Photo source: Reserve Bank of Australia

A new Australian five dollar note has recently been released. Five dollars. A fiver! What does it buy you? According to a friend, he finds far too many things are now $5.

Five dollar days
My friend Mark, is a young professional guy who enjoys a full life – embracing the city lifestyle as well as escaping to the country on weekends. But when talking about the cost of cafe food items, his indignation boiled over. Everything seems to cost him $5 these days.

A five-dollar lamington
It seems too many things now cost $5. It is not unusual for him to pay $5 for a coffee, a donut and recently a cup of tea (made with a tea bag in a cup)! He was even changed $5.50 for a long black coffee in a CBD hotel, last week. But his latest discovery and the source of his exasperated outburst, was a $5 lamington.

“Outrageous!” he suggests.

A lamington? $5? Well no ordinary lamington of course. A jam-filled one. A “gastro-lamington”? But still, a lamington – that cost $5. He considered it. It looked delicious, but he just couldn’t bring himself to hand over a fiver for it.

A situation for Seinfeld
It sounds like fodder for a Seinfeld episode. At least that’s the way our discussion went. Someone suggested a new challenge for Mark, this weekend. The challenge – not to spend $5 on anything! (He may have to stay at home.)

Now you may think Mark must lead a charmed life, to be frequenting establishments where he pays this price for fairly pedestrian items. Too much time in fancy cafes, gastro-pubs and boutique delis? Well, even his forays into country Victoria have seen him presented with a $5 coffee bill! He would tell you that the $5 item is becoming the norm … and he doesn’t like it!

What about you?
What do you pay $5 for? Or, perhaps a different question – what is worth $5 in your world?