A single dad-of-six has told how he is struggling to afford school shoes for his children because of the spiralling cost of living.
UK man Gaz Kaye is one of the thousands of parents feeling the pinch because of soaring house bills and rising costs of everyday items, The Sun reports.
With six kids under the age of 12, he is having to scrimp and save every penny to afford their upbringing.
“Even just a loaf of bread has gone up. I don’t know how people can make it through the day,” he told Grimsby Live.
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“Everything adds up, but running the car is probably the thing that is the biggest issue.
“With a big family, I need a big car, but a small engine. I’m not poor by any means in my mind, but with the way things are I feel like I probably am right now, but surely it can’t stay like this?
“The model of how we live our lives has changed and as a father-of-six I’ve had to change a lot to make it work. That alone massively plays on my mind.”
Last month, Gaz’s son was forced to wear trainers to school as he couldn’t afford to buy him new school shoes.
“As a single father, I’m not always able to do that straight away. Things like this make me feel like I’m just failing as a father,” he said.
“It’s even come to the point where my child wanted some new trainers and rather than buy them new I had to buy them on Facebook Marketplace.”
With the current state of things, Gaz’s biggest worry is how life will be for his children in the coming years.
“Kids can’t seem to have anything these days, bar the basics, because of what life is costing. I know people who are selling laptops just to feed their children,” he said.
“It’s getting worse and worse the longer it goes on and if it’s this bad now, what will it be like in 10 years’ time for my children?
“It’s so frustrating that we can turn a light bulb on from the other side of the world or send people to space, but we can’t feed our kids.
“We’re in a system that isn’t working. Getting what are in effect hand-outs makes people feel awful and it’s scary to wonder how long this might go on for.
“I can’t carry on like this, but there doesn’t seem to be any change in sight and that is really upsetting.”
This story originally appeared in The Sun and was republished here with permission