Coping with inflation: ‘Everything is a struggle’

Sometimes Tracey Hayde only has €10 a week to spend on food. “It’s not every week, but sometimes,” she says.

She spends the rest of her money on providing for her daughter, along with transport and energy costs, which have been rising steadily over the past year.

Tracey, who lives in Thurles in Co Tipperary, has several health complications which require ongoing hospital treatment in Limerick, Dublin and Clonmel.

Aside from a number of autoimmune diseases, she also has fibromyalgia, a condition which causes pain all over the body.

Attending multiple hospital appointments is “quite expensive on petrol,” she says.

“I’d spend anything from €80 – €100 on petrol each week. It used to cost €50 to fill my tank.

“I need my car for hospital appointments, I don’t have anyone else to bring me. If I didn’t have my car I wouldn’t get there, it’s as simple as that.”

She told RTÉ’s This Week programme, that public transport is not an option, because it is “simply not good enough”.

She also contracted Covid last year, and ended up in ICU, and doesn’t want to expose herself to further risks on trains or buses.

She lives in an old house with her young daughter, and her dog. “It has oil central heating and an open fire. The oil has gone extortionate,” she says.

“I use it as little as possible to heat my home, but it doesn’t heat it very well. I have the thermostat as high as possible and it still doesn’t heat up.

“I spend about €100 every two months to heat my home with oil, and then there is the cost of coal for the fire.

“I light that as little as possible, because the cost of coal has gone very, very expensive. If I lit that to heat my home properly, it would cost me over €100 a week. I can’t afford that.”

She said the house is often cold for herself and her daughter.

“My daughter is lucky because the hot press is in her bedroom, so she is warm at night, but I’m very cold at night.”

She uses a hot water bottle and multiple duvets to cover herself at nighttime to keep out the cold.

“The cost of buying a bag of coal has increased a lot. I used to be able to buy two bags of coal for €30. Now you couldn’t do that, its €40 or €50 now.”

Tracey is currently on Jobseeker’s Allowance, but has applied for disability benefit because of her deteriorating medical condition.

She says the €5 increase in social welfare payments in the Budget was eaten up immediately by increases in fuel and rent.

“Often I’ve had to turn to St Vincent de Paul for assistance because I simply couldn’t afford to buy fuel.

“I don’t like having to do it, it is literally a last resort. Sometimes I feel embarrassed having to do it, but if you’ve no fuel in your house you have to do it.”

The rising cost of fuel has meant Tracey has had to decrease her food budget.

“Sometimes I have as little as €10 a week to spend on my food.

“I do a food plan for the week, and I see what I have in my presses, and what I can make for dinner, and where I can cut the budget.

“Everything is a struggle at the moment, between my health and trying to find money for everything, it’s a struggle.”