The money-saving Kiwi Facebook page that got too big is back
A popular community-based money saving Facebook page shut down after it grew too big for its founder to manage is back online after a Governmentfunded charity stepped in.
Cheaper Living (NZ only!) had 110,000 members when founder, Christchurch mum-of-two Hannah Noble, archived it in the middle of last year.
Last week the page went back online and members are again posting several times a day asking for or offering advice about how to budget, get the best deals and cut debt.
The page is now being run by Noble, as a short-term consultant, and Ministry of Social Development supported charity Fin Cap, under its banner of free financial helpline MoneyTalks. FinCap supports budgeting and financial capability services around New Zealand.
Noble said she had received several offers over the years from people wanting to take over the page, but their interest always came with baggage — they had their own business they wanted to promote — that didn’t fit with how she wanted the page to be. It is fiercely advertising-free.
“I always thought, ‘This is selling it out, as opposed to selling it’.
“It was in the back of my head when I archived it that, if an organisation approaches me who wants to run it, who’s not going to sell it out and actually have resources that are going to be perfect for Cheaper Living then . . . I’ll probably say yes. If it’s not going to be perfect, I would rather it be shut down.”
FinCap didn’t pay to take over the page, but had paid Noble for blog post content and training and consultancy work as they took over.
A sister page, the 20,000-member Frugal Kitchen, is also part of the deal, but Noble will continue to run three other sister pages — Organised Chaos, Frugal Renovation and DIY, and Keto NZ, which have a combined membership of about 50,000.
The 32-year-old, who is a qualified professional coach and early childhood teacher, started Cheaper Living with the support of a few friends and about 20 members in 2012.
“We were living in a caravan at that time and I didn’t want to live in a caravan with a baby any more.”
Through online cloth nappy groups Noble soon realised there was a community of people who wanted to talk about saving money.
“The intention was never to be a big group. It was just to start a group where we could chat and be a bit real about what we were trying to save money on and what debt we were trying to get rid of. To have some accountability really.”
The page really took off in late
2016, when membership grew from
5000 in July to 30,000 by December, Noble said. A year later numbers had swelled to 100,000.
There was a strong focus on making the group welcoming, and useful to everyone.
“It was really about motivating, challenging and encouraging each other, rather than being down on each other, like, ‘Oh my goodness, you’ve got that much debt’, or, ‘How the heck did you save $10,000 in three months, that’s just ridiculous’.”
She believed that was why the group resonated.
“One of the things people said was that it was a safe group, where they weren’t going to be criticised for being able to go to Fiji, or because they only had $50 to feed their family that week.”
The wide range of circumstances proved its value — the struggling and the not struggling learned from each other.
Noble said the group had helped her and her husband “save ridiculously” and get out of the caravan and into their own home.
FinCap chief executive Tim Barnett said MoneyTalks and Cheaper Living were a natural fit, as both encouraged Kiwis to talk about money and seek support. Both also embraced the digital age — MoneyTalks was a multi-mode helpline with calling, email, text and webchat, and Cheaper Living was an “organic social media phenomena”, Barnett said. “A collaboration between a helpline and social media group is unique.
“It’s not something that national NGOs usually do. FinCap is out to do things different in the financial capability sector. We need to go where people are, and most people look for support these days online before they go to an on-the-ground service.”