From petrol prices hitting four-year highs to paying for your own garbage bags, the cost of living is only going up for Australians come July 1.
Wages in Australia’s capital cities are struggling to keep pace with soaring everyday expenses.
Renters will have to dig deeper to keep a roof over their head as online shoppers buying from overseas are slugged with new fees.
Petrol
Filling up a tank is a financially painful experience with unleaded now selling for an average of $1.48 a litre across Australia, a Fuel Check analysis showed.
Australians are paying 5.1 cents a litre more for petrol than they were less than three months ago, with comparethemarket.com.au revealing how instability in the Middle East had hit motorists hard.
Peter Khoury, from the NRMA motoring services group, told Daily Mail Australia petrol prices had hit a four-year high in recent weeks, as Russia and Iran cut crude oil production.
Peter Khoury told Daily Mail Australia that just a few weeks ago we hit a four-year high in petrol prices
Filling up a tank has never been so painful with Unleaded now selling for an average of 148.3 a litre, according to Fuel check
Peter Khoury told Daily Mail Australia that just a few weeks ago we hit a four-year high in petrol prices
Motorists are being urged to download the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s fuel comparison apps to find savings.
‘You can save up to 20 cents a litre through using the price comparison data,’ the NRMA spokesman said.
He was hopeful motorists would have some relief in coming weeks.
‘We hope to see a five-cent-per-litre drop,’ he said.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s chairman Rod Sims was concerned about how instability in the Middle East had pushed up fuel prices.
‘Unfortunately, the international factors pushing up wholesale petrol prices mean that these higher prices are being passed on to Australian motorists at the petrol bowser,’ he said.
Plastic bag ban
Woolworths customers will have to pay 15 cents for reusable bags and 89 cents for foldable bags from next month.
Online grocery shoppers are set to be charged up to $3.50 for deliveries when the plastic bag ban comes takes effect.
The supermarket giant is introducing new charges from next Wednesday as it stops offering single-use plastic bags.
Plastic bags will be banned in most Australian states come July 1 meaning shoppers are going to have to start paying for their own garbage bags
Its chief rival Coles has also taken major steps to phase out plastic at the checkout.
Shoppers will have to bring their own canvas bags and be forced to buy their own garbage bags to line their rubbish bins.
Garbage bags at super market retailers can cost anywhere between $2 to $7.50.
In Woolworths, the most affordable Home Brand garbage bags cost $1.99 for a pack of 20, while Multix Extra Wide Garbage Bags 50 pack are $7.50.
Assuming you go through 10 bags a week – changing your bin liners in both the kitchen and bathroom – paying for plastic bags could set you back $48 a year.
Garbage bags at super market retailers can cost anywhere between $2 to $7.50
Woolworths shoppers as well as an additional delivery fee of $3.50 for online shoppers
Public transport fares
Opal fares in Sydney are set to increase by 2.2 per cent from July meaning commuters on the New South Wales metropolitan train network will have to pay 39 cents extra per week.
Melbourne commuters this year copped a 4.7 per cent rise in public fares, while Brisbane residents were hit with a 1.5 per cent increase.
Rent
Australia is already home to some of the world’s most expensive real estate.
For Millennials, that means also exorbitant rents in Sydney and Melbourne.
They are suffering from housing stress, whether they are paying off a mortgage or renting near the city, with apartments typically costing upwards of $1,000 a week in places like Surry Hills in Sydney’s east.
Households are considered to be in housing stress if they spend 30 per cent or more of their income on rent, as described by the Rental Affordability Index.
Households are considered to be in housing stress if they spend 30 per cent or more of their income on rent, according to the Rental Affordability Index
The results show Sydney is the second least affordable capital city for rent.
Low-income renters Canberra and Sydney have suffered as their wages have failed to keep up with rising rents.
Surprisingly, Hobart has overtaken Sydney as the least affordable city for renters, in a city where real estate values have surged by 12.7 per cent during the past year.
Real estate data group Core Logic revealed median house and unit prices in the Tasmanian capital had surged as prices in Sydney fell by 4.2 per cent in the year to May.
Surprisingly, Hobart has overtaken Sydney as the least affordable city for renters, according to the latest results
Online shopping
Australians have two more weeks of filling up their virtual carts before an online shopping tax will be introduced.
The Australian government has announced that clothing, electronics and furniture purchased from overseas retailers under $1,000 will incur a 10 per cent GST come July 1, 2017.
Previously, an item bought from foreign retailers were exempt from GST if it was less than $1,000, yet lobbying from the likes of Harvey Norman department store founder Gerry Harvey has changed this.
Australians have two more weeks of filling up their virtual carts before an online shopping tax will be introduced
Wages
Australian private sector wages grew by just 1.9 per cent, which failed to keep pace with inflation in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra.
This occurred as headline inflation, also known as the consumer price index, rose by almost two per cent.
Yet Australia’s 2.3 million minimum wage earners are getting some relief with the Fair Work Commission giving them a $24.30 a week wage increase from July 1.
Australian private sector wages grew by just 1.9 per cent, which failed to keep pace with inflation in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra