Woolworths and Coles shoppers unleash about price issue

Long-suffering Aussies are facing even more hikes in household bills as the cost of living crisis becomes even worse, despite the Albanese government’s claims that inflation was now under control.

One Sydney mum of two said that her weekly grocery bills are now an eye-watering $400 – compared to the $60 she used to pay.

Britany Shaw, 30, told Daily Mail Australia that her husband is ‘working seven night shifts back to back – insane amounts of work – just to get us by’. 

Speaking outside of the Marrickville Metro shopping centre in Sydney’s inner-west on Tuesday morning, Britany revealed her grocery bill has gone up by $100 ‘in the past three weeks’ alone.

‘And that’s just your fruit and veggies, nappies, toilet paper, just regular stuff. There’s not even that much in there,’ she said, showing the contents of her shopping trolley as three-year-old daughter Evie watched on. 

‘When we were a family of three, I used to spend about $60 on grocery shopping for a week for us. Now I’m spending $400 per week for four. The most expensive part is the vegetables. Last week, I spent $17 on one carton of eggs. 

‘It makes it hard to feed your family healthy food,unless you want to spend thousands of dollars.’

While headline inflation has moderated to 2.4 per cent, prompting the Reserve Bank to ease interest rates, some staple food items are still surging by double-digit figures. 

Britany says her husband is working seven nights a week to make ends meet

Britany shops across Coles, a butcher and a vitamin store for household staples 

Egg prices soared by 18.6 per cent in the year to April, following a bird flu outbreak that necessitated the culling of huge numbers of chickens.

Fruit and vegetable prices climbed by 6.1 per cent and now there are fears milk and dairy prices will go up, following recent floods in the industry’s NSW centre.

Groceries aren’t the only thing hitting Britany’s hip pocket, with the young mum spending $850 weekly rent on a two-bedroom unit in Wooli Creek.

‘It’s terrible, things are falling apart. There’s mould in the ceiling,’ she said. 

In unwelcome news for inner-city families, mass immigration is also having an effect on the costs of housing, with rents increasing by five per cent. 

‘We’re struggling pretty hard so we’re moving to Beerwah in Queensland next week because we can’t take it anymore,’ Britany said.

Kasia Pieszko, a mother of two from Roseberry in Sydney’s inner south, revealed she had just spent about $350 on groceries – and that’s not enough to last the week for her husband and two young children.

‘I was just sort of processing the cost in my head when you stopped me,’ she said.

‘I was having a conversation with my partner where we decided we needed to start being really mindful of our spending. Like focus more on our grocery shop and not do any frivolous spending on things like a coffee here, and croissant there. 

Kasia budgets up to $600 per week for her groceries, and says they buy organic

‘We find we are limiting our social life to make up for it, especially now that I haven’t been working for three years.

‘We do buy quite premium, organic produce, especially for the kids. We like high-welfare products, so we do allow quite a big budget for our food. It can range between $500 and $600 per week.’

Kasia admits that she is surprised by the skyrocketing price of organic strawberries, which are now about $8.50 a punnet. 

‘I like to shop around a bit for the best prices. We try to wait until the staples like coffee, nappies, wet wipes, that sort of thing, go half price and then we stock up,’ she said. 

Mirjana Rajic, a 37-year-old mum of one who lives with her parents in Sydney’s inner-west, admitted $300 worth of groceries only lasts them two days. 

‘And I haven’t even bought nappies yet. I find myself struggling a lot more. We don’t always eat meat,’ she said. 

Mirjana finds herself cutting out key foods from meals to save money, and shopping across Coles, Woolworths and Aldi in a bid to find the best bargains.  

‘In this week’s shop I didn’t buy cucumber or tomatoes, I just bought the mixed greens. I buy what I need for my son and I just have whatever he eats,’ she said. 

Miranja tries to visit Coles, Woolies and Aldi to search out the best prices

Egg prices soared by 18.6 per cent in the year to April, following an outbreak of bird flu. Fruit and vegetable prices climbed by 6.1 per cent and now there are fears milk and dairy prices will go up, following recent floods on the NSW mid-north coast

Local retiree Angelo Papas, 57, manages to make a $300 grocery bill stretch across two weeks for himself and his mother, who he cares for. 

‘I would say my grocery costs have gone up about 30 per cent in a year,’ he said.

‘There isn’t a lot I can do about it.’

Now another perfect storm of drought, flood and inflation is set to send everyday prices soaring yet again. Agribusiness giant Elders is predicting an increase in beef and lamb prices, in the six months to September, due to ‘increased de-stocking in dry regions’.

Meanwhile, Joe Bradley, the president of dairy farmers’ group eastAUSmilk, told Daily Mail Australia a 10 per cent fall in milk production was likely as a result of the latest floods in New South Wales and Cyclone Alfred in Queensland in March.

‘Prices of dairy and dairy products will have to go up, there’s no ifs or buts,’ he said.

‘Milk has to go up: you can’t be paying $1.50 a litre for milk, it has to be two bucks a litre minimum for home brand milk.’

That would see a 2litre bottle rising to $4.

Angelo makes $300 worth of groceries for himself and his mum stretch across two weeks

Angelo shops around at three different supermarkets to help his budget stretch

Another blow for consumers is electricity price increases of up to 9.7 per cent from July 1.

This is occurring in the lead-up to the Albanese government’s $75 quarterly electricity rebates expiring at the end of December. 

The Australian Energy Regulator’s determinations mean NSW customers on standing offers face the steepest price growth of between 8.3 per cent to 9.7 per cent, depending on their network area.

Residential customers on default plans in southeast Queensland can expect hikes of anywhere between 0.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent, while people in South Australia face rises of 2.3 per cent to 3.2 per cent.

Victorian households can expect a modest one per cent average bump, following an Essential Services Commission ruling. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended his government’s energy policies when asked if households were bearing the financial burden of switching to relatively expensive renewable energy and phasing out much cheaper alternatives like coal, oil and gas.

‘The cheapest form of new energy is renewables, backed by gas, backed by batteries and backed by hydro for firming capacity,’ he said.

‘That is the transition that is underway.

‘And at the election on May 3, there was the option of stopping all of that, waiting until the 2040s for the nuclear fantasy to be rolled out with costs, unknown of that.’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended his government’s energy policies

Egg shortages have seen prices skyrocket in the past year due to bird flu outbreaks

Deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien said electricity prices continued to rise despite ‘constant assurances of cheaper power from the Albanese government’.

‘The AER identifies high demand, network and power station outages and low renewable generation as the key drivers behind the continued rise in prices,’ the former energy spokesman said.

‘While the Opposition acknowledges it did not meet expectations at the recent election the fundamental issues in Australia’s energy market under Labor persist – prices continue to rise.’

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