AS inflation continues, interest rates rise and pay checks remain stagnant, Newcastle families are struggling to put food on the table and purchase essential school items for their children.
"Everything just feels like it's sort of snowballing," Lake Macquarie mum Sarah* said.
Children's education charity The Smith Family has released its annual Pulse Survey, revealing the cost of living crisis continues to exacerbate educational inequalities faced by children experiencing disadvantage.
Out of 2,284 people, more than half of respondents found it "hard or very hard" to afford school supplies and 34.5 per cent said school had been "hard or very hard" for their children this year.
Sarah* is a stay-at-home mum and home schools her children who are in years one, four and five. Her husband works in the trade industry and works overtime hours to scrape in enough money to live.
"I'm so grateful to my husband that I can be at home with the kids and we do save on uniforms because they are home schooled, but all of their resources are on us," she said.
While following NSW Department of Education guidelines, Sarah* said her kids learn what's taught in public schools, but she has to find resources to deliver the curriculum.
"Absolutely nothing is provided under the home schooling network. We don't get their books, pencils and art supplies. There is a lot of free and low cost stuff I access online but we also use a maths program that I pay for," she said.
She said the struggle was having to pick and choose what activities her children can take place in under their budget.
"If there's something I'm interested in my kids doing and when I times it by three, there's just no way I can afford that," she said.
"Things have a big price tag. It's hard. It's not a nice feeling to be like 'I can't afford that' for my children's education. It's horrible."
She said she knows other families were struggling just as much.
"It doesn't matter what your income is, we are all in the same boat," she said.
Among the survey's key findings, just over 52 per cent of people cited increases in everyday expenses such as groceries, rent, home energy costs, and petrol.
Sarah* said her family's budget ranged between $1000 to $1200 per week, depending on if her husband works overtime and it was "nowhere near enough."
"Once you take out everything it really doesn't leave much," she said.
"The cost of groceries really increased, I was spending maybe $250 a week and now it's getting over $350 to $400 a week just to feed my family the basics.
"It's just so depressing and I'm not buying anything extravagant."
She said previously she was able to put money away into savings but this year, it was quite the opposite.
"There's been a lot of going and taking money out of the savings and nothing getting put back in," she said.
Fortunately Sarah* has been able to receive support through The Smith Family which has allowed her to purchase items like school shoes and laptops for her children.
"They really take the edge off when things are so tough. Knowing that at least they have school supplies and anything that they might need such as uniforms, school books, lunch boxes, bags, hats and shoes. It helps so much," she said.
Home in Place events and partnerships manager Michelle Faithfull said they have seen a huge demand in helping young families with their Grow a Star program.
"A lot of schools are referring young people to us. Obviously the economic crisis has exacerbated things, we're seeing more families looking for that support and it's not just necessarily people from social housing, it's across the board," she said.
The program offers youth scholarships and mentoring for disadvantaged kids and helps kids with getting technology and tutoring.
"Basically, we remove barriers for the family, that can be specialists lessons or equipment or clothing or even sports clubs registrations and travelling expenses for excursions - those are the killers for families," she said.
The Smith Family NSW general manager Fiona Coluccio said the organisation is looking to raise $2 million in its annual Christmas Appeal in NSW to help an additional 5000 students to access vital learning programs
"This is the second year in a row that families across NSW have told us how much the cost-of-living crisis is threatening their children's education," she said.
"That's why we've launched our annual Christmas Appeal to help mitigate some of these challenges."
