‘Hideous’ grocery bills feed bad food habits
Hopes for much-needed relief as federal budget looms
Townsville taxpayers are having to live on tuna and sardines and go without fruit and vegetables amid a cost of living crisis where one shopper has described grocery prices as “hideous”.
The federal budget on May 9 will have some cost of living relief, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said.
Inflation peaked about Christmas, “but it’s still higher than we’ve liked for longer than we’d like and the forecasts in the budget will reflect that as well,” the Treasurer said.
The inflationary pressures are still being felt at check-outs in North Queensland.
Olivia Allen, a 23-year-old veterinary science university student in Townsville, said she and her sister mainly ate tuna and sardines.
“It definitely is a bit tight, but you can’t complain, working towards something (a degree) that will hopefully be pretty beneficial in the long run.”
Their pantry was fully – or sparsely – stocked with tinned fish even though Ms Allen’s fiancee owned the house and received army-related subsidies.
The sisters both studied veterinary science full-time and could only fit one or two shifts a week around study.
Townsville couple Tracey Chester and Gavin Crews described grocery prices as “hideous”.
“If you’re paying $100 for two bags of groceries it’s unprecedented. We’ve never had to pay this sort of money for that sort of thing before,” Mr Crews said.
“And it doesn’t matter what we get, just the essentials.”
The couple was planning to take their caravan up north in the coming days and were worried about petrol prices, but said if they did not have a caravan they could not afford to take a trip out of town.
Last week a dozen federal Labor MPS signed an open letter calling for a substantial increase to Jobseeker payments.
At the moment the benefit is about $50 a day.
The Prime Minister said the government was looking at the issue of people’s payments, but were not in a position “to do everything within our first year”.
Hermit Park couple Tim, 35, and Cheyenne, 25, have to shop smart and keep any extras off the shopping list, their biggest budget pressures being groceries and fuel.
“We’ll either try and do a big shop and live off that for two weeks, or we’ll do sporadic little shops,” Tim said.
“We’ve only for the first time in a long time bought vegetables today. We don’t usually buy fruit or vegetables because they’re way too expensive.
“Whatever’s cheap and whatever we can make last for two weeks. Red meat is a luxury, cheese is a luxury.”
Ice cream, soft drink and more than one streaming service are unattainable indulgences, and they will occasionally buy a few beers.
Tim is on Jobseeker for health reasons and Cheyenne is on a single parent benefit.
“I’m glad there’s a dad in the picture. We go halves in stuff otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford to have a child,” she said.
Tim too pays child support, for his kids who are interstate.
Some people who spoke to the Bulletin were in more fortuitous financial positions, but they had still reined in spending of late.
Nick Marendy, a 27-year-old apprentice electrician, is in a “lucky situation” to be renting a granny flat from a family member.
“I think just everything is going up really.”
Dave Devalter, 29 of Annandale, is paying off a mortgage with an offset variable portion.
His car registration went up from $700 to $950 a year.
Twice weekly $100 grocery shops had increased to about $300 per week, he said.
“We’ve probably been a bit smarter with how we spend stuff. We do have a bit of a think about it these days.”