Aussie households brace for a bleak Christmas as inflation bites and cost of living pressures mount

Baldivis couple Tegan and Redd Lane, who are expecting their first child in March, never expected to be starting a family under such tumultuous economic conditions.

“I look at us and go ‘right, well, we’re quite successful, but why can’t we afford that?’” Ms Lane told The West Australian.

“I drive 40 minutes to and from work every day and I’ve never been one to seek out the cheapest fuel, but now with all the other costs, it’s a domino effect.

“It’s the fuel prices, the cost of living, it’s clothing you need for work. Plus it’s the little things you don’t think about, like your rates going up or things that need fixing around the house costing more than you’d expect. We had to spend thousands on plaster work on our house for example.”

The added financial pressure has put a darker twist on occasions that would typically be happy, like Christmas.

“My folks are over east, but I often have Christmas with my cousin, and she owns her home. And the first question we sort of ask is, ‘are we doing gifts this year?’. Just because life, and I’ve got a baby on the way,” Ms Lane said.

“That’s sort of one of the main questions that we ask and what are we doing food wise, or are we doing it home, or are we doing it out, that sort of thing because it all adds up.

“I’ll do gifts for kids, but probably in regards to like doing like adult gifts, probably not.”

Planning for the birth of their first child early next year had also required a delicate and frugal approach.

“The first thing we looked up was how much it is to have a baby in the private system, then we had to figure out how much to put away to be alright,” she said.

“It’s going through the list of things we need and want for a baby and having to thinking ‘Okay, do we actually need that?’

“Even talking to my mum... she’s like, oh, I just had two scans, and I was like, okay, well, I’ve had 10 so far, it’s a different world.”