Cost-of-living crisis: Melbourne woman ‘gives up eating’ as she struggles to live off full-time salary
A young Aussie has revealed her personal problems keeping track of living expenses by claiming she had to ‘stop eating’.
Ebonie, a Melbourne woman, told her TikTok followers in a candid video that she had given up on four important aspects of her life despite holding down a full-time job.
She has failed to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, expand her music vinyl collection, buy clothes and, most depressingly, find happiness.
Ebonie sat in her car outside a Woolworths as she candidly admitted that she “literally couldn’t live.”
The battle took its toll, with Ebonie revealing that she had lost weight due to her restrictive diet.
A young Australian, Ebonie (pictured), has revealed her personal sacrifices to keep costs down during a cost-of-living crisis, claiming she has had to skip meals
She said she “don’t know” how others are coping with the higher costs. “I thought I’d tell you some things I’ve had to give up.”
Ebonie revealed that she could no longer afford to “buy the foods I like.”
“I can’t buy fruit, I can’t buy snacks, I can’t even buy a cheeky Red Bull,” she said in the video posted on Tuesday.
Both she and her fiancé were even forced to buy meat in bulk from a butcher and freeze it to cut costs.
“And I don’t even like meat,” Ebonie said.
Her cost-cutting tactics have had an unwelcome consequence: the young woman has lost so much weight that her clothes no longer fit her.
This is another burden for Ebonie as she is now faced with spending more money on clothes.
“(I) can’t even afford to look at a clothing store,” she said.
“I have to wear the outfits I already have, and I don’t even like them.”
She also won’t be able to continue her tradition of buying her favorite albums on vinyl with the highly anticipated Taylor Swift album ‘1989’ coming out soon.
“[It]really hurts my little vinyl collector heart,” Ebonie said.
“But the fourth thing I’ve given up is being happy,” she said at the end of the video.
Ebonie’s fate has caught the attention of countless social media users, who also shared their own grim experiences with cost-cutting.
Ebonie hasn’t been able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, expand her music vinyl collection, or buy new clothes as she feels the constraints of the cost of living (stock image)
Most depressing, however, is Ebonie’s admission that she had to sacrifice her happiness to keep her finances under control.
“I am an unemployed university student who has moved away from home. I am so grateful that my parents pay for my rent and groceries, but I fear the future,” one user wrote.
“The cost of food is astronomical, being gluten and dairy free means I can spend $250 on food alone,” wrote a second.
“Having stopped doing ‘luxuries’ like haircuts and dentist appointments, I worry about people working in small businesses,” a third wrote.
Earlier this week, another TikTok user had posted a video outlining the skyrocketing prices of groceries, claiming that “Australia is a third world country” while lamenting how little food he was getting from supermarket giant Coles for nearly $91.84 .
In another video, a young woman began to cry as she talked about how the cost of living affected her life.
“Everything is so expensive in Australia,” she said.
“When the grind becomes reality, this video is a glimpse into the struggles of a brutal work routine and the search for something more than just the grind.”