investigation
Cost of living: WA families forced to sell possessions and forgo shopping staples to make ends meet

Holidays, eating out and even bare essentials are a thing of the past for an alarming number of middle-income workers as cost-of-living pressures boil over, with some even selling their possessions to make ends meet. Mortgage owners and renters in Perth metropolitan’s outer suburbs are where the pain is being most felt as 10 consecutive months of interest rate hikes begin to bite. Families are getting less and less in their shopping trolleys for what they used to spend on their weekly shop with a basket of basic goods having risen at twice the rate of inflation over the past year. Charities are also under the pump with demand for help doubling in the past 12 months. Despite the Reserve Bank pausing the cash rate at 3.6 per cent this week it is too late for people such as Emma Hobbs, who was forced back to work shortly after giving birth due to her family not being able to live on a single income. She said she wouldn’t have survived if she took a longer maternity leave as “just nappies and wipes cost around $70” a week. Mrs Hobbs isn’t the only one struggling, with service providers revealing calls for assistance from middle-class workers more than doubled in one year. In February, demand for Anglicare WA’s emergency food relief and assistance had a 76 per cent increase from the same month in 2022. The charity saw a 126 per cent increase in people with a mortgage phoning for help. “People just have no discretionary money any more and so what they have to do is cut the things out that will allow them to keep a roof over their heads,” Anglicare WA chief executive Mark Glasson said. The Sunday Times spoke to Perth outer-suburbs families who were having to budget harder than ever before to get by. Ashby mum Chloe Arias said she was losing quality time with her two-year-old daughter Rylee as she had to take on more shifts to get by. While Wanneroo mother Laureen Carpentier said she could no longer visit family overseas. “Both my husband and I are working but the home loans mean we can’t do anything especially activities and holidays,” she said. “If we want to go to France to visit family it’s so expensive, before we were going every year.” The cheapest return flights to Paris in June 2023 will set you back $1787, which is the cost before adding any extra baggage or choosing seats. In its quarterly airline competition report, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found discounted air fares were 25 per cent more expensive in February 2023 than the same month pre-pandemic. Ashby resident Stacey Hughes recently came off a fixed home loan after two years and is now paying an extra $900 a month in repayments. Wanneroo resident Joshua Tedesco, who has a six-week-old son, said his family could no longer go out to eat or pay for activities like the movies. Leoni Leaver’s family of five is even finding items to sell around their Mandurah home in an effort to make ends meet. “We used to go out for breakfast once a week for family Sundays which we don’t do any more,” she said. “Groceries have been a tough one, I’m trying to keep it under $300 a week. It’s impacting how healthy we can eat. “I definitely spend more time looking for the cheaper brands these days instead of better quality.” As price pressures bite, The Sunday Times compared 13 popular grocery items over the past 12 months. Staple items like Barilla penne rigate pasta 500g are $3.50, up 63 percent from $2.15 in April 2022, a 24-pack of Kraft Singles jumped over 26 per cent from $7.50 to $9.50, while Heinz baked beans 555g went from $3.20 to $3.50, up more than 9 per cent. A treat like Lindt Excellence dark chocolate 100g will now set you back $5.50 up from $2.25 in April 2022 — a hike of 144 per cent. Omo laundry liquid in 4 litre bottle was up more than 16 per cent from $36 to $42, and Yoplait vanilla yoghurt 1kg is over 18 per cent higher from $3.80 to $4.50. A three-pack of Viva paper towels, was 37.5 per cent dearer from $4 to $5.50, a four-pack of Red Bull cans was $12 up from $11.30, a rise of 6 per cent, Western Star spreadable butter 375g rose 50 cents to $5.50, while Kellogg’s Cornflakes 725g jumped 20 cents from $6.30 to $6.50. Colgate Total toothpaste 110g was one of only two products to fall in price, down from $6 to $4, and Tip Top hamburger rolls 12-pack were reduced by 10 cents to $7.50. Coca-Cola 2l was the only item to remain the same price at $3.65. The total cost for the basket of goods jumped from $98.75 to $113.15 - a rise of 14.5 per cent which is nearly twice the rate of inflation. Food inflation has not only been attributed to cost-of-living pressures but is also being driven by supply chain issues due to flooding, the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. There is hope, though, with the monthly consumer price index tipped to keep falling from its December peak of 8.4 per cent annual growth. But with grocery costs showing no sign of slowing down, FoodBank WA had almost 45 per cent more customers in March 2023 than March 2022. “The Perth branch without question has a lot more of the working poor coming in now,” FoodBank WA chief executive Kate O’Hara said. The WA branch is now seeing 900 people come in for cheap groceries on its busy days compared with about 500 this time last year. The not-for-profit also moved 456,000kg of products in February 2023 — a whopping 140,000kg more than February 2022. West Australians are also cutting back on driving with the RAC revealing 55 per cent of motorists drove their vehicles less in the past 12 months to save money. It comes after Unleaded 91 prices reached record levels in 2022 with some retailers charging as much as 239.9¢ a litre at the peak of the cycle. Even as prices have come down, one in six say they still struggle to fit fuel costs into their monthly expenses. The average price of diesel also skyrocketed by 60¢ last year to 202.8¢ per litre. This caused nearly 40 per cent of motorists with diesel vehicles to drive less often. “Outer-suburbs middle-income families are really feeling the interest rate hikes,” WACOSS chief executive Louise Giolitto said. “These people are working but are having to spend all their money on rent or increase in their mortgage repayments and they just don’t have enough funding to pay for bare essentials.”

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Cost of living: WA families forced to sell possessions and forgo shopping staples to make ends meet

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investigationCost of living: WA families forced to sell possessions and forgo shopping staples to make ends meet

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investigation
Cost of living: WA families forced to sell possessions and forgo shopping staples to make ends meet