to use paper bags or to use boxes and to think differently about how we shop and that's definitely a good thing but it is an adjustment to not have any plastic at all the house and and it's good and so also like in the kids schools like if the my kids go to like in viral schools which means like yeah they're definitely like they're not supposed to come with their lunch with plastic in it or anything individually wrapped I mean it can be wrapped in like a beeswax wrap or some sort of you know reusable item that's fine but like you can't really bring plastic and so it's just kind of organized that way for you so you buy the lunchboxes and it has a little slots and you put the things in you put the lid on actually makes it quite easy you know like you think like you're being convenience by getting you know the cut up apples and the kind of carrots and just throw it in and there you go but really like it's pretty easy just to cut it up and it's more fresh it hasn't been sitting in a plastic bag for knows how long and you just put it in and they go and they're off and off to school they go so it's just it's better and also the kids are they're talked to if they are bringing a lot of plastic to school like it's just a value here in New Zealand which is a great thing and my family has completely adjusted to that I wouldn't say like I don't have any plastic in my house I do have some plastic bags and plastic wrap and you know that's where I'm at with it but it's significant improvement from when I started to get here so I'm not quite there yet but getting there guys so this is a great thing the package food is a really big difference like people like it was new to me that everybody bakes like from scratch like the idea of making things from scratch is a new idea for somebody coming here from the US you know and that you know you may have a family that does that and that may be the culture or family but I'm saying as a whole as a general rule it's just very normal for people to bake here every week or to make a lot of things from scratch and that just isn't the case is it so that's the different way that you're spending your money and a different way that you're cooking a different way that you're spending your time and that's just like a big adjustment when you're living in New Zealand from the US and number four speaking of food is I don't buy in bulk so I've had some comments from you guys on my tiktok channel if you haven't checked it out check it out it's great I talk a lot about the differences between New Zealand and the US and basically what I've gotten feedback is they always are saying like when I'm watching it American TV or movie they always look like they have so much in their fridge and it's so true because Americans we buy in bulk we love our Costco we love our Sam's Club which are all wholesale big they are getting a Costco here in Auckland soon and I cannot wait but yeah so we buy things in bulk because it's cheaper and you know and we're used to packaged food and so I think that that's why it's different for a New Zealander to see that I'm surprised when I came here when I'm looking at people's that have big families you know five people six people in their family and there's nothing in their fridge like it's just not like what do you do like what if you do you know you come home you don't feel like cooking and like you don't really have much or whatever I was pretty surprised you know whereas in the States you'll see people you know loading up with all their drinks they're you know this just they're stocked up they this is pantries are a big deal in the US and they are here too like there's pantries here I'm not saying there's not pantries I've always had a pantry wherever I've rented but like yeah you just you just stock up a lot more in the US in terms of buying in bulk and number five plastic water bottles okay so people in New Zealand we just have our own water bottle with your name on it all my kids have one and we bring it everywhere and when you go for a run or you go on a long hike everybody has their water bottle in the US it's very common to have plastic water bottles that you throw away and you might wonder well that's why would you do that you know why wouldn't you and there's plenty of people that carry their water bottle I'm not just saying that but I'm just saying I definitely don't buy plastic water bottles anymore and I wouldn't say that I did a ton in the US either but it was really a lot easier too because it was like $3.99 and you would get 12 water bottles or 24 bottles it was so dirt cheap it just made the convenience of it very easy not that it's right but that was easy and so sometimes you know so if you go to a party it's just very common that people will have plastic water bottles in their fridge and I'm sure that that's gotten a lot better as I've seen things change in the US quite a bit since I've been there but yeah so plastic water bottles not a thing in New Zealand definitely see it more in the US and number six holiday decorations now I wouldn't say that I was like a crazy holiday decorator by a long shot but the ability to buy holiday decorations in the US does is huge compared to New Zealand New Zealand very much down plays holidays there isn't lots of decorations at Christmas or isn't lots of decorations on Valentine's Day comparatively okay if you live here in New Zealand and you feel like there's a lot of decorations let me tell you you haven't seen anything yet and it's a little bit different because at Christmas it's warm here it's you know it's light out until 10 o'clock so like Christmas lights don't really make sense and so everything is a little bit different and of course they decorate but it's not at the same scale because we all know in the US it's like two months before it's Easter or Christmas or Halloween or back to school there's tons of decorations at every store and this is like it's almost sickening and so I wasn't a huge decorator in the US but I'm even less now like way less and so that's just another big difference the things that you don't buy living in New Zealand compared to the US okay and number seven I have to mention this would be the latest fad if you're not familiar the US has fads where a big product comes up everybody has to have it and then a kind of fizzles okay it's a very popular thing and you're very much pulled into it when the fad is there whether it's this new type of soy candle or you know certain diet or essential oils or certain types of vitamins or the all different kinds of things it's there's there's fads all the time and there's even fads like for your kids you know at school people are going through it I mean obviously we've all seen that poppet thing and that's been a big fad also here in New Zealand it's not that New Zealand isn't affected but the fads are much stronger can last a lot longer in the US so I find myself not spending money on fad type products anymore you do definitely get pulled in because everybody has it oh it's great it's new it's going to improve this this is going to make you look younger and this is going to make your hair amazing and they're just they're really good at marketing in the US and so I'm not pulled in I'm not spending my money as much on the fad of the day here in New Zealand number eight that we don't spend our money on our kids toys now you will be shocked probably if you're from New Zealand at some of the houses in the US and just rooms filled with toys okay and the reason for this is the advertising is really good they're very cheap and you know everybody gets them and it's just kind of part of the culture and so I wouldn't say that as a person in the US I didn't spend a ton on toys but I definitely even spend less here and my kids are older and so maybe that's part of it so let me know your experience on that but just that's what I've noticed because like for example the prices are so much higher like a Lego set a nice Lego set is $70 here in New Zealand so people aren't having piles and piles of Legos like they do in the US when you can get it for $10 or $20 okay and so it's just it's a very different mindset and a lot of people are just active here in New Zealand you know you're outside a lot more it's nicer weather all year round and so that also affects you know what you're purchasing but also like our family we didn't have a TV since 2006 so I really have I noticed when I was in the States how much that affected what my kids were asking for because they're not being advertised too so a kid doesn't know they have everything taken care of for right they have like food shelter they have everything they need they got their wonderful parents they don't know that they need something until the TV tells them that they do and said you gotta get this this is going to be amazing and then oh suddenly that's on their birthday list Christmas list and you're like where did you come up with that so I noticed that once I took that out of their lives I didn't get the magazines and the mail anymore the catalogs and the mail anymore that really helped like they don't know they're not coming up with it unless they saw somebody at school have it and that's fine and so yeah and so we've just always continued it so I wouldn't say that I was a big consumer of toys in general in the US but even less here and we don't watch commercials really here either you know as it's all changed so that's been really good so be aware of that like if you feeling like your kid always asking for these things because they're being at they're watching advertisements so it's helpful to limit it it's okay like if everybody at school is into something or trading cards or anything you know the latest thing and they want it you know because they want to participate with your friends like that's different but when it's advertising that's very manipulative and really makes them feel like they need something that they really don't or that it's going to do this amazing thing that it really doesn't because you know as a parent and they don't they're very believe they just believe what they hear right and so just be aware of that but yeah so I definitely spend less on that sort of thing here in New Zealand because the kids more are more active in doing stuff outside and riding bikes and scootering and trampolining and all that sort of thing instead and so so much better so definitely spend less money on toys in New Zealand compared to the US okay number nine I think you might find it interesting that in New Zealand you don't have to buy these babies you don't need to buy checks yeah you don't use checks here in New Zealand in fact they're they're phasing them out completely this year in most banks and so you cannot even like if someone writes me a check from the US so I still have grandparents and whatever sending their kids checks please don't send checks because we cannot cash them here people don't use checks so how do they pay for things you might ask is while the most common is payway and it's accepted I would say like 98% of the places here in New Zealand and just go boom and you're off it's so easy and it's amazing the other thing that they have in New Zealand that's amazing is bank transfer like right from your personal account to someone else's personal account or a business account or however you do so people just share their bank account numbers and you just put the money into their account and it's so easy there's no third party so in the US you generally have to have a third party like sometimes it's your bank you know you can do online banking or PayPal or Venmo or all these other different companies that have come up and made money off of this but you know you have to pay them a fee or whatever but this is just like directly into someone's account so if I bought something off of Facebook marketplace or off a trade me I could just go in and pay them directly into their bank account and it's amazing and it makes things very easy and so you might wonder is this secure is this good yes New Zealand banks are some of the most secure banks in the world check it out look it up this is not what this video is about but yeah so it's so cool to not have to spend any money on checks so you may not be aware that in the US you do have to pay for these so I don't remember how much they are like $20 or something it's not overly expensive but you do have to buy them and you do use them and you will still see people at the grocery store filling out a check in the US but you will not be seeing that in New Zealand and number 10 last but certainly not least let's talk about clothing clothing expectations and the amount of money that you spend on clothing is very different in New Zealand compared to the US so let's talk about this a little bit and I think it's a little bit around cultural differences I think it's also around a consumerism society the US is much more consumerism and they also have a lot of product and so and you can get that product for sale and so things go on sale and you're finding like these Nike sweatshirts for $5 or on a clearance rack or these amazing you know and it almost feels as when you're there it almost feels like it's wrong not to buy it it's so cheap you know and so that gets you and then just gets you and your consumerism society and then like depending on where you live in the US you have all different seasons so I'm from a state that has all four seasons so you need different clothes for different seasons and things are just cheap and so it's easy to buy a couple new things per season per person in your house so you end up spending a lot more money whereas in New Zealand there isn't a lot of choice on clothes and shoes and that sort of thing which actually makes your life a lot easier and everything's expensive so like a shirt like this would be like $60 here in New Zealand and so you have to really like it if you're going to spend $60 whereas you could go to Coles in the US and find this for $3.99 on a clearance rack you don't have to love it you just have to like it and so you end up just accumulating a lot more clothes and so you even notice probably in my youtube channel if you follow me a lot I did watch videos you'll see a lot of the same clothes and that's also culturally normal here in New Zealand like for people to wear the same clothes nobody's like oh girl did you just wear that yesterday nobody says that to you here everybody knows everybody is it kind of goes along the same lines of sustainability when we talk about plastic and being um you know environment friendly people like that you're wearing the same thing they like that you are being sustainable and that you know um buying all of these things it's just it's different the culture is different and the way that they look at it so that was really noticeable for me when I moved here and like I was taking my kids to school every day and I was noticing okay so people are wearing the exact same stuff for like multiple days and that was a new idea for me and I loved it because it takes like all that pressure off of like oh well I can't wear that or wear that yesterday and and like oh I gotta you know I gotta wear this to the gym and then this to this and it just gets to be like so here nobody cares in New Zealand everybody nobody cares like I haven't been to many functions that you really dress up um you generally look nice like I'm impressed with like when you go into the cbd's like professionals look really nice um so I'm not saying that people don't look nice they definitely look nice but there isn't this expectation that you own 50 different suits okay it would be totally appropriate to have you know two or three suit jackets and you just kind of switch them out and that's normal and it also kind of comes into play with schools because a lot of the schools have like formal school uniforms and so people are wearing the same thing every day and that's just kind of normal and normal in the culture and they're really nice so I my kids had school uniforms in the states which wouldn't I wouldn't say is the norm but it was just easy like a polo and you didn't buy it from the school it was just like khaki pants and a polo whereas here it's like a full uniform with wool you know things that need to be dry clean blazers ties even the girls tights you know and like and it's good and it just makes your life easier now it's quite a bit more expensive when you first buy it let me tell you those school uniforms are expensive especially if you have multiple children and I'm like oh gosh just give me the minimum but they do have cool options where you can buy them secondhand or you know uh mothers work together let's just say that and so and yeah so you have to buy a lot upfront but it just makes your life a lot easier the kids don't have to decide what to wear you don't have to be buying a lot of clothes you don't go shopping very much I very rarely go to them all I don't like shopping to begin with like I wasn't a big shopper in the states but I definitely went a lot more when I was in the states than I am here and so like even with shoes like you just need a really good pair of shoes and you just wear them every day and it's just really good and just makes life easier in my opinion so sometimes it gets annoying especially when it's very difficult to travel to the US right now to get some clothes at reasonable prices but it also makes you take a step back into check do I really need this I already have you know one of those or two of those do I really need another one and it's just it's good and you just get into that habit of not being materialistic about your clothes and nobody else is really around you and it's really nice as an American here in New Zealand it's really nice well I hope you enjoyed my video this week we talked a little bit about the things that I don't spend my money on now that I live in New Zealand so definitely comment below and let me know what things you don't spend your money on or what you notice when you move to a different culture or a different city and just so you guys know I am coming out with an American recipe e-book for all you New Zealanders out there and how to make American recipes with New Zealand ingredients so click the link below if you want to pre-order and let me know some recipes you'd like to be in there that would be great but definitely subscribe if you haven't subscribed to my channel subscribe hit the bell like the video if you like the video and I'll see you next week