Joining co-ops, quitting the gym and growing vegetables for the first time: Australians are finding new ways to save money and beat soaring inflation.
From electricity to petrol and food, the cost of living is rising steeply, and with the months ahead unlikely to offer a reprieve from increasing hip pocket pressure, Australians are looking at ways to ease pressure on their household budgets.
Felix lives in Canberra and is on the disability support pension. His autism, ADHD and chronic pain mean he is only able to work once a fortnight, so price increases have hit him hard. Each week he allocates $50-60 to groceries, and his shop has noticeably shrunk.
“I am probably getting about 85% of the groceries I was [six months ago], but spending the same amount,” he says.
He puts everything he spends into a spreadsheet so he can know exactly how much his electricity and food are costing him.
“I often make the same list in the Coles and Woolies website and then compare which one is cheaper and go there,” he says. “Also stuff like checking what is on half price on the website first, and getting those rather than going in and being distracted by stuff I do not need.”
Kate Walton lives in Canberra and has started going to the supermarket in the afternoons, when the specials are rolled out.
“You’ll often find me haunting the supermarket at 2.30pm, following the workers down around the store; they place 50% off meat and veggie back on the shelf,” Walton says.
Tess Campbell lives in Melbourne and works in the arts. She had already started to budget, but has taken it more seriously in the last six months as inflation bites.
“I quit the gym, I decided to ride my bike everywhere, and I also don’t want to pay for public transport,” she says.
“I watch my colleagues drink coffee at break time. I’m just not going to do it – it costs too much money long term.”
Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed inflation grew 5.1% in the 12 months to March, and this week’s updated figure is expected to exceed the Coalition’s forecast of a 4.25% increase to June.
To cope with the rising cost of living, 867,000 Australians now work two jobs, according to the latest ABS statistics – more than any other time before 1994, when the bureau started.
Kristin O’Connell, spokesperson for the Antipoverty Centre, says the situation is creating a poverty crisis for the 5 million Australians on welfare.
“We have been hearing so much about the genuine hardship facing minimum wage workers, but the government is ignoring a catastrophe that is facing people on welfare – despite the prime minister saying that he understands poverty,” she says.
“It’s more than a cost of living crisis. It’s a poverty crisis. And those of us on welfare are the ones paying the highest price.”
Aeryn Brown is on jobseeker. She also tracks every expense on a spreadsheet.
Comparing Brown’s receipts from the same shops six months ago show almost everything has gone up in price – home brand cheese slices from $6.50 to $7.00, a loaf of Wonder White from $3.40 to $3.70, a jar of Masterfoods marinade from $2.50 to $3.00.
“I had to increase my fortnightly grocery budget by $50 in March, to $250, because prices had gone up so much that I kept overspending,” she says.
Financial Counselling Australia’s Fiona Guthrie says the organisation is seeing an increase in people struggling to pay rent and increasing debt as cost of living pressures soar.
She says there are three main things people can do to make sure they are saving money.
The first one is shopping around for the best deals – on your home loan, electricity account and insurance.
The second thing is to look for savings and find ways and cut your expenditure. This can be “low-hanging fruit” like cutting out subscriptions you do not need.
“And then the third thing is, make sure you are getting all the concessions which you are entitled to,” she says. “There are terrific state websites that allow you to put in your details and they’ll tell you what you can get such as rebates and pensioner discounts.”
Joel Feren of the Dietitians Association of Australia, who is also known as The Nutrition Guy, says choosing frozen or canned vegetables is a great way to get the nutrients you need for a bit cheaper.
“Any difference in the quality will be minimal and it won’t impact health,” he says. “The worst thing you can do is just not eat them.”
He says shoppers should look at legumes because “they are dirt, dirt cheap and such a valuable source of nutrition”, look for specials on vegetables that may not be cosmetically perfect, and make sure the ones they do get last.
“I think sometimes people will often throw out veggies when they look tired [but you can] toss them [in a] stir-fry, put them in a frittata, pop them in the slow cooker.
There’s still a space for them on the kitchen table.”
Other shoppers have said they are avoiding meat, going to cheaper supermarkets or even growing their own vegetables for the first time.
Executive director at Sustain: the Australian Food Network, Nick Rose, says growing food at home, especially things like herbs, could save hundreds of dollars each year.
“Parsley sells at about $200 per kilo in the supermarket. You can grow several kilos at home over a year from a packet of parsley seeds for a fraction of that price, and it’s fairly low maintenance.”
He says they are seeing people wanting to farm their own vegetables, but not knowing how – which is where community gardens come in.
“You don’t have to go it alone. By joining a community garden, you can learn to grow fresh food if you’ve never done it before, and it is a good way to stay connected, especially in hard times.”
Laurie Green is the founder of Crop Swap Australia – local groups around the country where Australians swap fresh produce and seeds. They now have more than 35 groups, and Green says interest has increased as cost of living has risen.
“There has been quite a bit of interest in the initiative lately, spurring a flurry of new group requests,” she says.
“Last week, a Crop Swap Adelaide group was established, and in that time it has already gained over 300 members. Overall the initiative has an audience of approximately 60,000 swappers.”
