No one wants their house to burn, and I do feel sorry for the family, but...,
the fire was started in the two storey house by an electric go-cart. Now I am making assumptions but if you can afford a two storey house in Eltham, to breed five children and afford an electric go-kart, you can probably afford home insurance in case of fire, yet they did not have such cover. Naturally a gofundme has been set up.
At my great niece's birthday weekend before last, there were quite a few families who came along and bought their lunches and for their children. From my observations, it would have cost a couple with three children north of $150, drinks included, say a jug of Coke. My two gin and tonics cost $26, and my meal $32. It is a nice venue and the service was good, but it wasn't cheap.
With a friend whose birthday it was, we had coffee and cake and the total cost was nigh on $40, just in a cafe.
I'm not crying poor but as people moan on about the cost of living, there doesn't seem much of a sign of it affecting their spending.
While I'm on about money, just over 60 years ago Australia switched from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents. This clip to educate us about dollars and cents was released by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
.jpg)
Why wouldn't you have insurance on your home? It boggles the mind. Here you can't have a mortgage without proof of insurance, and I'm assuming Australia has the same rules, so what happened?
ReplyDeleteI remember the decimal changeover, but had already committed too memory the old basic unit of 12 which probably helps in adding figures up in my head, or mental arithmetic which we called it at school.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBlogger chucked me out while I was correcting my mistakes!!!
DeleteAnyway, we had to take out home insurance before we could exchange contracts on this place, although theoretically we could just not bother to renew it now it's ours. If the house burned down there is no way we could afford the rebuild costs!
Your reflections on spending and the shift from pounds to dollars are thought-provoking, it's interesting to see how perspective on money changes over time.
ReplyDeleteI so believe with the cost of living climbing (monthly it seems) that many are accruing more and more debt. On a budget site I'm on many parents were credit carding their groceries with the loss of jobs, etc. Very upsetting. Bankruptcies will rise no doubt. I found your prices astonishing but then thought of a birthday lunch I bought a friend last week and we split the meal - 1/2 sandwich, little cup of soup and coffees came to $42. I was gobsmacked. Oh and no table service and you had to put away your own dishes and pour your own coffee from a corner urn. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
With five kids I bet there's chaos in the house. Entirely possible they had insurance and fumbled the premiums. It's not unusual for paperwork blunders in that large a family. So there's that possibility. Not having had five kids to raise, I'm reluctant to judge.
ReplyDeleteThe home is located in a well to do area (Arcadia Way, Eltham North, VIC), and it does boggle the mind that it was uninsured. The priorities of the younger generations baffles me quite often.
ReplyDeleteWho even has 5 kids? But then who cares if you are earning more than enough to look after them and they are not welfare dependent.
ReplyDeleteWe pay $22 for a bag of coffee , actually we buy two at a time.. we go out for coffee as well. We can afford it . There’s lots we can’t afford and so we done buy . . When we purchase household goods we buy the best quality and it lasts. Household and health insurance is expensive but not having . Of course the answer is budget and live within your means
But not having it is more expensive!
ReplyDeleteAustralia used to be a fairly egalitarian country, but it has changed this century. Definitely now the haves and the have nots.
ReplyDeleteThat was a very nicely done video made by the RBA. No doubt, non-decimal system was complex. I wonder how people then managed calculations. Their mathematics abilities might have been supergood!
ReplyDeleteIn India, we switched from non-decimal to decimal on the 1st of April 1957. Now, we have Rupee and Paisa. 1 Rupee = 100 paisa.
Before, in the non-decimal system, it was Rupee, Anna, and Pice.
Interesting video. At least when it comes to money, we in the U.S. do have the metric system after all, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how that happened, Kirk.
DeleteConsumerism has never made sense to me. Why do people feel the need to have so much stuff? They work. They spend money on silly things that they could easily do without, which keeps them in debt. It is a never ending cycle.
ReplyDeleteTo not have house insurance.though....boggles the mind.
Is it just me or does anyone else see that "Dollar Bill" looks suspiciously like our current Prime Minister? I got used to the $$ and cents really quickly, but even now five "shillings" still sounds like a lot more than 50 cents. Cents are tiny amounts, while Shillings indicated quite a bit when it was your wages.
ReplyDeleteThere is a notable difference in the cost of eating out or taking the children somewhere. I still do it but much less than I used to.
ReplyDeleteCosts are rising at an alarming rate here, from gas for the car, to my electric bill, its staggering the increases. Google says electric rates are so high here because ratepayers are paying for lawsuits brought by groups of residents who lost their homes in wildfires and blamed overhead electric wires. Juries agreed and gave home losers millions. We pay. 2nd reason given is data farms requiring massive energy.
ReplyDeleteData farms Strayer. The consumption of electricity and water is huge.
DeleteJust love that video and remember it so well, such a catchy ad.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand people not insuring their homes, seems so many who can't afford 'things or stuff' seem to get a 'go fund me' page and so much money is raised for these people, yet those that know doubt struggle to pay insurance don't ever get a 'go fund me' etc, seems most unfair if you know what I mean.
I had no idea how pounds, shillings and pence worked, you needed an engineering degree to do that math.
ReplyDeleteIt was really simple if that's what you grew up with as I did until dollars and cents came here and I was young enough that adjustment was just as easy.
DeleteRiver, I remember perhaps my grandmother showing me how to deal with pounds etc, and I understood. We were not taught at school as no doubt it was seen as pointless with decimal currency coming. I remember being very excited when I receive my first five cent coin from the local corner shop.
DeleteI could get you 2 gin-and-tonics here for around $15.
ReplyDeleteThat's AU$21, cheap. Alcohol and cigarettes are incredibly expensive here because of taxes. A 24 ounce bottle of Johnnie Walker scotch will be US$46, a packet of 20 cigarettes, US$30, which is why the illegal cigarette business is huge here, with an illegal pack of Manchester costing US$9.
DeleteEverything has become so expensive these days. I feel bad for young people just starting out, Andrew.
ReplyDeletePat, yes, it is so hard here for people to buy their first home, but then again, they do tend to want something quite nice to start with and aren't content with starting with a flat and working their way up to a decent house.
DeleteYou have to have house insurance to get a mortgage, but does anyone ever check?
ReplyDeleteLike you, we're not crying poor, but it is about principle. I know what it costs to make/bake things and if I can't justify it, I won't have it.
We prefer to "dine" out, not "eat" out. I am not going out for a grilled cheese when I can make it at home, just because I don't feel like cooking. I'd rather have something different and special.
We never order cocktails out, simply overpriced.
2 gin and tonics would be around $24 - $30 at least here.
Jackie, initially home insurance will be required to get a mortgage, but I don't think renewal is ever followed up.
DeleteI think when we were in Canada, our dollars were on par and prices seemed similar, keeping in mind we were in tourist areas. I think we are worse off now against your dollar. I get your point about dining out and eating out. I do eat out some days, but I rarely go out at night to dine now. Between my meal deliveries for three main courses a week, and Phyllis cooking, and takeaway once a week, I manage ok.
Just wanted to say if you don’t have a mortgage you don’t have to have insurance. Average price of insurance in Eltham for a house is $3000 a year. It is a very bush heavy area = bush fire risk. I would imagine if you have five children coming up with $3000 each year plus your council rates and water rates that’s some financial load.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. Wherever you choose to live, you must take into account of the costs of living there in so many ways. Here for us, it was Owners' Corporation fees. I am probably wasting money paying for contents insurance. Nothing I have is worth much.
DeleteMy family returned from a year in the UK in late 1965. This is the first Australian TV that I remember though of course it was in black and white.
ReplyDeleteOf course, like all government propaganda, it glosses over the fine print, especially at the denominations of coins that were of more concern to a five or six year old. What about the threepence? (or, for that matter, any pennies.)
A couple of years later I attempted an indexation case for an increase of pocket money based on the increase in price of Koolkats or some similar iceblock which, pre-decimalisation, had been 3d, and had by then risen to 4c or maybe even 5c. It was unsuccessful.
I am sure 2 cents bought less licorice squares than a penny. I reckon there was a lot of profiteering when the currency changed.
DeleteI love that video! That was the year I was born. I didn't realize Australia and New Zealand "decimalised" before the UK, which did so in the early '70s. I can't imagine having to faff around with all that complexity when adding up figures.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine why someone wouldn't have insurance, but a lot of people think it's a waste of money because "it will never happen to me."
Glad you enjoyed it, Steve. Smart people do self insurance, that is invest the money they would spend on insurance.
DeleteWorking only 2 days on slightly more than minimum wage means things are pretty tight for me at the moment but I still go out for coffees and meals. I'd rather a small treat frequently than trying to wait and save for a bigger one.
ReplyDeleteThe Decimal system came before I did but I became quite fluent in inches/ feet/ miles. I still understand baby weights in pounds but nothing else!
Kylie, I agree. Big nights out for dinner are in the past for me. I enjoy my cheap brunches or lunches out now.
DeleteWhile I am fully metricated, at times I have to visualise in the old money. An extra inch is still meaningful to me.