Soapbox Slice | Australia – A Day in the Life of …..

Australian authorities first started to gather information about their fellow citizens as early as 1788 where people were “mustered” or gathered at specific locations to be counted to ensure there were sufficient food and supplies to feed the new colony.

The objective of gathering relevant information to plan hasn’t changed much in over 200 years, but in a super connected world, mustering has well and truly been replaced by the ability to connect and engage.

In the spirit of the release of new Census data, Stable Research recently engaged with our connected Soapbox community to find out a bit about how they live their lives in 2017.

Our “A Day in the Life Of” survey participants were from an equal mix of genders aged between 16 to 75+. Their living arrangements also covered all life stages from single with no children to married or De Facto with children who had left home.

This is what they look like:

• While it’s great to see that 82% of our community have breakfast every or most mornings, this healthy habit has been overtaken by the popularity of checking social media or emails, with 86% of people indicating that this is their most common morning task;
• 29% of participants work from home with no dependent family, while 26% work for someone else. Travelling to work by car far outweighed the use of public transport, with only 14% of people indicating they travelled to work this way;
• At work, most people bring their lunch from home more than three days a week, but they do give themselves a treat, with nearly 40% of people eating out one day a week. The same can be said for dinner, with nearly half of all participants eating out or enjoying take-away only once each week, while 73% cook at home more than three days a week;
• On the day that participants took this survey, nearly 79% indicated they would be watching free-to-air TV after dinner and 62% said they would surf the net. 33% indicated that they would spend their after-dinner hours doing housework and 26% indicated they would to listen to or play music;
• Friends and family form an important and significant part of people’s weekend activities, with 71% of our community preferring to spend their time this way. Reading a book at 59% was also a popular past time. Cultural activities, going to church and volunteering were conducted by under 20% of participants surveyed; And;
• If they had an extra $500, 31% would save it and 18% would spend it on travel, rather than splurge on a night out with friends at only 2%. A further 15% said they would pay back a debt, while 9% would spend the money on groceries or other essential items, and only 7% would choose to buy an experience they could share with others.

Overall, you could say that the participants were a pretty sensible and conservative bunch, with their choices indicating that while they enjoyed a good time they also watched their spending, which was reflected in the high number of participants that either brought their lunch to work or had dinner at home.

The fact that most people would rather save an extra $500 rather than spend it could be reflective of high levels of debt, the cost of living and other factors.