how tough is it in suburbia now?

[Casserole Dish]

Some things cost more money ie. a good block of cheese, and some things are a lot less $ ie. TVs, DVD players etc.

It's really hard to tell if us 'average' joes and jills are doing it tough. Ever since I was pregnant our money has been flying out the door. Having children is crazy expensive. Yes, even without spoiling them every 5 minutes.

Fruit, meat, dairy products, vegemite, wash powder, toilet rolls etc all seem more expensive but I have never needed to buy so much until now. And I'm really paying more attention I guess. I don't get a payrise, the going rate for being a full time Mum ain't much.

It is sad that there are A LOT of overweight people in this area. And Donut King is about to open in the main shops here. They will rake it in.

 

[kathryn d]

gg1965,
There is always going to be a different answer to this question.
Everyone has different priorities and standards.
Some would rather die than wear or use secondhand.
Some people think the more it costs, the better it is.
Some people will only buy brand names or organic produce.

I think the average wage earner would have a tough time buying all the gadgets new and still be able to purchase a house.Especilally on a single wage, and having a spouse and children.
If we were willing to live like our parents/grandparents did (back in the day) it wouldn't be an issue. They certainly didn't have all the modern day choices we have now.

As Dazz talks about in another thread, our society has become very disposable. Products were made to last a lot longer years ago.
I think cheap versions have their place (such as in a furnished rental, you don't care so much when they steal it) or you use something very infrequently.

People who drink,gamble or smoke, must sacrifice financially somwehere in their, or their families lives.

Then again, that could be said of property investors

 

[travelbug]

WOW. What sheltered lives we lead.

There are people that live from week to week. Now with rising rents and rising costs of food of course times are tough for a lot of people.

We talk about seeing people with full trolleys, going to Maccas etc. These are NOT the people in need. Sure there are people who have to cut down on luxuries and that can't have the latest mobile but in NEED. I think not.
Yeah my hubby grew up in a 2 bed flat with his parents, grandmother and brother and sister. nan and sister in one bedroom, boys had a mattress in the loungeroom. They did it tough but they had food on the table every night. He doesn't complain. In fact I only found that out many years after we had been together.

The true battlers are at home working out how to pay their rent and get the kids fed. Do some volunteer work for the likes of Lifeline and you'll see what doing it tough means.
I used to work for a child abuse service. It made me cry to see how some people live.

Nothing changes. There were poor people then, there are poor people now.

 

[RumpledElf]

Ever since I was pregnant our money has been flying out the door. Having children is crazy expensive.

Ours don't seem to add that much to the budget - nappies and toilet paper is the killer. Its nice now the little one is barely going through 1-2 nappies a day though. I've never worked out how children use so much toilet paper though.

Our grocery budget runs to about $100-120 a week for 4 people + cat + chooks, and this year I bought an entire winter wardrobe for the two little people, anticipated baby and my maternity stuff for about $300 all up. Yay for oztion and ebay and shoes at Kmart being mindbendingly cheap Baby is completely set up and I think we've spent about $150 all up, which included a baby capsule and 3 boxes of anticipatory nappies. My parents got us a bassinet. This is actually one of the reasons I think the baby bonus is a joke once you're past the first kid - ours will be going on a house deposit and a vasectomy

When they get bigger though we're not going to be able to feed everyone with a 500gram pack of meat per meal anymore. Everything comes in packs of ~500gram or 6 'items' in our supermarket: 2 for me, 2 for him, one each for the kiddies. Won't work when we've got a teenager and two littlies. Or just when Child Elder has a growth spurt and cracks 30kg - I swear she's spent the last 5 years at the same weight, growing 7cm taller each year. The little one eats more than she does, but given how much time the big one spends asleep compared to the little one I guess it evens out.

 

[RumpledElf]

It made me cry to see how some people live.

Its scarey how some people live. The ones who let large dogs inside and don't clean up the poop are the ones who really get to me though.

We had a patch a while back where we had recently moved and got caught in a centerlink loophole where they'd only pay us about $350. Not each, not per week, this is PER FORTNIGHT and had to be spread between 2 adults and 1 child, and I was still only getting ~$20 a month child support back then. We were doing some seriously tight budgeting there for a few months until we got all straightened out, but it was still possible to pay all the bills and stuff on that much money and not starve.

Couldn't do it now with 3 properties and 2.9 kids, but we make a lot more these days.

 

[Ajax]

Have just observed two businesses close in the strip of shops near where I live at Bronte. That's two shops out of 10. I understand that the shop proprietors (a surf shop and a chicken shop) have been finding the rent hard to meet. I am told that rising electricity costs impact heavily on most food operations (as costs of keeping food warm, rotisseries running and refrigeration add up).

Two shops closing in a small strip of shops may not seem to drastic but I haven't seen that in last 10 years.

I am not so sure everything in retail suburbia is going as well as the Rudd government would have you believe.

 

[urbanprospector]

its real easy when the credit keeps flowing . i'm going to pmsl when it freezes up again like is happening now .
honestly people your not living in the real world .
personal debt in this country is staggering .government spending and borrowing on the up also .know many who have been laid off in the construction industry in perth . top this off with the only reason things holding together is government spending all over the world .

a huge amount of hardly normal's and friends interest free comes due next year also ..top this with honeymoon rates on mortgages resetting .


we have become an economy based on the service industry that produces nothing .to the tune of approaching 70% of gdp. bawwhhahahahahahhahah
it cant last people wake up

 

[urbanprospector]

Have just observed two businesses close in the strip of shops near where I live at Bronte. That's two shops out of 10. I understand that the shop proprietors (a surf shop and a chicken shop) have been finding the rent hard to meet. I am told that rising electricity costs impact heavily on most food operations (as costs of keeping food warm, rotisseries running and refrigeration add up).

Two shops closing in a small strip of shops may not seem to drastic but I haven't seen that in last 10 years.

I am not so sure everything in retail suburbia is going as well as the Rudd government would have you believe.

couldn't keep up with the count of for lease signs along scarborough bch rd in osbourne pk w.a. . i also recommend any one in victoria to drive along sydney rd and count for lease/closing down signs it blew me away

 

[Mandy Mac]

Hi

We have four children in a two bedroom 1950s weatherboard house. We have some basic grocery rules (no more than $5 on meat) but don't struggle to get groceries on the table. We could buy takeaway once a week if we wanted, but usually don't.

Our youngest is 3 months, so I'm not back at work yet, but I also run an internet business that pays for "nice" extras.

Anyway, occassionally I think we're doing it "tough" but not often. Afterally, we chose to live in this suburb, rather than out on the fringes of the city.

But I don't think that compares to how tough some are doing it in my own suburb. One mum has a mental illness and suffers from crippling migraines which means her kids are in before and after school care. Dad has to do everything for them, as well as look after wife, as well as work.

Another kid has dad drop her off and pick her up, which I though was nice that he chose to be a stay at home dad. Nope, he just doesn't have a job.
The mother is not on the scene. Can't imagine it's easy to find a job that allows you to do school drop offs/pick ups when you've only done factory work.

These families have a fear of eviction. Now that kids are settled in school, they really want to stay in current homes.

At least owning my own home, I only have to worry about interest rates. And if they go up high enough that we feel the pinch, I'll go back to work at the pub. I'd rather get a job and earn more than start pinching pennies by forgoing the odd latte, or Boston bun.

So, yeah, some families are doing it tough, but it's not related to interest rates.

 

[topcropper]

we have become an economy based on the service industry that produces nothing .to the tune of approaching 70% of gdp. bawwhhahahahahahhahah
it cant last people wake up

70% services is not neccesarily bad. It's simply what happens when primary and secondary industries get so efficient that 70% of the workforce can be employed in service industries. The more people that work in service industries, the higher our standard of living. We do it because we can. It's what happens in developed economies. Some backward overpopulated place in Africa might have 70% of the workforce as farmers. Is that good? It's not because they have hardly any school teachers, nurses, doctors, etc.

If you only need 3% of the workforce as farmers to feed everyone, and as a bonus, the surplus is exported to provide export income, then that's all the people you need in farming. If you only need 2% of the workforce as miners, to supply all your minerals and energy, and nearly all is exported, and this provides more than half of our nations export earnings, then that's all the people you need to be mining.
This allows us to have lots of school teachers, lots of nurses, lots of people working in retail, lots of builders, plumbers, mechanics, polititians, policeman, etc.



As long as primary and secondary industries are productive and efficient, then you can have 70% employed in service industries. It's why this resource tax is so dumb.


See ya's.

 

[urbanprospector]

70% services is not neccesarily bad. It's simply what happens when primary and secondary industries get so efficient that 70% of the workforce can be employed in service industries. The more people that work in service industries, the higher our standard of living. We do it because we can. It's what happens in developed economies. Some backward overpopulated place in Africa might have 70% of the workforce as farmers. Is that good? It's not because they have hardly any school teachers, nurses, doctors, etc.

If you only need 3% of the workforce as farmers to feed everyone, and as a bonus, the surplus is exported to provide export income, then that's all the people you need in farming. If you only need 2% of the workforce as miners, to supply all your minerals and energy, and nearly all is exported, and this provides more than half of our nations export earnings, then that's all the people you need to be mining.
This allows us to have lots of school teachers, lots of nurses, lots of builders, lost of people working in retail.



As long as primary and secondary industries are productive and efficient, then you can have 70% employed in service industries. It's why this resource tax is so dumb.


See ya's.

i see just like the usa hey . we can live on the never never forever .

lets not even think about other factors like demand for resources dries up .drought , insect damage ,flooding ,etc .credit freezes up in the world oh its happening as we speak and people cant get credit or borrow against equity and then house prices crash .... all very possible in the current economic climate.

 

[topcropper]

deleated.....

 

[BayView]

We had a pit toilet, a wooden outhouse over a big hole in the ground, and as those things are so stinky it was 50 metres from the house down wind of the prevailing breeze. Had this till I was 8.

I remember those.

We had one as well when we lived in Glen Iris.

There was one bathroom inside the house, and the heating was one open fireplace for the whole house.

We used to get brick-ettes in a big brown hessian bag, delivered every few weeks to burn in it.

 

[lizzie]

we used to have a toilet seat with a big bucket underneath. dad used to bury the contents every morning in the fallow section of the vege gardens as we lived out in the country.

 

[MCS_80]

To answer the OP question. Yes. I do think its getting tougher in suburbia.

No, I dont think this is because of higher living costs though. Personally I believe its getting tougher because of the hype and glamour we are all exposed to through the media.

Plasma TV's, New homes built for less etc. Keeping up with "Jones's" has got worse and I think and this has made it seem that things are worse than what they really are.

What im trying to say is, I think we are making it worse for ourself in our own minds, but in fact, living can be soo much easier than we make it.

My partner and I consider ourself doing it "tough" compared to others, but im sure compared to others, we seem to be doing it easy. All comes down to perspective I guess.

Cheers

Mick

 

[BayView]

To answer the OP question. Yes. I do think its getting tougher in suburbia.

No, I dont think this is because of higher living costs though. Personally I believe its getting tougher because of the hype and glamour we are all exposed to through the media.

Plasma TV's, New homes built for less etc. Keeping up with "Jones's" has got worse and I think and this has made it seem that things are worse than what they really are.

What im trying to say is, I think we are making it worse for ourself in our own minds, but in fact, living can be soo much easier than we make it.

My partner and I consider ourself doing it "tough" compared to others, but im sure compared to others, we seem to be doing it easy. All comes down to perspective I guess.

Cheers

Mick

Totally agree.

We are doing it tough - don't have any sort of plasma/LCD yet.

But, the end of financial year sales are around the corner.

 

[joanmc]

I think it isn't so much that it is harder, I think that we are losing the skills needed to manage money correctly. When hubby and I were first married it was a priority to save for a house, not a new car, tv, video etc etc. We had second hand furniture and so on. But I think today the TV promotes a certain lifestyle as attainable by the masses but doesn't give the other side of the consumer debt story. Sure it's easy to get the credit it just isn't as easy to pay it off.

And don't even get me started on these namby -pamby parents who think their kids will be mentally damaged by not wearing Nike or Reebok or Billabong or whatever the heck they all wear now. I knew of a parent who every year replaced all her (4) kids stuff whether it needed it or not. Needless to say they ended up selling their house and have now rented for the last 10 years.

So is it tougher in suburbia now? yep. Is it mainly self-inflicted by poor money management? Yep....IMHO

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

There's been two changes that I've noticed happening since I was about 14.

First, over the last 20 years, and especially over the last 10, there seems to have evolved this bizarre concept that being 'cool' is about being rich. This goes for all ages, you just have to look at the media to see it. Sitcoms and movies showing palatial mansions as 'family homes', teenagers driving fast cars, electronics, jewellery, travel, the list goes on. Music videos show uneducated idiots flashing jewellery and cars, and show women lapping it up.

Second, heaps of our media now operates around the concept of fear. These days news stories are all shocking, dangerous, catastrophic, etc, just to give us something to worry about. Apparently this is to scare us into reading and consuming more media.

In terms of how average joe and family are doing, I think the short answer is better than the last couple of years, but not as well as 5 years ago. My sister-in-law is a good measure. Her husband is a builder, and she works a bit doing the books and bills. When things are good, they have new cars, a new boat, new caravan, kids get a new piano, etc. When times are not so good, they don't buy anything. They haven't been buying much for a couple of years now, but look to be starting up again soon.

 

[steveadl]

Second, heaps of our media now operates around the concept of fear. These days news stories are all shocking, dangerous, catastrophic, etc, just to give us something to worry about. Apparently this is to scare us into reading and consuming more media.

Never a truer word spoken!

 

[gooram]

this topic has veered into a luxury discussion - but the point of my original question, was not to ask about outside toilets, shared bedrooms and snakes in the pit, but more about the cost of living, income vs outgoings, increase in electricity, food and petrol, threat of layoffs, instability in workplaces, working longer ours etc etc.

Basically, has the cost of living risen and other stresses caused life in suburbia to be very worrying for many people now - or has it been the same over the decades?


Thanks

g

It's a relative question, first of all, what do you mean by suburbia? Second of all, dough it tough compared to what?

I think the majority of Aboriginal people are doing it tough. But that's another discussion probably.

I think we have it better than we ever have in history. Even an unemployed single parent is supported by the government. I don't know how anyone in Australia could complain that they are doing it tough.