That is according to CommSec’s economics team who broke down percentages of what Australians spent their money on last year.

They spent less on newspapers and books to compensate but more on going out for takeway, alcohol and pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.

CommSec chief economist Craig James told The Age  that there was clear evidence that a ”cocooning effect” took hold during 2009 due to heightened money and job concerns.

”When there’s bad times around, you cocoon yourself at home and you buy takeaway and liquor rather than going out on the town,” he says.

He said Australians “came out of their burrows” towards the end of the year when the financial side of things started looking better.

And it’s likely to continue into 2010 with the economy still at fragile heights.

At least however, Australia’s unemployment rate has been stable and hasn’t risen too much.

KPMG demographer Bernard Salt told The Age many of the spending trends of 2009 will continue.

”It’s quite clear that we got ourselves through this recession by binging on drinks, drugs and burgers,” he says.

”The amount spent at pharmacies has been on the up for a while, reflecting not only our ageing population but our lifestyle shift towards wellness and wellbeing.”

Ice Hockey is amazing. Same with skiing. And what better place to do it than Vancouver in Canada.

But a death in the early stages last week showed perhaps how dangerous these sports are and how these sportsmen must be admired.

21-year-old Norad Kumaritashvili lost his life at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Friday after losing control and smashing his head on a metal pole at the side of the luge track.

“He called me before the Olympics, three days ago, and he said, ‘Dad, I’m scared of one of the turns,’ ” his father David Kumaritashvili told journalists at his home.

“I said put your legs down on the ice to slow down but he said if he started the course he would finish it. … He was brave,” David Kumaritashvili said outside his home in the rural town of Bakuriani in the Republic of Georgia.

Nodar Kumaritashvili’’s father said his son had dreamt of competing at the Olympics since he was a young child.

It really does make you stand up and admire the athletes that get through these events; let alone win gold.

And it may depend if you have a love in your life or not.

But then even if you do, the pressure’s on to keep her happy.

It was amazing that this Valentine’s Day, men continued to flock to florists for those traditional roses.

It’s the day that shows your love and affection to the person you love the most.

One couple that I know of were maybe a familiar couple to you.

The woman said to the man prior to Valentine’s Day that she doesn’t want anything this Valentine’s Day so the man didn’t buy her anything.

But the woman was on about it to him all day because she didn’t get anything; not even a single rose.

This is exactly why I got my beautiful partner something – even though she said she didn’t want anything either.

It’s like an intuition that you have to have when you’re with woman.

For the record, I got my fiance some earrings from Diva and a large bunch of roses mixed in with some white lillies to give it that classic look.

Every girl likes flowers – even though I think they are a waste of money.

They are highly effective on days such as Valentine’s Day.

And girls love it. Even though a lot of men think it’s complete commercialism.

Then of course, there’s the movie Valentines Day.

I saw this on the Friday prior to Valentines Day.

What an amazing movie it is full of young talented stars. Probably one of the best movies I’ve seen in the past year and I’m a guy.

Well it’s got Jessica Alba in it, what can I say?

Well that is just the predicament that cricket is in at the moment.

One Day Internationals have become mundane to even the biggest cricket enthusiast.

Sporting fans are pleading for more 20-20 cricket matches. But then again, how long will that last for.

People want faster and more vibrant games such as football. With pure speed and skill rather than watching a four being hit every 20 or so balls.

Cricket is in strife in Australia.

Although the money is in the Indian Premier League, it could drop off in domestic cricket once the popularity disappears in 20-20 cricket.

20-20 cricket is keeping the game alive. But how long for?

Will fans be after 10-10 cricket in another five years.

Cricket at an international scale must re-develop a way on how to make the game more attractive to the viewer.

Sporting fans are much more impatient now than what they were 20 or 50 years ago.

They want action and they want it all the time.

Hence why the remote control is pushed to channel seven and ten rather than nine.

NAB Cup football is exciting but not as exciting as the main season.

But footy fans want to see the top players. The new ones running around.

That’s a hell of a lot more attractive than a boring ODI.

Or maybe Melbourians are taking it for granted.

Melbourne remains the third most liveable city in the world, and just 2.5 percentage points short of perfection according to the rankings.

Ranking 140 global cities on 30 criteria covering stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure, the think tank of The Economist magazine gives Melbourne a score of 97.5 out of a possible 100.

Winter Olympics host Vancouver remains No. 1 , scoring 98.0, despite its unfortunate lack of snow, while Vienna was ranked second with 97.9.

Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, was judged the most unliveable city in the survey, with a total score of just 37.5.

Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, tied with Algiers as the second worst, followed by Port Moresby.

Half of the top 10 cities come from lands Down Under. Sydney was seventh, Perth and Adelaide equal eighth and Auckland 10th (96.1).

Canada had three of the top five cities, with Toronto ranked fourth and Calgary fifth. London was ranked 54th with a score of 88.4. European cities were ranked the most liveable by region but only Vienna and Helsinki (sixth) made the top 10.

It surely makes you think sometimes. Those who love to travel and those who are always pouring backlash onto Melbourne when it is judged the third most liveable city in the world.

Where else would you want to be? Maybe Vancouver for the Winter Olympics and that’s about it.

You talk of some of the great Australian ironman legends – Ky Hurst would be at the top if not one of the most impeccable over time.

At 28, he has amazing surf skills and showed his best on Sunday on the Sunshine Coast to come from last in the semi final of round three of the Nutri Grain Ironman contest to finish first.

Again in the final, he came and conquered and was well behind after falling off the ski. He was last again.

He needed a big swim and there he was – albeit with the luck of a giant wave that sucked in most of the competitors ahead of him – Hurst fell to the lead in what was one of his biggest performances yet.

He has won four Australian Ironman titles and is currently in second place on the road to another.

A lot of that has to do with generation Y not buying newspapers and simply looking up their news online.

Fairfax and News Limited this year will limit its news being put online so that it will be available for subscription based readers only.

Mr Bernard Salt, a KMPG demographer, told The Age that the fall in spending on newspapers and books – down 11.9 per cent in real terms in 2009 – is worrying for these industries. ”Gen Y is simply not buying newspapers. If they want to look at something, they look at it on the net.”

He says e-books and tablet computers will lead this online transition. ”We are about a year off open warfare between new technology and old,” he says.

He predicts that in two to three years’ time this transition will reach a tipping point, ”then everyone will have to have a Kindle or an iPad”.

The new technology with iPhones and the new iPad makes it tougher for these newspapers to survive.

Already advertising is at an all time low and that has meant that newspapers are now on limited staff after many redundancies due to the economic crisis last year.

More and more people are now turning online – so what is the future of our newspapers? Will there always be newspapers around or will technology actually kill it?

I believe there has to be newspapers around for archive and historical reasons. It’s a print publication. You can cut it out and keep it.

Surely that’s a big enough sign to suggest newspapers can still remain viable.

Yet it ended in disaster like a horror movie.

But for the Victorian public, that rollercoaster has turned into a macabre spectacle.

It was a search for a fallen millionaire. First he was spotted alive creating hope for the family and beyond.

Then he was pronounced dead within days.

It’s been nearly eight years since a story like this has gripped Melbourne, and it eerily played out in the same coveted area of Malvern and surrounds.

In April 2002, wealthy Victorian socialite, Margaret Wales-King, and her husband, Paul King, went to a family dinner at her son’s home — close to the Rockefeller family home — and then vanished.

It’s a gripping story that had the media chasing every angle for the past six weeks.

It has created headlines overseas even – but Victoria is a state that loves its gossip.

The Rockefeller story fed them even more. This time it was bad news at the end of it all.

These reports suggest that the majority of the 52 most prone places for fire in Victoria have dismissed the guidelines and recommendations from the bushfires royal commission.

It’s amazing how after last year’s Black Saturday events – not even 12 months since the event – that people are still taking this for granted.

News Limited papers said the reports, compiled by the Country Fire Authority, Emergency Services Commissioner and RMIT University, revealed almost half of people in the state’s highest fire risk areas would not leave their home on a catastrophic, or code red, fire danger day.

They show only 15 per cent had changed their bushfire survival plans after Black Saturday and almost one third did not understand the national warning system introduced last year.

One quarter of those surveyed would stay in their homes on code red days and only leave if they saw fire, while 78 per cent who stayed to defend their homes on Black Saturday said they would do it again.

People in these areas have seen the effects of last year’s disaster. It gained world recognition.

Still, some people believe they have more to worry about.

But what’s more important than protecting yourself and your family. Keep a look out particularly on total fire ban days.

Bernard Tomic, one of the sports’ rising stars, put up a brilliant performance in the second round against Croatia’s Maran Cilic, who made it all the way through to the semi-finals in the Open.

Tomic took Cilic to five sets and looked in control half way through the third set.

By his own admission, he didn’t like playing until 2am. As a 17 year old, that’s a fair statement.

It’s not an excuse, but it’s a statement that needs to be thought about by Open organisers next year.

Despite, Sam Stosur and Casey Dellacqua getting through an extra couple of rounds, Tomic was the real for star for me as far as the Aussies go.

It was sad that there was no Australians remaining on Australia Day with Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur out on Australia Day eve.

Hewitt, perhaps his last ditch effort on home soil, was mediocre at best compared to Roger Federer in his fourth round match.

It was like a boy playing against a master. Federer was too good, too strong and too poised.

Tomic made his mark in Melbourne this January.

He is Australia’s greatest hope in the next few years.

Of course, Jelena Dokic, Stosur and Dellacqua will be there for the women. But the men have only lauded Hewitt in recent times in Australian ranks.

Thank god for Tomic.