A single mother-of-two sits up crying at night because she is forced to choose between buying food or taking a shower as the cost of living soars.
Australia’s soaring cost of living crisis has forced one mum to choose between buying food or taking a hot shower.
Paulene Stephanie from Redcliffe, Queensland, is struggling so much with rising grocery and electricity costs she sometimes skips meals to ensure her kids are properly cared for.
The single mother-of-two described the new reality as “scary”.
“It’ll either be turning off the hot water and showering every second day, or not eating every second day. They’re the only options I can think of,” she told Ten News.
Paulene, who is a casual retail worker, said she is barely making ends meet and finds herself having “laugh or cry moments”.
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“When the kids are around, I’ll laugh. When they’re not, I’ve sat up at night crying over the bills,” she said.
And Paulene is not alone, as many Australians are now grappling the same issue as prices continue to soar.
Rising freight costs, recent extreme weather events and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine have exacerbated short and long-term supply issues and sent food and global oil prices soaring.
However, agriculture expert David Williams said that without even factoring in the war in Ukraine, weather disasters or labour shortages, “Covid-related effects alone” would have good companies increasing costs by 10 per cent this year.
“One-off significant increases in grain costs will drive food inflation and increase the cost of stock feed and therefore beef and other proteins,” Mr Williams told The Australian.
“The effect of this will be that the unbelievable success of increasing incomes in developing countries will now be undermined by pushing people back into poverty and starvation for others.”
Global leaders have previously shared fears of a pending food crisis, with International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva highlighting food security as a pressing concern in late May.
“We can shrink the use of petrol when growth slows down, but we have to eat every day,” she told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“The anxiety about access to food at a reasonable price globally, is hitting the roof.”
As for rising electricity costs, finance comparison site Finder expects household electricity bills in Australia to rise by up to 100 per cent in July, due to soaring costs of wholesale electricity.
This is further supported by energy retailer ReAmped Energy, which warned its customers this week that their bills could double and actually encouraged them to switch retailers to try to save money.
Last week, the Australian Energy Regulator announced it had raised benchmark prices for retailers – essentially the maximum they can charge you – from July 1.
Finder energy expert Mariam Gabaji said small energy providers had already started to “drastically hike up prices”.
According to research from Finder in May, the average quarterly electricity bill in NSW is $353.80. It is even higher in South Australia at $383.30.
Looking at NSW, that is $1415.20 a year or $117.93 a month. If the bill was to double, it would be $2830.40 a year or $235.87 a month.
New Energy Minister Chris Bowen is now set to convene a meeting with state MPs from around the country as they look for a solution to soaring prices.
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