Annie Griffiths is counting the increasing cost at the checkout of each weekly shop as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) hikes interest rates for the 11th time to bring inflation under control.
The RBA today increased the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 3.85 per cent — a decision that will affect the budget of many Australian households.
The RBA uses interest rates to control inflation.
A rise in inflation usually means an impending rise in the price of goods and services, such as household mortgages and food items.
Announcing today's increase, RBA governor Philip Lowe said while inflation in Australia had passed its peak at 7 per cent, it was still too high.
"Given the importance of returning inflation to target within a reasonable timeframe, the board judged that a further increase in interest rates was warranted today," he said.
Food bills on the rise
Ms Griffiths, 65, knows the impact of increasing inflation well.
She lives in Echuca on the Victorian-New South Wales border with her son Ryan, 38, who lives with a disability.
As she and Ryan each went through heart failure and needed surgery in 2018 and 2019, eating healthily is vital.
"I've researched a lot of stuff about hearts and I support a heart-healthy sort of lifestyle," Ms Griffiths said.
"[It] is basically trying to eat more vegetables and less animal fat."
But for them, being careful about what they eat is becoming increasingly difficult amid rising inflation.
"To buy a decent-level lamb [is] something like $25 or $30. I don't want to buy sausages and stuff like that," Ms Griffiths said.
While cutting back on meat and buying organic produce helps with their health, it also comes with a higher price tag.
"I used to pay about $40 for fruit and veggies, I reckon," Ms Griffiths said.
"But I would say where I was once paying about $150 a week all-up for food, I reckon I'm probably close to $250, maybe $300, for a full shop."
Ms Griffiths recognised buying organic was often a lifestyle choice and has taken up cooking larger meals to cover several nights of dinners.
She also owns her own home and is, according to the Clean Energy Council, one of the 3 million Australians who have rooftop solar.
She said those factors helped minimise some cost-of-living pressures, but they were still significant.
Costs up across the board
Like Ms Griffiths, many Australians are starting to feel the rise in the overall cost of living.
The latest selected living costs index by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the cost of food and alcohol increased by 1 per cent, and mortgage payments increased by more than 26 per cent, in the three months between September and December last year.
Today's announcement will have Australians waiting to see how much more they will pay on goods and services, such as mortgage repayments and food.
Australians had been on the end of 10 consecutive rate rises between May last year and April this year, before the bank hit pause last month.
Bendigo Bank's chief economist, David Robertson, said the need to discourage spending and encourage saving would have been at the forefront of the RBA board's considerations today.
"The RBA will be considering its dual mandate," he said.
"And we saw on the recent RBA review that they have the simultaneous obligation to manage inflation and to try to protect jobs. And that is a difficult-to-edge sort of walk.
"They must make sure they're aggressive enough on interest rates to rein in inflation by discouraging spending and encouraging saving, but not so aggressively that they knock labour markets off their strong position.
"The RBA will be considering the demand for labour, job vacancy rate, retail spending, trends, wages and really how supply and demand imbalances are trending."
