ABS report finds revealed: Are you spending too much due to the cost of living pressures?
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Tightening our belts due to growing budget pressures is a common trend nowadays.
Life, occasionally stingy with aligning with our expectations, surprises us with the rising cost of living.
According to new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australian households have felt the pinch, especially over the past year.
Across households, spending has been given a nudge upwards by 3.3 per cent in May compared to the previous year.
Simultaneously, Aussies are tightening their grip on their wallets when it comes to non-essential items.
You might think, 'What do they mean by non-essential items?'
In financial lingo, non-essential items are commonly referred to as 'discretionary spending'.
So when you've got an eye on that new cutting-edge kitchen gadget or the comfortable armchair, those would come under discretionary spending.
The ABS report indicates that spending on such items, like furnishings and clothes, has slightly declined.
ABS Head of Business Indicators, Robert Ewing, explained, 'Driving the fall in discretionary spending over the year was 4.8 per cent less spending on furnishings and household equipment, and 3.4 per cent less on clothing and footwear.’
In response to the ever-growing cost of living pressure, Australians appear to have grown savvier with their hard-earned money but haven’t ceased treating themselves completely.
For example, services such as our favourite cafes, hotels, and restaurants have seen a spike in spending of up to 7.8 per cent.
Transport spending also increased by 7.7 per cent.
But unlike spending on services, goods purchasing took a slight tumble, rolling downhill by 0.9 per cent.
Nevertheless, nothing seems to have stopped Aussies from forking out on their most essential item—food, with a whopping increase of 5.8 per cent.
This could be due to the cost of food nudging up by 7.9 per cent, as May’s CPI report revealed.
Across states, Western Australia scored the largest increase in spending (4.7 per cent), while the Northern Territory marked a more modest rise in year-to-year spending—up 0.8 per cent, a slide from the 1.6 per cent marked in their April report.
Adhering to a cost-effective lifestyle is not always an easy task. It can feel even trickier when factors outside of our control, like the cost of living, begin to stretch their wings.
Yet, we believe that with a bit of knowledge and creative problem-solving, we can all weather this challenging economic climate.
Old habits can be hard to break, but new, money-saving ones can be created.
Share your tips on pinching pennies with us in our comments section!
Life, occasionally stingy with aligning with our expectations, surprises us with the rising cost of living.
According to new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australian households have felt the pinch, especially over the past year.
Across households, spending has been given a nudge upwards by 3.3 per cent in May compared to the previous year.
According to the latest ABS monthly household spending report, Australians are spending more on food due to a rise in food prices up to May. Image by sasun1990 from unsplash
Simultaneously, Aussies are tightening their grip on their wallets when it comes to non-essential items.
You might think, 'What do they mean by non-essential items?'
In financial lingo, non-essential items are commonly referred to as 'discretionary spending'.
So when you've got an eye on that new cutting-edge kitchen gadget or the comfortable armchair, those would come under discretionary spending.
The ABS report indicates that spending on such items, like furnishings and clothes, has slightly declined.
ABS Head of Business Indicators, Robert Ewing, explained, 'Driving the fall in discretionary spending over the year was 4.8 per cent less spending on furnishings and household equipment, and 3.4 per cent less on clothing and footwear.’
In response to the ever-growing cost of living pressure, Australians appear to have grown savvier with their hard-earned money but haven’t ceased treating themselves completely.
For example, services such as our favourite cafes, hotels, and restaurants have seen a spike in spending of up to 7.8 per cent.
Transport spending also increased by 7.7 per cent.
But unlike spending on services, goods purchasing took a slight tumble, rolling downhill by 0.9 per cent.
Nevertheless, nothing seems to have stopped Aussies from forking out on their most essential item—food, with a whopping increase of 5.8 per cent.
This could be due to the cost of food nudging up by 7.9 per cent, as May’s CPI report revealed.
Across states, Western Australia scored the largest increase in spending (4.7 per cent), while the Northern Territory marked a more modest rise in year-to-year spending—up 0.8 per cent, a slide from the 1.6 per cent marked in their April report.
Adhering to a cost-effective lifestyle is not always an easy task. It can feel even trickier when factors outside of our control, like the cost of living, begin to stretch their wings.
Yet, we believe that with a bit of knowledge and creative problem-solving, we can all weather this challenging economic climate.
Old habits can be hard to break, but new, money-saving ones can be created.
Share your tips on pinching pennies with us in our comments section!
