Shall we have a local Cost of Living moan?

[Dustyblue]

Having read some of the UK threads, I'm wondering how different it is or isn't here.

Our big increases are the usual I guess:

Food- I did a $200 Woollies shop yesterday, more a fill-the-pantry and freezer shop than fresh stuff. I unpacked it and thought "Is that it? That's all I have?"

Car Insurance- cost went up 20% and car was devalued by several thousand. Surely this will hit critical mass at some point and the insurance will be worth more than the car?

Council rates: Up 30%.

There's more.... what are yours?

Electricity! $500 for this quarter - same usage as last quarter which cost us $270!

Ooh I forgot about electricity. It's late or I'd go get the bills out for comparison!

Don't start me on Bulk Billing doctors who no longer Bulk Bill to Medicare. Or they do but have to charge something on top.

Well, the latest is Amazon Prime going up by $10 a year but that still presents really good value for me.

Butter has gone from $2.80 in 2020 to $3.70 now.
A can of tomatoes has gone up by 20 cents.
I used to buy lobster tails when they were on special offer at Coles - $7 in 2020. We haven’t had lobster for a while now!

I duck in to Coles most days and get a bag of shopping for $50-60. One bag!

My GP has stopped bulk billing too. They stopped it for most people years ago but were still bulk billing me (single parent) and kids. Even the shitty medical centres don't bulk bill.

Petrol annoys me. $100+ for a tank, $90 if I go out of my area.

Omg the cost of groceries!!!

I actually bought the Woolworths rewards extras for $59 for a year, and it gives 10% off your shop up to $500 once a month, and I use that shop to buy all my staples for the month. Also gives one 10% off at Big W every month. I paid for it in one month with the savings. Plus it also gives 3 x points for every shop so I have built up a decent amount in my Christmas pot - $190 so far.

Thank goodness for our solar panels, otherwise our electricity bill would be unimaginable.

I'm so glad I'm working from home. I save so much in petrol and parking costs.

My latest Coles order - 15 items for $95.

Grocery prices are just ridiculous! Every time I go shopping something has increased. There is only me and three cats - but OMG, the cost of cat food!!!! It used to often be on special, but the specials now are more than what it used to be full price! NZ by the way. My electricity hasn't gone up yet, but I'm bracing myself for when my fixed rate ends, although I don't think we have anything like the increases I keep reading about in the UK.

Electricity is going up around 20% from July as well.

Our Aldi bill has increased by about 27% in the past two years. We can’t afford to shop in Coles or Woolies anymore.

Has anyone noticed how much the large pack of coke cans have gone up??!! We don’t buy it but FIL does and it’s just gone crazy. $45 for a 30 can pack, it never used to be that high.

We’ve got the oldest two children (27 & 25) still at home as we can’t afford to run a house without them. Two years ago you could rent a 4bed house with pool for the cost of a 2bed duplex now.

I need medical treatment I can’t afford, we’ve got massive bills for NDIS reports that we can’t afford to pay for so we can get the current treatments for my wife funded by the NDIS. We’re currently paying ourselves but can’t afford to keep that going.

I buy a lot of branded things on subscription from Amazon Prime (which is going up $3 a month next month! Was $6.99, will be $9.99) as that saves a lot. Everything else is Aldi or BigW.

We also use EveryPlate for our meals - we eat well, with a good variety for $125 per week (6 meals for 4 adults).

We couldn’t eat that well at Aldi and it’s cheaper than Coles/Woolies. It’s also saves money as we just get a few bits at the small local Aldi and don’t have to go into town. I’m a terrible impulse shopper lol

Because I do my shop once a week I'm finding Aldi food doesn't last and so ends up costing me more so I switched to Woolies. Got fed up with opening meat packets that stank or vegetables that are limp and fruit that goes off after 2 days.

But I do go there to buy some staples, I do a bulk long life lactose free milk purchase and some of their cereals are cheaper. But otherwise I'm finding that I'm not spending much more at Woolies, especially when taking into account the rewards cash balance.

And honestly, avoiding the Aldi aisle of doom had made a huge difference to my spending!!!

I changed my phone plan recently, gave up Optus and went through Commonwealth Bank and got 30% off a More plan (which uses the Optus network anyway). Massive reduction in costs but still have a decent GB allowance. Did it for myself and my 2 DSs, it's saved me a massive amount per month.

@OrderOfTheKookaburra Agree on the solar panels, at least in summer. But still, the rates keep going up whilst the feed-in tariff goes down, sigh.

@MaitlandGirl I'm sorry to hear about your NDIS situation. My DS is on it, just had his 1st annual funding review. What do you mean by bills for reports? Sorry if I'm being nosey!

I hadn't been to our local Aldi for a while, might have to give it try again. $10 for a block of average cheese is doing my head and wallet in.

Recent holiday in NZ and a tray of 20 eggs was $20. The horror. Was glad to come back to Oz and the tray of 30 eggs for $13ish.

@Dustyblue we’re trying to get a claim in and the reports from the specialists (to back up the claim) range from $250 from the psych to $3100 from the Occupational Therapist. It’s killing us and the appointments are all about $190 an hour so that’s over $1000 a week in medical appointments

I've bought some chickens and have a constant supply of eggs now. After the initial outlay for the coop etc they've proven to be quite cost effective to keep. And my compost is fantastic for my other plants now!

$1 per egg?? Good grief!

Ouch, these things aren't freaking cheap are they?

The way my plan works, is that I have to pay each specialist (OT, Speech & Play atm) at the visit, then immediate shove the receipt through the NDIS portal. They pay within 1 business day, so I roll that over to the next week, if that makes sense.

Have you had specialists billing you without payment, and now there's a debt you can't claim from NDIS b/c you have to pay the specialists 1st? Sorry if I've read that completely wrong.

We should probably have a separate NDIS thread, this could get complicated!

Coles $73 for a pack of 64 dishwashing tablets 😫😫😫😫😫😫

We use Somat dishwashing liquid - it’s much cheaper than tablets and the best I’ve found so far.

I've heard good reports about the Woolworths brand dishwashing powder so have bought some to give it a go. Will report back! It was so much cheaper than the tablets.

😱

It's the council rates and mortgage that's killing me at the moment, payments for my mortgage alone have gone from $2400 a month to $3600 and another rate rise today

Dishwasher tablets - I refuse to pay more than 15cents a tablet/a load. Coles own brand (Ultra) or Aldi (Logix) fit the bill.

I have periodically used a grocery price book. I’ve found that I’m relying on it more and more now as prices keep going up.

Another 0.25% interest rise :(

I can’t believe they have just raised interest rates again, I try not to think about how much our mortgage has jumped already. There never seems to be a cheaper day for petrol any more either, and as someone else has said insurance has jumped so much too, DD was driving a (very) old family car but we have got rid of it and she now shares mine. I have regular specialist medical appointments too and everyone seems to have raised their fees and my GP has stopped bulk billing. I know how lucky we are but the price creep seems to be becoming a tsunami!