Where the money goes


AUSTRALIANS spend more
than a quarter of their house-
hold food budgets on take-
away and restaurant meals.
They spend almost as much
on cosmetics and hair care as
on fuel and power, and more
on alcohol than fruit and
vegetables.

Australian Bureau of Stat-
istics research into where the
money goes, shows that food,
transport, housing and rec-
reation are by far the biggest
expenses.

Around $602 a week is
spent by the average house-
hold on goods and services-
$111 of which accounts for
food. Transport costs average
$97 a week and about $79 goes
to recreation every week.

Petrol adds up to more than
meat and seafood in most
houses-around $26 a week
on petrol and $18 on meat
products.

Almost $30 (27%), of total
food spending goes on take-
away food and restaurants-
a 5% increase over 1984.

Spending on alcohol aver-
ages $17 a week, $9 of which is
for beer, $4 on wine and $3 on
spirits.

In comparison, just $14 a
week is spent on fruit and $13
on bakery products and
cereals.

Spare-time spending is sig-
nificant.

Almost $23 a week goes
towards holidays, accounting
for around 30% of the $79
spent on recreation.

Mainstream recreation
such as video hire, sports fees
admission to sports events,
cinemas and theatres cost
around $15 a week.

On top of that around $13
weekly is spent on televisions
stereos, computers and other
audio-visual equipment and
about $9 on toys and sporting
goods.

Books, newspapers and
magazines account for just $8
a week.

Where to next?

Student Questions for this article
Teacher Discussion of this article
Index - Related articles
Index - Data Representation
Numeracy in the News - Main Index