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 costing you more than $7,500 each year.

For the latest Cooking the Books I talked to John Bolton from Squirrel.

We discussed why a car has such a big impact on your finances, what you can do to reduce it, and what a bank looks at when they look at your ability to save for a mortgage.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook

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