‘I don’t use lights’: how five Australians are managing in the cost-of-living crisis

‘You will spend $200 on condiments before you even get to food.’ Alison Manners had to replace everything in her house after flooding. Photograph: Dan Peled/The Guardian

Prices are going up. Food, fuel, power, water, rent, mortgages – it has become a universally known fact that the cost of essentials have been rising across the board. No one is quite sure how long the cost of living crisis will last or how bad it will get but the Australian government has been warning Australians of tough times ahead.

Such is the extent of the current situation that British economist Adam Tooze recently suggested that “crisis” doesn’t quite describe what the world is facing and instead coined the term “polycrisis” – a moment when people are confronted with several simultaneous global threats – to describe the present moment.