For Fairy Meadow video editor Jason Baxter, the days of going out to parties and events are long gone.
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It's not that the 24 year old is too old, or that family commitments are keeping him closer to home.
He is just one of the many 20-somethings that no longer go out to clubs and bars, and are instead making itemised grocery lists, meal-prepping and leaving the car at home.
Mr Baxter is well aware that he is not the most disadvantaged cohort in the Illawarra, but as young people who enter the workforce are squeezed by stagnant wage growth and rising cost of living, he is hoping that this year's federal budget delivers on Treasurer Jim Chalmer's assertion that the budget will deliver a better deal for young workers - often overlooked in federal spending.
One of the most significant measures will be changes to student debts. Mr Baxter is one of over 12,000 Illawarra residents who has a Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt and has $30,000 to pay off since he finished his degree in 2023, and as a contractor will pay any amount owed as a lump sum as part of his tax return.
"I'm quite interested to see how much that will be."
The government has previously announced changes to the indexation of HECS debts, which will tie increases to student loan debts to inflation or wage growth, whichever is lower. This will be backdated to 2023, cutting $3 billion after the 7.1 per cent hike last year when repayments were solely tied to average wage growth.
The government will also pay student doctors, nurses and teachers up to $319.50 per week during their mandatory work placements.
But besides these big ticket measures it is the grocery bills, fuel dockets and power bills that young people say are the reason why they are not paying club cover charges, shouting a round of drinks or buying a bowl of chips for the table.
"In first year [of university] we would go out a bit, and before COVID, we would go out a bit, I don't know how but five years ago, we felt like we had a bit more money," Mr Baxter said.
"Now it feels like if we want to do that the cost is so much more."
After years of inflation outpacing wage growth, real wage growth returned in February this year, but for young people this was too little too late, as rents and house prices rose significantly post-COVID, as well as the weekly shop.
Peak community body the Australian Council for Social Services has called for the government to lift payments such as Youth Allowance, JobSeeker and Austudy in this year's budget as it did in 2023, but as Dr Chalmers attempts to also fight inflation, he has hosed down suggestions of significant increases to welfare payments.
However, it is this real relief, whether through cuts to bills and expenses or lifts to wages that would allow Mr Baxter and his compatriots to have the 20s generations before them did.
"That could make a very big different to people's lives."
