Things are crook in Tallarook and Muswellbrook, the mood is down in Brisbane town, while everything's wrong in Woolongong and Woodenbong - in fact spirits seem to be low in many households all around Australia

 

The reason for this gloom? Well if household spending is any indicator, it is likely to be because cost-of-living pressures have been grinding people down for what seems like a long and tiresome 29 months.

The Reserve Bank cash rate target/interest rate may have stopped climbing at 4.35% and stayed there for the last 12 months but it's not showing signs of coming down anytime soon.

Households around the country are still having to tighten their belts in order to make pennies stretch as far as possible in the face of persistently high prices for goods and services.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Household Spending Indicator: Experimental estimates of household spending, Reference period September 2024, Released 1/11/2024

In 2024 from 1 January to 30 September national household spending fell from 4.2% to 1.3% as most people focused on covering the essentials – food, medicines & other health costs, transport costs including petrol & car repairs, mortgage payments, rent, schools fees etc.

While household discretionary spending fell from 3.6% in January to 0.8% in September, as many chose to avoid clothing/footwear purchases and spent less on such thing as recreational activities & eating out.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics, National household spending, March to September quarterly graph, September 2024

The national barometer for the level of tension in household spending choices is possible marked most clearly when it comes to the purchase of alcohol and tobacco.

National fall in spending on alcoholic beverages and tobacco – January to September 2024

NSW   -12.3%

Vic      -13.3%

Qld     -8.8%

SA      -11.9%

WA     -2.9%

Tas     -11.1%

NT      -5.7%

ACT    -6.7%.