After the birth of their second child, Binod Adhikari and Sita Panta were faced with a choice — to live on one income or two.
Among a growing number of people in Australia experiencing levels of hardship not seen in many decades, they felt they had no option but to both work full-time to make ends meet.
"I am struggling a lot because we [can't afford] to pay for childcare … So I take care of him by myself while working full-time," Ms Panta said.
"We have been struggling with our daily expenses: groceries, fuel, childcare prices and electricity," Mr Adhikari added.
The parents are not the only Territorians who were hoping for some relief from cost of living pressures in the 2024 NT Budget this week, but were left underwhelmed.
They say their most recent power bill was double the last, and rising prices are constantly on their minds.
On Tuesday, Northern Territory Chief Minister and Treasurer Eva Lawler handed down her pre-election budget, including big investments in roads, infrastructure, education and hundreds of millions more for police and crime prevention.
However, some Territorians who spoke to the ABC have been left wondering what's in the budget for them.
Ms Lawler on Tuesday recognised cost of living as a major issue for Territorians and said the budget "addresses that".
"We're making sure that motor vehicle registration only goes up by about 1 per cent, we're increasing the concession for our seniors by about $50 and we saw the back-to-school vouchers also go up by $50," she said.
For Robyne Burridge, a disability advocate, getting around Darwin is never easy.
Footpaths are cracked and bumpy, steps block her wheelchair from entering buildings and shops, and she sometimes waits hours for a taxi.
"People are still having to go south for major surgery," she said.
"There is a shortage Australia-wide of allied health professionals.
"There's an awful lot of people with disabilities who don't meet the NDIS criteria, and they're really struggling."
The NT's health system is under extreme pressure, but this year's budget cut funding.
Despite the diverse range of disabilities in the NT, a lack of infrastructure and challenges around service delivery, only $3 million was earmarked for the disability sector — upgrading access at the Hidden Valley Motor Sport complex.
In her 40 years in the Territory, Ms Burridge said she hadn't once seen a budget deliver a significant investment to the disability sector.
"I'm not being disrespectful to our ministers, but there's so many of them that don't understand disability at all," she said.
"I think unless you've had some sort of personal experience … or some knowledge of disability, it can be a frightening subject."
At a busy cafe tucked in Darwin's industrial precinct, Pippa Ainsworth serves a constant stream of customers from the moment she opens the doors, but says that hasn't made owning a small business any easier.
She said the budget's heavy spend on infrastructure and millions earmarked for the development of the Middle Arm Industrial Hub would benefit the industries surrounding her and keep customers coming through the doors.
But she said the government's budget had left businesses like hers "to our own devices".
And she said she was starting to notice the impacts of meagre spending in the arts and music scene, an industry that generates billions of dollars a year across Australia.
The NT budget includes $104 million for the ongoing construction of the Northern Territory Art Gallery, but Ms Ainsworth said not enough was being done to create a vibrant city that attracted people to live, work and invest.
"People don't want to stay here," she said.
"You have to have a heart and centre that fuels lifers."
In the past 12 months, Ester Gagliardo, a first-year medical student at Flinders University, and her family have been broken into three times in Darwin.
On top of that, she's balancing full-time study with picking up extra shifts working as a nurse to deal with rising prices.
The budget includes big spends on law and order, including funding to recruit hundreds more police officers, which Ms Gagliardo said made her feel safer.
But she said she would have liked to see more support for young people studying, such as scholarships and subsidies.
"In med school, there's very little time to work," she said.
"If the cost of living crisis continues to increase it's definitely going to be hard for students with a very high study load … it's almost going to become impossible."