Martin Bongiorno has been a careful budgeter for many years.
He knows how to hunt a bargain and only buys the groceries he absolutely needs.
The single dad sets aside $15 a day for food and $20 a week for his energy bill.
That doesn't leave him with much once he pays rent.
So when his rent increased by $40 a fortnight, he cut back on the only other things he could: food and power.
"It's ... a constant trade-off," he said.
Mr Bongiorno, who lives in Batemans Bay on NSW's south coast, already uses a range of strategies to keep his power bill down.
He takes cold showers and runs just one light bulb, only turning it on once it's completely dark.
"I have one lamp positioned in the middle of the room and if I need to move from one room to the next, I just take out the light bulb and move it to the next room," he said.
A year ago, Mr Bongiorno injured himself working as a delivery driver and has since been getting by on workers' compensation payments.
As his income dropped, his costs rose.
He kept falling behind on his electricity bill until he found himself more than $2,000 in arrears.
With few other options left to reduce his power consumption, he recently stopped using his stove and only eats food that doesn't need cooking, like canned goods and raw produce.
But those goods have also been rising in price, so Mr Bongiorno has had little option but to buy fewer and fewer items to keep within his $15 budget.
He said making those kinds of calculations every day was draining.
"You're constantly in this sort of survival mode," he said.
"It's exhausting because you realise this is not a temporary thing."
'I can see us not getting through'
Last year, inflation hit a 32-year high of 7.8 per cent, largely driven by big price rises for food, fuel and construction.
After 10 rate rises, inflation eased slightly in the first quarter of this year. But it's still at 7 per cent and prices are still growing faster than wages.
The Reserve Bank last week surprised banks and borrowers by lifting interest rates again, reigniting concern the cash rate will further inflate prices and rents.
Rising prices have been severely battering the McKay-Sadler family's already-stretched household budget.
The ABC first visited the family two years ago, five years after they'd moved from Sydney to Wagga Wagga.
When Mike Sadler lost his job in IT and struggled to get back into the workforce, the family thought there would be better work opportunities in the southern NSW city, and that their money would go further.
But rent has gone up three times in three years and it has eaten away at the family's financial plans.
"The rental increases on top of everything else have been really, really hard," Mr Sadler said.
Last year the family was paying $385 per week to rent a house. But when their lease ended, they had to move.
Their new rent is $460 per week.
"This is the first time probably in my life where I can see us not getting through the rough patch," Mr Sadler said.
The 62-year-old and his partner, 52-year-old Liz McKay, are both retraining to be teachers.
Right now, they rely on an Austudy support payment — which is $612 a fortnight for a family with children — plus about $200 a week that Ms McKay earns teaching swimming.
By now they had hoped to register a second car for 18-year-old Rose, to help her to get to university and a part-time job.
But the $1,100 for registration and insurance is money the family doesn't have.
So the ageing hatchback sits in the driveway, going nowhere. With no car, Rose hasn't learned to drive.
"I would like to learn eventually, but I'm a bit afraid that we won't be able to afford it," Rose said.
"I'm kind of used to it, unfortunately."
'Just not possible'
Everywhere the family turns, prices are going up.
They're buying a lot more of what they call "brown foods" — processed and packaged items that often cost less than fresh produce and protein.
"We eat less meat. Mike and I would forgo some fruit and stuff so the kids can have it instead," Ms McKay said.
When it's time for dinner, Mike reaches into the freezer and grabs a bag of frozen chicken fingers to prepare in the fryer.
It cost about $3 less per kilo than fresh fillets would have that week.
"This crumbed, prepared, frozen, no-waste chicken was ten bucks for a kilo. I can't get chicken of any sort for $10 a kilo. No way," Mr Sadler said.
Similarly, frozen fries were on sale for $2.99 a kilo — cheaper than fresh potatoes that can go for $4.50 a kilo or more.
"We like to eat fresh food… but we can't afford [it],” Mr Sadler said.
"It's just not possible."
The family is paying about $290 per month for electricity and gas.
They're hoping to lower those charges through a smart meter, but there's not much else they can do to cut costs.
"Electricity, gas, all those energy costs are very expensive," Mr Sadler said.
"And of course, like most rental… properties, there's no insulation in this thing. No landlord's going to put solar on board."
'Continuing to slip backwards'
The McKay-Sadlers have now been in Wagga Wagga for nearly seven years but the hoped-for job opportunities haven't panned out.
They've struggled through three years dominated by the COVID pandemic and, now, the highest cost-of-living increases in three decades.
"It seems like we're slipping backwards and we're continuing to slip backwards," Mr Sadler said.
"You keep saying, 'look, it's okay, we can see the light in the tunnel, we'll be out the other side'. And then yet something else comes along."
For now, the family is looking to Tuesday night's federal budget for relief.
And the government has promised that, at least for some Australians, relief is coming.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers last week said the budget would include a "substantial" cost-of-living package, and on Friday added the budget would "provide substantial relief for vulnerable Australians with high electricity bills".
Leaks also suggest the government is planning to increase JobSeeker payments for recipients over 55.
Despite this, advocates such as the Antipoverty Centre are not optimistic the measures will go far enough, and believe any increases to Centrelink or rent assistance payments will be "extremely modest".
The government has already been criticised by advocates over its reluctance to lift welfare payments. Mr Sadler shares their disappointment.
"I really thought the [Labor party] may do something when they got into power about the terrible rate of unemployment benefits and Austudy ... and they haven't," Mr Sadler said.
"I'm holding out hopes for the May budget on that for the sake of lots of people."
In Batemans Bay, Mr Bongiorno said he would also be keeping an eye on the budget.
"I keep going back to what happened during the pandemic and the role of government," he said.
"When the Morrison government [temporarily] increased ... JobSeeker and introduced JobKeeper, those sorts of initiatives were transformational for people."
Mr Bongiorno said greater access to food relief and rent assistance would also go a long way for those doing it tough.
"Providing a broad base of relief for people is essential."
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2023-05-06 20:33:01Z
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