Australians drinking, smoking less, spending more, new data shows

Australians are spending more on nearly everything except for drinking and smoking, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has shown.

The monthly household spending indicator from the ABS showed Australians spent substantially more over December than they did the previous year.

Comparison website Canstar Blue extrapolated the country spent $460 million more on food that month than the year before.

Australians spend less on alcohol year-on-year in December.

And an extra $363 million was spent on furnishings and household equipment.

But nearly half a billion less was spent on transport compared to December 2023.

But the broadest change was in alcoholic beverages and tobacco, dropping 7.3 per cent year on year.

More than $270 million that was spent on drinking and smoking in December 2023 was spent elsewhere in 2024.

Canstar Blue estimated a household of four spends $216 a week on groceries.

$57 is spent a week on petrol, and $18 on takeaway coffee.

Close-up shot of a barista adding steamed milk to coffee.

The average Australian spends $66 a month on wine, $3 more than is spent on a gym membership.

Only in the Northern Territory did alcohol and tobacco purchases increase, but by just 0.1 per cent.

In every other jurisdiction, drinking and smoking decreased.

Health spending was down across the board save for South Australia and the NT.

But the figures were inverted for furnishings and household equipment, up everywhere but those two.

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