The Ultimate 'Cost Of Living' Thread

[RockDr]

This is approx what we spent last year:

 

State: SA Location: Adelaide

Property type: 2 Beds townhouse

Household:Adults 2 Children 0

Rent: $1900 Mortgage: $

Electricity + Gas: $100 Pool: N Air Con: Y

Water: $0

Monthly Shopping/Food: $360 groceries plus about $150 for OH's lunches at work

Car: total including rego, insurance, servicing and fuel (not used for commute as we walk to work): $300 - though needed a couple of major part replacements last year, usually would be more in the order of $200.

Home Phone: $10

Mobile Phone: $38 total for 2 mobiles

Internet: $60

Eating out/alcohol: $300

Outdoor gear/electronics etc (the "toys" fund): $500

Travel: $1200

Health insurance: $250

Medical (GP, dentist, optical): $40

House insurance: $50

Misc (clothes, sports etc): $250

[Guest]

That seems to tally with the Salvo's report.

 

I don't think the 'safety net' here is as generous to people struggling with poverty. People complain about there being too many welfare scroungers in the UK but what you've seen in Melbourne is likely to be the downside of more draconian policies re welfare provision, especially when combined with a spiralling cost of living.

 

Expect things to get even worse with the introduction of the Carbon Tax.

 

I fear that you're right. It's not just in the UK and the U.S. where the small financial elite are pulling away from everybody else, it's happening in Australia too. What's more, it seems to be encouraged, at least tacitly, by the centre-right, neo-liberal governments which have been elected in all three countries. Sorry to bang on about housing, but Melbourne is crying out for an affordable social housing programme, but governments seem no longer interested in nation-building projects (i.e., ones that they commit public money to) of this kind. They're too busy worrying about whether their policies will appease the markets and voters in marginal seats. Australia is often referenced as a land of opportunity where 'the fair go' is available to all, but the clients I work with feel like they've been shut out of their own country.