'Cost of groceries is sometimes triple': Regions make tough choices

She's moved around numerous times due to rent increases. At one point she even lived in a shed.

Now with a stable rental it's the price of groceries that alarm her.

"Everything is going up," she said. "The price of fruit and vegetables is really quite shocking."

The forty-nine-year-old works part-time to support her two teenage daughters but says it irks her that at the same time as people are struggling "banks are making record profits".

"The GST doesn't discriminate, it is the little people that are hardest hit."

Amanda is one of thousands of stories that make up GetUp's cost of living map. It tells the personal toll of the cost-of-living crisis.

In just over a week since it was launched the activist group has heard from almost 5000 people.

Groceries, rent, energy prices and transport are at the top of people's minds.

Amelia in Far North Queensland told GetUp that in the last two years her rent has nearly doubled "yet pensions have not".

"It's so unaffordable and my biggest fear is being homeless (again) because there is nothing in the entire country I can rent," Amelia said.

Northern Territory professional Annie said even though she and her husband are on good wages "everything is skyrocketing, the price of everything is obscene, you just cannot get ahead".

GetUp chief campaigns officer Amy Gordon acknowledged that people are having to make "tough choices".

"Sometimes it is between fresh food and fast food, other times between medicine and petrol."

Ms Gordon said there were differences between the demographics.

"Young people are feeling the crunch around rent and older generations feeling the impact around groceries and medicine," she said.

The map shows the top concern for Australians aged 18 to 29 is rent while for all other age groups under 60 it is grocery prices.

For 60-69 year-old Australians energy is top of mind and for the over 70s health services.

Ms Gordon says she particularly empathizes with people in regional and remote communities where the prices can be even higher than in the cities.

"There are stories in regional communities about having to travel 60km to see a doctor and they just can't afford it," she said.

"The cost of groceries is sometimes triple what it is in the city in the regions."

Ms Gordon says in an election year they hope to present these stories to the major parties and hear tangible policies on reducing cost of living.

"We really expect to see policies from all people wanting to be elected on how they are going to reduce the cost of living crisis," she said.

"Let's start pushing Australia towards a future where economic policies deliver for people and communities - not the wealthy few."

The Albanese government has to go to the polls before June 2025.

Inflation remains stubbornly high in Australia despite 13 interest rate hikes between May 2022 and November 2023.

Click here to see GetUp's cost of living map