Cooking The Books

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's why more New Zealanders are picking family time over presents. Hosted by Frances Cook.It's the most wonderful time of the year, or maybe the most stressful. Christmas is traditionally a time of big spending, but new research shows New Zealanders are getting sick of that. The Commission for Financial Capability has released research that shows what most of us really look forward to at this time of year. For 62 per cent of us, it's time with family. That's closely followed by enjoying the summer weather at 37 per cent, and time off work at 33 per cent. What we're enjoying least is the commercialism of the season, which annoys 36 per cent of us. It's closely followed by 35 per cent of us saying it's too expensive, and 34 per cent dreading the shopping. The worst part is that all of this stress may be for nothing, as one in four of us got at least one unwanted gift last year. For those of us who did,