00:00 Fuel for frustration. Petrol prices across Adelaide have hit an eye-watering $2.29 a
00:08 litre, up 40 cents in 24 hours.
00:11 When it's going up, you know, the way it is, it's just ludicrous for a lot of people.
00:15 Being on a pension, I think they've got a saver of a barrel really.
00:19 Driving the rise are the usual suspects, restricted global production and a weak Australian dollar,
00:25 but also the convenience store business model.
00:28 So they use fuel prices as a mechanism to get people in, knowing that they're not making money on the fuel.
00:35 Then once, after a while, they spike it. That's where we're seeing now.
00:38 Despite the hit-to-hit pockets, the RAA says fuel prices in recent months in South Australia
00:43 have actually been among the lowest in the nation.
00:46 But with household budgets already under the pump, that's scant consolation.
00:50 It's the flow-on effects on personal finance and daily life that have experts concerned,
00:56 with more people forced to choose between bare necessities.
00:59 And we've heard stories of people who've had to get emergency assistance so that they can afford to pay their petrol,
01:05 so that they can afford to get to work, which then means they can afford to pay their housing and not lose their accommodation.
01:12 Some consumers have resorted to changing their habits to better match the price cycle.
01:16 Yeah, you just tend to be a bit more cautious about, 'I don't need to go out' or, you know, do your shopping on one particular day.
01:23 The RAA says the current price spike may become a plateau for the next few months.
01:28 I don't know whether it'll go that much higher, but I don't see them reducing for the next month or two.
01:34 And people still can shop around though, because if you've got a fuel lap, that's real-time fuel pricing.
01:42 Every cent and drop adds up.
01:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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