A pensioner says she has been hit hard by the rising costs of living, saying she uses her free bus pass to keep warm in the winter and lives on 'yellow sticker' food.
Linda Foster, 73, who grew up in a working class household in Carlisle but is now retired in Skegness, says she 'pulled herself up' to own her home and make a good living for her and her children. However, in recent months, Ms Foster has had to make decisions to ensure food is on the table.
She said: "Well, all the food has gone up tremendously and when you live on a pension you've got to take that into consideration. It's getting to the point now where you used to be able to move down a level in food, down to the supersavers, but now you're at the bottom level. You can't move down any lower."
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She said she'd had to change her spending habits, adding: "I don't buy any propriety brands anymore. I buy the supermarkets' own or even lower than that." Ms Foster says she is buying the 'yellow sticker' food "all the time" and added: "I've always been a canny shopper, but I have to be more canny now."
Household energy bills increased by 54% in April and are likely to rise substantially again in October, reports Lincolnshire Live. Ms Foster said: "I'm not only worried about the incoming increase in bills, I'm worried about the state of the government.
"How can a government, that are at sixes and sevens, run the country correctly? How can they stop this increase, increase, increase all the time? I know they are supposed to be giving us money, but then are you borrowing money from other countries? We'll be in a recession before we know where we are. Then people will start losing their jobs and things will get even worse. So, it is a worrying time."
This has caused Ms Foster to be extra cautious when heating her home. She said: "On cold nights, I'll turn the heating off and go to bed and lie and watch television in bed. In the winter I'll go and lie in bed to watch tele in the afternoon rather than put the heating on. Sometimes I'll go out for the whole day [on the bus].
"I'll get the bus to Boston, Lincoln, Mablethorpe. Lincoln's two hours on the way there and two hours on the way back, so you're spending a lot of the day out."
Ms Foster says she is already saving for more expenditure in December, saying: "The way things are, how am I going to afford to give my grandchildren Christmas presents and birthday presents and things like that? I'm already starting to save up for Christmas so I can give them all a present."
Ms Foster says she is also considering selling her car, as petrol costs so much, she doesn't see the point of keeping it. She resents that in spite of making a good life for herself, she feels that is being taken away from her.
"I lived in a family where there wasn't much money, but I think it's sad that I've managed to pull myself up," she said. "I own this house, I brought my children up properly and I think it's sad I'm going to have to live the way I lived when I was a child when there was no money about for anything."
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