Christmas this year will be a trimmed-down affair for Ginelle Patterson's family.
The rising cost of living means she's planning further ahead than ever before to make sure there'll be presents under the tree for her kids after the bills have been paid.
Families across the country are reckoning with higher prices and bigger bills, with the state election just five weeks away.
"It means we have to really be a bit mindful of where we're spending, how we're spending and making sure that we prioritise that spending," Ms Patterson said.
"The extra $100 a week at the supermarket for the same food that we're buying, that's just money I feel like is down the drain."
A trip to the supermarket costs 9 per cent more now than it did a year ago, led by a massive 17 per cent hike in the cost of fruit and vegetables, according to figures from the ABS.
For many the pressure of making ends meet will be front and centre when they cast their vote next month.
Price increases have touched everything from clothing, up 4.3 per cent, to education which now costs 4.6 per cent more compared to last year.
The cost of petrol increased 15 per cent in the past year.
It is once again pushing closer to the $2 per litre mark, after the federal government's temporary fuel excise ended last month.
Victorians in starkly different place to 2018 state election
Ms Patterson is on maternity leave while her husband Josh works long hours building a family business.
"That's coincided with all these price increases," she said.
The Seaford family's mortgage repayments have gone up $500 per month.
"That's extra interest that we're having to pay, but we're not paying down our loan faster," she said.
Since the last election, the cost of buying a house in Melbourne has gone up nearly $80,000, data by Core Logic showed.
Those who don't own a home are also facing steep hikes, with the median weekly cost of a rental up $45.
It means Victoria is a very different place than it was in the lead-up to the 2018 state election.
A recent survey by the Victorian Council of Social Service found 65 per cent of Melburnians were worried about having enough money to cover their bills.
In rural Victoria, 77 per cent of those surveyed were stressed about the cost of living.
Busiest year on record for Foodbank as demand grows
As cost-of-living pressures bite, aid agencies have reported more people, from all walks of life, have needed to ask for help.
Food relief charities have never been so busy. One of them, Foodbank, is now feeding 100,000 people in Victoria every two days.
"We're operating much like the health system. We're the emergency department for people's tables," said CEO David McNamara.
"In our 90 years plus history this is the busiest Foodbank has ever been."
The organisation now sees people who have never been to charities before, including working parents who despite working more than one job, can't make ends meet.
Australia's food system has been found to be vulnerable to fires, floods, a pandemic and inflation.
The traditional model of relying on donated food is not working.
"We're going to see more volatile food prices and we're going to see more impacts on our food supply," said Rachel Carey, a food systems expert at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Carey is part of the Victorian Food Security and Food Systems Working Group, which was set up by the health promotion foundation VicHealth.
Among its key recommendations is to protect agricultural land, especially the farms close to Melbourne.
The working group has recommended a state-wide food plan and wants the Victorian government to appoint a minister for food security.
"I think it starts with the fundamentals of somebody who is accountable in government — a minister for food — and a plan that will need to look at the entire food chain, how to ensure it is more resilient," she said.
Housing estates swallowing Melbourne's food bowl
At Werribee, just 30 kilometres from the CBD, Catherine Velisha's family has been growing vegetables for three generations.
The area produces 85 per cent of Victoria's cauliflower, 54 per cent of its broccoli and 34 per cent of its iceberg lettuce.
But as housing estates sprawl around them, land prices have so soared so high that no one could now afford to buy into the area to farm.
"I don't think any bank would give anyone any money to come and buy into Werribee South with a farming business plan," Ms Velisha said.
"Obviously if it's just farmland then it's not $250,000 an acre.
"People are betting on the fact that this will not be farmland at some point in time."
Nick Rose from Sustain: The Australian Food Network, who is also part of the Food Security and Food Systems Working Group, said a food security plan would require the permanent protection of Melbourne's green wedge.
"We need long-term permanent protection for those sites, so they are taken out of the real estate market permanently," he said.
"This has been done in comparable places overseas, particularly in Canada, with the green belt around Toronto which preserves over two million acres for sustainable farming and biodiversity."
But it is not just agricultural land being targeted.
Sustain wants government support and funding to turn vacant urban land into farmland.
In a derelict house owned by the Anglican church in Preston in Melbourne's inner north, volunteers have created an urban garden that contributes to fresh food hampers supplied by food relief agency DIVRS to over a hundred people each week.
"We think there must be hundreds of sites like this all around the city, so with some good will, some support from the land owners, some support from the government, some funding and some vision, any space could be turned into this," said Mr Rose.
"[Food] prices are not going down, they are going up which is why we need to be thinking much more seriously about this and we need leadership from the state government."
