A pensioner has been forced to use her free bus pass to keep her warm in the winter and scour the shelves for yellow sticker food to survive as the heartbreaking consequences of the crippling cost of living crisis are laid bare.
Linda Foster, 73, says she had "pulled herself up" to make a good living for herself and her children but in later life has suddenly been confronted with tough decisions to keep food on the table.
She told LincolnshireLive : "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."
Ms Foster, who grew up in Carlisle but now lives in Skegness, says she's had to change her spending habits.
She added: "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."
She added: "I've always been a canny shopper, but I have to be more canny now. "
Household energy bills have skyrocketed by 54 per cent in April 2022 and are likely to rise substantially again in October.
Ms Foster said: "I'm not only worried about the incoming increase in bills, but I'm also worried about the state of the government.
"How can a government, that is 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 added: "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.
"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."
