A year ago, Vinu Shankar Ganesun and his young family were feeling the bite as prices for everything from petrol to vegetables were spiking — leaving them wondering if they should just go back to India.
They were among hundreds of Australians who responded to an ABC callout asking readers to share their stories of how they were coping with rising interest rates and increasing prices for everyday goods and services.
Some felt like they had already trimmed their budgets as much as they could, but since then the Reserve Bank has increased the cash rate nine times and the consumer price index has increased by about 7 per cent.
At the time, Vinu, his wife Akila and two young children were dealing with many of the same costs as most Australians.
Their weekly grocery shop was costing more and more, and Akila was spending $200 a week driving from their home in Wyndham Vale, on Melbourne's western fringe, to Waurn Ponds for work.
Meanwhile, the family was also facing some costs specific to new immigrants — such as sending money back to India to support their relatives, and paying for their parents to come visit.
Vinu said that all came after his and Akila's careers took a hit when they came to Australia due to employers not properly valuing qualifications earned in India.
"It's like a double whammy for us," Vinu said.
"So yes, cost of living affects everybody, and interest rates affect everybody, but it affects new immigrants more. Much more.
"We were lucky that both of us were working, and so we were able to pull through."
Nearly 12 months later, the Ganesuns have found more ways to cut costs but have also had financial setbacks. Overall, Vinu feels like the family is still treading water.
Akila found a new job close to home, so they don't have to spend as much on fuel.
But Vinu's father died suddenly, so the family is now applying for a permanent residency visa for his mother and expect the process will cost many thousands of dollars.
"So we, I would say, have come through the storm to a large extent," Vinu said.
"We are OK at the moment, but I'm a day-rate worker so if I don't have work, that changes everything."
Meanwhile, like many other recent home buyers, their mortgage's interest rate freeze period will end in the next couple of months.
Vinu said he felt like they had already trimmed the family's budget as much as they could.
"There's not much I can adjust," he said.
He added that the family had not ruled out moving back to India.
"If my mother is forced out of the country, we have no choice," he said.
"You can't leave a 70-year-old mum in another country all alone by herself, can you?"
'All I could do was cry'
On the other side of Melbourne, Beth is also concerned about the impending end of her mortgage's fixed-interest period.
The 60-year-old earns about $60,000 a year as a support worker in the education sector and owns her own home, but she is also the sole carer for her adult daughter who has disabilities.
She asked to use a pseudonym, saying she would be "mortified" if any of her colleagues at work found out about her situation.
Last year, she said she had already cut out what she called her one "luxury" in life — a coffee, a muffin and a Pepsi for her daughter on a Saturday morning.
Among other cost-saving measures, she's now virtually stopped buying meat, is catching public transport to work, and uses her car only when absolutely necessary.
She's also changed power providers multiple times to try to cut a few dollars from her utilities bills.
"I tried growing some of my own vegetables, but that was an epic fail," she said.
"We don't buy anything sweet. We don't eat out. We don't go anywhere, we don't do anything.
"My mortgage is fixed until next March, and then it will be whatever it is. Will I be able to afford the payments? What else can I cut?
"We're both on medication. [My daughter] has to have hers, but maybe I'll just have to do without mine."
Beth said she went to Centrelink to see if she could get a healthcare card for herself, but was told she earned too much.
"I thought, 'You've got to be kidding me,' and he called me 'working poor'," she said.
"I went out of there and all I could do was cry."
When the ABC first spoke to Beth, she said she was afraid of becoming "one of those women" — the growing number of older women who are finding themselves homeless.
It's a fear that's only increased over the past 12 months.
"I lie in bed and it's going around and around and around in your brain," she said.
"I have to get up at five to get going and go to work, and I'm exhausted.
"Is this what it's going to be like until I'm dead?"
'Just coasting along quite OK right now'
Not everybody who the ABC caught up with said they felt like they were struggling.
Some had managed to get pay rises or changed to better-paying jobs. Others were managing to make do with what they had.
Christine Kelly, a Wiradjuri widow and pensioner from Valla Beach, near Coffs Harbour in northern NSW, said that without any dependents, she felt like her life was "just coasting along quite OK right now".
Her rent — paid to the local Aboriginal land council — has not increased and she does some casual work on occasion.
"I've actually saved up and I'm going to Bali … for a holiday," Christine said.
"But I've cut back on things, I have to admit. Even just to go and get a little bag of groceries today was $42. And you think, 'Oh, how do families cope?'"
She said she had been watching what she spent on food, and didn't go out for entertainment.
She has also given up her pokies habit, which had been costing her about $50 a week, having decided there are things she would rather spend her money on.
"I don't feel like my life now has gotten any worse," she said.
"And I mean, getting a little increase in the pension really helped.
"Everything is direct debited, and so it comes out before I get my money. I don't have to worry about paying bills. Everything's already paid.
"Whatever's left in there on the Friday, you think, 'Well, that's what I've got.'"
Thanks to her discipline, Christine has been able to save about $150 a week towards her three-week Bali trip with a friend and even has enough for treats occasionally.
"I just had a cream and jam doughnut actually," she said.
"I can still go out for dinner or lunch or whatever, and I know you're probably going to laugh [but] I go to bingo on a Friday. That's my treat."
'We do a lot of walking because it's free'
In Western Sydney, Lauren and her husband's finances are much more complicated.
With a toddler, two dogs, two cats and a lizard to look after (the animals are all rescues), they are continuing to struggle even though Lauren earns more than $100,000 a year working in the finance industry while her husband works part-time in hospitality.
Lauren, who did not want to be identified because she feared it could affect her work, last year said their income was largely spent on rent, child care and debt repayment, and any price increases meant something had to be cut.
She said their situation hadn't improved since then.
In the past, the family had relied to some extent on her husband's tips but they had dried up as the economy tightened.
"There's absolutely no spontaneous money left over," she said.
"What we end up doing for entertainment is we do a lot of park days, we do a lot of walking because it's free."
Lauren said the rising price of food had been particularly painful, and while the family did not have a mortgage, interest rate increases had pushed up the payments on their nearly $50,000 worth of personal loans.
In February, they had to take out a short-term loan for car registration at 47 per cent interest, she said.
"Literally my eyes bugged out when I saw that," she said.
"I asked my husband, 'Are you sure?' And he said, 'Well, that's literally the only provider that's going to give us anything to pay rego.'"
She said she had saved hundreds off the family's weekly grocery bill by switching to a cheaper supermarket chain and they now saved up over weeks for one-off expenses such as a gift for a friend's baby shower or a night out.
Her toddler wears hand-me-downs from her sister's son, and Lauren and her husband don't buy new clothes for themselves.
"I'm basically living in outdated maternity clothes and outdated clothes from before my son was born," she said.
Lauren said she was counting on her and her husband's tax returns and a bonus from work to pay much of their outstanding expenses.
"But then the problem is we're hoping that will leave us enough to set us up for the next part of the year," she said.
"If it doesn't, and it just kind of pays out everything, we just continue limping along until the following year's tax return."
The family's money troubles had taken an emotional toll, she said.
"Luckily, our marriage is very, very strong," she said.
"There's been a lot of arguments about finances and about who can kind of put in the extra time and the extra work."
Lauren said her husband refused to let her do any more, and had recently started driving for Uber.
"Because we've literally gotten to the point now where we're at breaking point," she said.
"We're kind of seeing how [Uber] pans out over the next six to eight weeks, but that's really all we can do.
"If that doesn't work, our next step is basically moving in with a set of parents."
She said their main long-term hope was for her to negotiate a pay rise — a tough ask in the current economic climate.
"I'm hoping I can manage to swing one though due to good performance," she said.
"We might be able to get our feet under us and get our head above water."
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