Townsville residents cutting out meat, cheese, vegetables during cost-of-living crisis

Struggling North Queenslanders who can’t afford vegetables, cheese, or meat, have their eyes on next week’s federal budget and what cost of living relief, if any, will be included.

Australians will find out on Tuesday what cost of living relief will come with the federal budget. Picture: Blair Jackson

Townsville taxpayers are having to live on tuna and sardines and go without fruit and vegetables amid a cost of living crisis where one shopper has described grocery prices as “hideous”

The federal budget on May 9 will have some cost of living relief, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said.

Inflation peaked around Christmas time, “but it’s still higher than we’ve liked for longer than we’d like and the forecasts in the budget will reflect that as well,” the Treasurer said.

The inflationary pressures are still being felt at check-outs in North Queensland.

Olivia Allen, a 23-year-old veterinary science university student in Townsville, said she and her sister mainly ate just tuna and sardines.

“It definitely is a bit tight, but you can’t complain, working towards something (a degree) that will hopefully be pretty beneficial in the long run.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said next week’s budget will feature measures to help ease cost of living pressures. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Their pantry was fully – or sparsely – stocked with tinned fish even though Ms Allen’s fiancee owned the house and received army-related subsidies.

The sisters both study veterinary science full-time and can only fit one or two shifts a week around study.

“We eat tuna mostly, tuna and sardines. Not super nutritious I would say … just because we don’t make a lot of money.”

Townsville couple Tracey Chester and Gavin Crews described high grocery prices as “hideous”. Photo: Blair Jackson

Townsville couple Tracey Chester and Gavin Crews described grocery prices as “hideous”.

“If you’re paying $100 for two bags of groceries it’s unprecedented. We’ve never had to pay this sort of money for that sort of thing before,” he said.

“And it doesn’t matter what we get, just the essentials.”

Mr Chester is 60-years-old, and modern grocery prices never cease to amaze him.

Townsville man Gavin Crews loads groceries into his car. Picture: Blair Jackson

The couple were planning to take their caravan up north in the coming days and were worried about petrol prices, but said if they did not have a caravan they could not afford to take a trip out of town.

Last week a dozen federal Labor MPs signed an open letter calling for a substantial increase to JobSeeker payments. At the moment the benefit is about $50 a day.

The Prime Minister said the government was looking at the issue of people’s payments, but were not in a position “to do everything within our first year”.

Hermit Park couple Tim, 35, and Cheyenne, 25, have to shop smart and keep any extras off the shopping list, their biggest budget pressures being groceries and fuel.

“We’ll either try and do a big shop and live off that for two weeks, or we’ll do sporadic little shops,” Tim said.

“We’ve only for the first time in a long time bought vegetables today. We don’t usually buy fruit or vegetables because they’re way too expensive.”

Australia’s living costs have gone up 9.6 per cent, and have not been that high since 1986.

“Whatever’s cheap and whatever we can make last for two weeks. Red meat is a luxury, cheese is a luxury.”

Ice cream, soft drink and more than one streaming service are unattainable indulgences, and they will occasionally buy a few beers.

Tim is on JobSeeker for health reasons and Cheyenne is on a single parent benefit.

“I’m glad there’s a dad in the picture. We go halves in stuff otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford to have a child,” she said.

Tim too pays child support, for his kids who are interstate.

Some people who spoke to the Bulletin were in more fortuitous financial positions, but they still had reined in spending of late.

Nick Marendy, a 27-year-old apprentice electrician, is in a “lucky situation” to be renting a granny flat from a family member.

“Food is one of the most expensive things at the moment … fuel is a big one … lucky we have fuel cards.”

“I think just everything is going up really.”

However, Mr Marendy believed he should be able to put down a house deposit in the next few years.

Dave Devalter, 29 of Annandale, is paying off a mortgage with an offset variable portion.

His car registration went up from $700 to $950 a year.

Twice weekly $100 grocery shops had increased to about $300 per week, he said.

“We’ve probably been a bit smarter with how we spend stuff. I suppose we didn’t really used to look at the prices too much, but we do have a bit of a think about it these days.”

Mr Devalter is a critical care paramedic and paid off his student loan in 2017.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this week shows living costs for pensioners, welfare recipients, employees and self-funded retirees have risen more than the current 7 per cent inflation rate, in the year to March.

Originally published as Townsville residents cutting out meat, cheese, vegetables during cost-of-living crisis