Xavier Rudd has hit the nail on the head with that song. It’s becoming more and more evident that our cash isn’t going as far as it used to.

It has been very difficult not to notice that the cost of everything we do is just sky-rocketing. Today, after another extremely expensive trip to the shops, it hit me full in the face.

Last time I bought groceries it set me back $400. That’s right, $400! That was just over a week and half ago. Now this was one of those shop-loads where so many “non-regulars” made it into the list all at once. Batches of shampoo, stacks of nappies, laundry detergent, shaving gel (which lasts me ages ), etc. Now there are a few expensive bits in there, but nothing that can justify the leap from the usual $250 to the $400 mark.

I went home disgruntled, taking it on the chin. I was hoping that it was a one-off. Since then I’ve had to go back to the shops to pick up some bits and pieces. Today, I had to do another smaller load. I thought that there’d be a good chance that it would drop back down to the usual sum, and yet despite having a lot less stuff in the trolley, I still managed to clock up another $320.

As a rough guess, that takes our shopping tally for the last 3 or 4 weeks to around the $800 to $900 mark. That’s just insane! I’m not buying stuff that I don’t normally buy. I’m not going all out and buying the best brands for everything. I’m not buying things that I don’t need, or that are considered luxuries. So WTF is going on here? Why are things costing so much? How come a bottle of juice now costs over $5? Why is it that two bits of chicken breast are approaching $10 a hit? How can milk be over $4 for just 2L?

When we got back from the UK back in ‘06 we noticed that the cost of living in general had increased. It’s more obvious now. A few other things that I’ve noticed (some of these things I buy, some I don’t):

• Cans of soft drink: $1.30 to $3.
• Petrol: currently hovering around the $1.30/L here in Queensland despite the apparent government subsidy. It’s easily approaching $1.50 in some of the other states.
• Loaf of bread: $3. They’re smaller, and they go stale quickly.
• Fruit and veg: prices going up, quality going down. We produce insane amounts of food, yet the good stuff is exported and the crap is imported.
• Standard sized bar of chocolate: $2. What happened here!?
• Plain old vanilla milkshake at a local cafe: $4.50.
• Bowl of chips: $6.
• Chicken buger: $8.
• Bananas: $8/kg.
• Fresh sandwich at lunch: $7.

The list goes on and on. I’m becoming more and more stunned that the cost of some of the most basic things can be so high. It makes me wonder how so many people survive. I know of families with a single income that’s very low, multiple children and a mortgage — it makes me wonder how they do it.

I’m not going to start talking about the cost of housing, renting, building, mortgages etc because I’ll be talking all night. Suffice is to say that right now in Australian, attempting to own your own home is a nightmare of gargantuan proportions. Interest rates are going up almost as fast as the cost of houses themselves.

It’s nuts. I wonder how long it’ll keep up, and what the longer term affects of burgeoning economy will be. Right now I’m a little scared.

Anyhooo, have a listen to Xavier playing the song live, it’s great

Note: I do realise that I might come across as a whining affluent, and I’m sure there are many people out there who are in a tougher situation than me. That doesn’t mean I have to like having to fork out more and more for the same stuff while the quality goes down.