Cooking the Books podcast: One money tip from ... Prime Minister Bill English

Prime Minister Bill English talked to us about the lessons he's learned managing the Government books. Photo / Doug Sherring.

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. For the next three weeks we've gone political, asking the leader of each political party currently in Parliament for their best money tip for the average person.

Today, it's Prime Minister and National Party leader Bill English. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Politicians are always banging on about the economy. Who has the better understanding of it, how they're the person to get our economy running hotter, why the other guy's ideas are stupid.

Which is all well and good, but what about on the day to day level?

Do our politicians remember what it's like to be the little guy like you or me, and are they keeping an eye on the issues affecting our lives? How hard it is to make ends meet? Maybe even a few suggestions on what we can do for life to be a bit easier?

Money issues touch every part of our lives, and I want to know what the people in charge think about it.

So I had a chat to the Prime Minister and National Party leader Bill English about the lessons he learned running a Government budget that he applied to his own life.

He talked about the value of keeping it simple, not fooling yourself by putting off expensive problems for the future, and how he learned the hard way not to spend more than he earns.

For the interview, listen to the podcast.

Still to come: United Future leader Peter Dunne, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, and Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters declined an invitation to take part.

Already out: Green Party co-leader James Shaw, ACT leader David Seymour.

Have a question about this podcast, or a suggestion for next time? Come and talk to me online. You can find me on Facebook here, and Twitter here. Don't forget, you can subscribe to this podcast here and on the Apple podcasts app.