The cost of living is honestly getting out of control. Rent has skyrocketed in the last year, price gouging is happening at an alarming rate, more and more young Aussies are seeking out multiple jobs to make ends meet, and to make matters completely unbearable, the price of chocolate is set to increase. So, to put it poetically, cozzie livs is fucking us in the ass like a shard of glass.
Despite traditionally being shat on by Boomers for our work ethic, young Aussies are pretty fkn savvy and have found ways to make their money go further in these difficult times. However, to be totally honest, some of these suggestions are kind of grim.
One Tiktoker, who goes by the username @aussiepsychstudent, has shared a bunch of things she’s given up to make living a lil’ bit easier – especially after she just finished a whopping year and a half in unpaid placement for her psychology degree.
“The first thing that I have given up is fresh fruit. So you won’t really catch me buying fresh fruit — unless it’s like the occasional banana,” she explained, noting that she buys frozen strawberries instead.
“I used to be such a fruit girly so it’s upsetting.”
Fresh fruit is one of those things that shouldn’t have to feel like a luxury. According to the ABC, public health researchers are becoming concerned about this exact issue. With the rising cost of living, experts believe that we could potentially see a resurgence in Victorian-era conditions like scurvy and rickets, as we’ve already seen happen in the UK.
In the same video, @aussiepsychstudent went on to list how she’s opting to stick to neutral colours and basic styles when she’s occasionally shopping for clothes, and stopped buying active wear.
In a follow-up TikTok, she said that she’s stopped drinking alcohol, now opts to share a large coffee with her partner rather than buying two and has stopped using shampoo. We’ve all been there, sis.
As you’d expect, @aussiepsychologystudent isn’t the only person sharing the thing they’re ditching.
Another TikTok user Allyssa Ablon responded to the video with a doozy of a list, including having to stop eating lunch and cut down on medications for her chronic illness.
“Three meals a day – what am I? A millionaire?” she said.
“Medicines that I have been prescribed for my chronic illnesses, my disabling health conditions. It is no longer possible for me to afford all of them so some of them had to get cut.”
Ablon also revealed that she’s cut out fortnightly therapy sessions due to the high cost. Again, that fucking sucks.
Researchers at Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation have been tracking the cost of food Australia-wide for the past five years, with the hope that the research might lead to “fairer opportunities for everyone to access, purchase and consume health diets –irrespective of their social or economic positioning.”
One of the researchers, Christina Zorbas, told the ABC that increases in the price of food items had increased across the board.
“It costs roughly a family of four $600 a fortnight to purchase a healthy diet, and that’s a about one third to a quarter of an income of someone on a low income in Australia,” she said.
“People are going hungry. It’s a serious situation out there.”
If you thought it couldn’t get gloomier, according to Finder’s cost of living report, young Australians are the ones affected most by the cost of living pressures, citing that 90 per cent of Gen Z have reported having reduced their spending compared to 59 per cent of baby boomers.
Ugh. That’s pretty grim.
