Well I'm fed up doing big food shop monthly and every week it's costing way too much on top that pay taxis to school and my son struggles toileting and he's 10 and goes through pants and pull ups like no tomoz x

The most important thing at this moment is the heating as the weather is so cold and you can't keep it on for too long. Nappies and food are way too expensive so we are trying to cut and only get what is most important for myself and my son

I feel a lot like I've just stepped off a precipice and into a place I have no idea how to navigate.

I am managing so much in terms of voluntary and some paid work, and what it means is very soon I will have to become self employed. I feel a lot like this situation is so wrenching because I want to have a better life but the tax office want me to declare after just £1000 earnings, which will take months to reach at my current rate of earning. If I say to the DWP I am self employed, I start the rapid countdown to removal of support and to decision making around my income, which isn't realistic.

I feel so much like I can't keep living the way I am but the door to success is so firmly closed by these rules that are so precarious and difficult to understand. I feel trapped.

The temperature hear has dropped considerably now, But still I am unable to afford the cost of heating my home in order to keep myself and my daughter warm. When is this new government going to admit that something like the cost of heating is essential, giving families a fair amount in order to cover to cost's during the winter months. This is seriously affecting peoples health and puts a lot more pressure on the NHS with admissions that could be avoided.

With Christmas coming, I've been doing my Xmas shopping for my 5 year old daughter all on the cheap. I've got brilliant bargains from temu with their 'cashback' offers which has meant that she will get a full sack of presents. But it's making me think about ethically about the carbon footprint I'm leaving by having all of these super cheap deliveries and why these items are so cheap. Being on a low income is forcing some of us to make purchases that we probably shouldn't be making...

So many people have no safety net.

I’ve always worked before, had savings, been smart about paying off debt – then when my daughter was 9 months old I got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I went back to work when she was 1, but it became a spiral of events – my employers wouldn’t put in any adjustments, they just fired me. I wasn’t strong enough then to understand that was against the law.

Surviving on one salary, the mortgage takes up so much of our income. I had an emergency credit card for rainy days which for years I never had to use – now it’s maxed out, just from keeping us afloat over those years. They’ve been really understanding, frozen the debt and the interest, I’m paying it off each month, which will take me 10 years. I am ruthless with my budget but it just isn't enough and it's wearing me down.

So when our heating stopped working – and it turned out all the pipes were rotten under the floorboards – it was going to be between 4 and 5 thousand. We just didn’t have it.

My husband has diabetes and I’ve got arthritis – but we just couldn’t put the heating on. For a whole year. I was wearing my husband’s coat in the house, and going outside to warm up, walking round the block knowing that moving would warm me up, escaping the four walls and the reality of it.

We had one little electric heater that we’d put on for a few hours when my daughter came home from school. She’s just a kid, she should be able to be warm when she’s playing. It was so inefficient it cost more than heating the whole house on gas, so having no heating didn’t even save us money. Our clothes took 4 days to dry and they dried hard and smelling of damp

We stopped inviting people round – we loved having people round. My little girl was saying Mum can I invite my friends round – It’s hard to say ‘no darling – your dad’s ashamed he can’t keep his child warm’. She used to bring friends home from school and we could feed four or five kids beans on toast for less than £3. Now the cost of everything has doubled or tripled.

My mum helped us in the end. My sister found out, it was her who said to my mum – “she’s got so much blooming pride she’s sitting with no heating on” – I cried when my mum offered to help us out – I didn’t want to ask – we’ve all been raised penny pinching, knowing if we want something we have to work for it and get it ourselves. So I didn’t want to ask – but I’m so glad she did. Every time I have a nice hot shower I think thank God, many blessing on my mother’s hands, because she facilitated that.

Life shouldn’t have to be a battle. The silent dignity of mums who just get on with it, when you’ve got £4 in your purse til next Wednesday. Kids shouldn’t have to think my life is smaller or my chances are smaller, their ambition or curiosity is constrained - their childhood constrained by worries about surviving. I actually can't believe I managed to put up with no heating for a year, but then again shame, stigma, resignation are powerful things,

It’s getting so cold here we are already wrapping up to keep warm. I hope the winter won’t be particularly cold as the memories of the last few winters are still strong. Being children and growing up isn’t supposed to be this difficult anymore. We are in a society that will do everything it can to blame parents for children being raised in poverty “it’s the scrounging parents” “shouldn’t have had all them kids if you can’t afford them” what they seem to forget is so many families are living on or below the breadline where one unexpected event could leave them completely lost in the black ocean that is poverty. The stigma is still so strongly negative.

Feel soo tired and drained and food shop costing loads

Noticed that the bus fairs are going up I really think that the children shouldn't have to pay whilst still in education as I'm having to pay 39.00 a month for my sons bus pass which is monthly

Thinking of the extra pressures faced in the winter months more electricity and gas usage. Things like Halloween and Christmas sooo commercialised and the peer pressure at such young ages to have things like phones, electric scooters, top of the range clothes and shoes. Cost of shopping it’s like you get nothing for your money and before u know it more shopping is needed. I know of families struggling because they have changed from tax credits to UC and the earning threshold is different so because they are not earning enough they are getting less in UC or nothing at all. Tax credits was 16 hours uc is 24 is what I’m told so people are really struggling which then affects the mental health as the persons job wage isnt enough to live on so they have the worry of how will they feed their child. Awful that there are people out there trying to do the right thing and work but getting penalised for it!

Is it me or is it getting colder really quickly this year? As the dark nights draw in, I've managed to prepare a little and get lots of extra blankets .

My 15 year old who is oblivious to any of my money struggles and the cost of surviving, looked over at me while wearing hotpants and a crop top pyjama combo the other day. She said, mum can we put the heating on I'm cold 🤣🤣.

Today she's in fleece pyjamas and a jumper dressing gown thing 🤣🤣 she's learning.

October is a hard month, both my highschoolers attend different schools and their half terms are on separate weeks which means double cost of everything and more taxing them about.

Also had a appeal person from PIP contact me yesterday (despite me telling them welfare rights are going to be doing all the correspondence). Anyways today I received a notification that they have now made a decision and I'll hear in the post. For someone who has major anxiety , why didn't they just send me a copy online instead of making me wait for the post? What a ridiculous system when they make you sign up to their online portal anyways .

It’s been another struggling month. Several things have happened. We are owed money from my partners work from expenses and still waiting. This has had a huge impact on us. Then the frustrating thing is one month he can have a good wage and the next not. But it makes a difference with universal credit. So when we get the bad month we get a bad universal credit too. We end up missing out. I’ve maxed out credit cards this month to make it work. I wish universal could be done a different way. I get I could try save but most of times what money we have is used on bills, food, and when we have a little extra is used to buy things for the house like a new bed, towels, clothes etc.