Cost of Living

I went into my online banking yesterday to pay a BPay bill, and took a look (as I usually do) at my credit card level.

It's three weeks tomorrow since I returned home from my early February business trip to Sydney, and two days later became symptomatic with the disgusting strain of influenza A that has been laying me pretty low ever since. I am about 80% recovered now but the residual night cough is still a bit of a shit, and I was pretty sick for a while there.

So I thought oh I can't possibly have spent that much in that almost 3 weeks, right?  And yes, it has been lower than a regular 3 weeks, but... somehow, there is a new $2500 on the card in that time.

To be fair, $500 of that is birthday expenses for my 16 year old's birthday this past weekend (slumber party pizzas, snacks, her presents etc) and $700 is groceries (cos we still gotta eat, and we're a family of five - $700 for three weeks is about typical), so none of that is unexpected. However, that still leaves a cool thou and change in just odds and sods, comprising:

- $200 in donations (some my regular ones, some one-offs to friends' fundraisers)
- $250 in software and streaming subscriptions (Microsoft, Acrobat, Spotify, Disney+, Edrolo for the 16yo's school)
- $100 for an UberEats dinner one night when I was quite sick and having a serious case of the CBFs
- $300 in GP copays for four different appointments
- $100 to the vet (and that's our lowest vet charge for a while, by a lot)
- $100 to the chemist for medications
- $80 in fancy cakes x 2 times brought home for the family
- $75 for socks and jocks at Big W
- $35 for restaurant dinner at my one and only in-person social event out of the house of the past three weeks (Book Club last week)
- $100 of time-delayed transport charges (Ubers, taxis, train fares) from my time in Sydney (trips were before this three-week period but billing was after)

The quite depressing part about this analysis is that it shows not a lot of frivolous / "fat" spending. I mean, the UberEats dinner certainly, and arguably the cakes (although everyone in my house was in need of a little treat, and I don't regret it) were not necessary. However, none of the human or animal medical expenses were optional, and excluding Disney+, neither were the subscriptions as they are needed for work and study - yes, including Spotify! People need socks and jocks too, unfortunately :-) And reducing donations is very low on my list of things I am willing to do to cut costs.

It really drives home to me the importance of continuing to generate a decent income from my freelance business even now we are blessedly mortgage and debt free. I won't have any problem at all paying this visa bill - as mentioned, it's actually on the lower end, because usually I would have had 3-4 social outings in a 3-week timeframe, and they usually costs $50 - $100 a pop - but if I wasn't earning effectively, it could be a very different story. And it makes me aghast to think how tough it is for people with greater housing costs (mortgage or rent) and lower incomes. I'm at a loss to know how it could be managed without juggling debt and watching every cent.

This is why I believe right down to the core of my being that the forthcoming Australian election is going to be fought, won (and lost) on cost of living. There are many issues that animate various sectors of the electorate, some cultural, some institutional, some existential, but the uniting concern of everyone without independent wealth is - how will I afford my life? That goes to employment and opportunity, of course, but it also goes to how much things bloody cost and how political forces can act to contain those costs. There is a limit to how much can realistically be done by government, of course, but any policy that gestures in that direction and is believed will be advantageous in my view. The price of food, of medical care, of education, of transport, of course of housing (although I acknowledge my good fortune in no longer having to think about that so much), of utilities - all of this matters, and will matter a whole damn lot come May.

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