Towards a good (enough) life: The thrifty lives of young Australians

Everyday lives of young people are made difficult by high costs of living, housing and environmental crises but there is sparse academic literature that examines the ways in which this group navigates financial pressures and environmental concerns. This article revisits the concept of thrift in the context of contemporary challenges and reveals its place and significance in daily practices of young Australians. Drawing on visits at participants’ homes in Melbourne, Australia (including interviews and home tours), the article discusses different ‘thrifty’ approaches and negotiations for saving money and resources that are pursued to maintain a fulfilling life. The findings suggest a conceptualisation of thrift as a present strategy and future orientation – a practice that is geared towards accomplishing pro-environmental, pleasurable and hopeful outcomes through consumption and sharing, but also one that can be experienced as discomfort and hardship. Issues concerning the access and affordability of housing and domestic energy use expose negative experiences of thriftiness. Building on the scholarship that connects the organisation of the everyday and thrift with the ideas of a ‘good (enough) life’, we argue that such articulation provides a productive lens to understand the intersecting and seemingly contradictory dynamics of thrift by young people. As compounding challenges mark societies and economies around the world, we reiterate the call for empirically-nuanced accounts of lived experiences and practices such as thrift.