Frances Cook

Hey team, it's Frances.

Well, the government's opened up their books for the year and told us what they will and won't be spending on.

And frankly, it's a lot of won't be spending on.

The vibe is very much, yep, it's tough out there and you're on your own, kid.

So where does that leave the rest of us?

And what can we actually do to maybe do a little bit better in what's frankly a pretty tough time out there?

I went on TVNZ Breakfast to talk about where this leaves the rest of us and what we can do to give ourselves a little bit of calmer waters to steer the ship through.

They very kindly said I could share that with you here.

So here you go.

Hope it helps.

I know.

We had the survive to 25.

We all repeated that ad nauseum.

Then we came up with a new little fix to 26.

I don't know if we've got one for seven yet.

I'll lock that in.

And I just feel like we've all been trudging through being told it's coming around the corner.

And I know they said there was going to be no lolly scramble in this latest budget, but they really were not kidding.

I feel like the latest budget has been a very clear sign of you're on your own kid and you're going to have to figure it out, which...

is a little bit doomy, but it's also when you hit that, it's a real warning to us all, pull our socks up and make sure we've got it sorted because it's all still raining out there.