Ignore those dust bunnies in your wallet; they’re lying to you. It turns out that we are better off than ever before! So where’s the cash?

A study written by ANU researcher Ben Phillips and published by financial services company AMP shows that we are $224 a week better off than we were in 1984.

According to Mr Phillips, the research suggests that the sense of financial hardship we all experience may be caused more by expectations than realities he said in an interview to The Age.

Today’s families expect to eat out often and eat well. They have the multiple gadgets; expect to go away for holidays and judging by the number of fat back TV’s that await council pick up on suburban streets,  upgrading to the latest technology is a must.

According to AMP director Craig Meller, Australians had learnt to expect the good life. ''Maybe it's not the cost of living that's soaring out of control, but rather our aspirational selves telling us we need more.''

So instead of eating our take-out in front of the plasma while we charge our iPod, maybe we should finish our home cooked meal, walk to the fat back TV to change the channel and put some fresh batteries in our walkman. It will save us a dime.