Each week the NZ Herald's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to build a budget that improves your life instead of restricting it. Hosted by Frances Cook.

For this year's Money Week Sorted has pulled together research to see how we’re all doing after the impacts of Covid-19.

As you might expect, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Let’s start with the bad news.

Increased numbers of us are facing financial difficulties, with 31 per cent of New Zealanders needing to dip into their savings to pay for the basics, and 24 per cent missing at least one bill payment.

However, facing increased financial head winds seems to have created a desire to do better with our money. So here comes the good news.

More New Zealanders now have a savings account big enough to pay for one month of expenses, and are trying to save more each month.

Fewer of us are embarrassed about our money situation, and more of us are willing to talk about it, which is excellent. No matter what’s happening in your wallet, shame never helps anyone.

So, if all of this is you, or someone you know, you might now be wondering if there’s a way you can make these changes in an easier way.

There’s more than one way to make a budget, and finding the easiest way for you might be the key to helping you stick to all of these wonderful new money habits, without sacrificing too much of your lifestyle.

For the latest Cooking the Books I talked to Donna Robinson from Sorted.

We discussed how you can start thinking about a budget, the nuts and bolts of how to do it, and how to adjust it for big life goals, as well as some fun.

If you have a question you'd like answered in a future podcast, 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