Would you say you are a saver by nature?
Yes I am. I have a savings account and although I have moments of occasionally splurging, especially when I want a new dress, I do generally like to save. I'm currently saving for a house or a flat and I would also like to buy a property for my mother.
Do you move your money around for better rates of interest?
I know interest rates are not very good at the moment and every time I go to my bank they say I should move my money to a better account, but to be honest I only keep money in my savings account so that if I lose my debit card I won't have much stolen.
I transfer only enough to my current account to cover the expenditure I need to make. So it's better for me to have instant access to my savings when I want to take some money out than to have the best rates of return. I bank with Barclays and they also make it very easy for me to send money abroad, so I am quite pleased with them.
Do you think you will buy a home this year?
My mother is living in the United States, but thinking about moving over to the UK to be closer to me, and I need to wait to see where she wants to live first – that will affect my own purchase decision.
Until coming to the UK three years ago I never had the opportunity to save up and buy a property because I was supporting other members of my family. When I came here I began by renting a two-bedroom flat in Bayswater and I've been looking for a place to buy in the last few months, but there's nothing I have seen that is within my budget that I particularly like.
How did your childhood experience influence your attitude to money?
I grew up in Vladivostok in socialist Russia and of course there wasn't a lot of money. My mother and father were engineers, but it was always a struggle to make sure we had enough to last until their next pay cheque.
There was food in the shops but not much choice or variety, because in those days Russia wasn't trading with anyone else. We lived with my grandparents in a big flat and I never had very much to spend on pleasures. Everybody got equal pay no matter what job they were doing – it was all government controlled. We didn't have our own flat until my father had worked for the same company for 10 years. In those days you didn't buy a property, it was granted to you after a long enough period of work.
Your dancing career took you to the US in 2001, which must have been a shock …
Yes – I hadn't missed much as a kid, but as a teenager I always wanted to have a beautiful wardrobe and I knew we could never afford it. Now I'm very happy because I can afford the things I couldn't have had before, but I'm still very careful with money because I support four members of my family.
I send money to my mother and I send money to Russia for my aunt because she is a single mother with two teenage kids. Thankfully Russia is a nicer place to live now, but it's still very hard for my aunt and I feel so fortunate in having my wonderful job. I want to be able to support my family.
What is the most expensive dress you have bought?
After my first year on Strictly Come Dancing I rewarded myself by buying a Roberto Cavalli dress for £500.
I'm fortunate because now I'm always being given dresses by different designers to wear for free and I can give them back, so I don't need to buy very much.
How do you prefer to pay – by card, cash or cheque?
I prefer to use debit card because that's a good way to keep track of things. I don't like to use credit and that's the Russian mentality coming out in me – I think you should only spend money that you actually have and not borrow it. I had a couple of credit cards when I was living in the US because you have to when you are there, but I try to be very careful with them and in general I don't like to use them.
How do you invest?
I don't believe in gambling on the stock market. I might be wrong about that, but I have vowed never to take the risk because I can't afford to lose any of my hard-earned money.
Do you have an accountant?
Yes, I have an accountant in the UK and in the US because I still pay tax in both places. My mother is my dependant and because she lives in the US I still have to file a tax return there every year. I do invest a small amount in Isas every year because there is a tax advantage to that and my accountant looks after that for me, but I don't do much else with my money at the moment other than save it.
Have you started a pension?
Not yet, although my accountant has also been telling me to start thinking about doing that. It's just one of the things I'm going to have to come around to looking at in the near future.
What's been your best buy?
My computer, which I bought about six months ago. It always takes me a long while to build up to making a major purchase like that and I'd been saying for a year and a half that I had to get a new computer because my old one was really slow. I bought a Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 for around £450 and it's been great because I have been able to work so much faster.
And your worst buy?
A car I bought in the US just before landing my job on Strictly Come Dancing. I just wanted to have something beautiful for my 30th birthday so I bought a Nissan 350Z two-seat convertible for about $33,000 and I loved it. But then soon afterwards I found myself moving to the UK and I had to sell it. I could only get about $24,000 for it, so I lost a lot of money.
How easily do you tip?
That was an interesting thing in the US because there it is very much a culture of tipping and you look very bad if you don't leave a sizeable amount for the waiter because it's normal. In England it's a little different and although I have heard complaints I actually like the fact that a tip is added to the bill over here. I don't then have to sit after my meal and work the tip out, so it's helpful.
I'm certainly not a scrooge when it comes to giving tips, but I'm not the most generous either – I'm somewhere in the middle. I try to be fair.
What's been your favourite holiday?
This summer Joe and I went for a few weeks to his villa in Barbados. It was an amazing place and I really enjoyed it because I love being on holiday with him.
Kristina Rihanoff is an ambassador for make-up brand Glominerals, whose antioxidants and vitamins care for the skin even under heavy stage and television make-up. Call 020 7491 0150 or visit www.effortlessskin.com.
