Young people in Gloucester struggle to pay living costs

Young people say they are struggling to pay bills and afford healthy food due to the cost of living crisis.

Charlotte Louise Latouche, 29, said she feels "degraded and embarrassed" using food banks.

BBC News is in Gloucester on Thursday hearing how people are coping with the spiralling cost of living and economic pressures.

"Sometimes I've not eaten all day to cut the cost," added Ms Latouche, who is on benefits.

The UK is seeing its highest inflation for 41 years.

Energy bills and the cost of food - especially basics like low-fat milk, pasta and butter - are the main things pushing up the cost of living.

Ms Latouche, who has autism, mental health issues and physical disabilities, lives in shared accommodation.

She uses a smart meter to track her bills but struggles to keep it on budget despite using the air fryer and wearing warmer clothes.

"I can't afford to heat the house," she said.

"My biggest concern is food because if I don't lose weight, I'll die earlier than normal," she explained.

Ms Latouche said having a healthy diet was expensive and that sometimes she does not eat all day to save money.

With winter coming, she is worried about costs rising more."This Christmas I'm not able to get anyone anything, it makes me feel like a failure. I would love to have a full-time job, but I can't because of my disabilities."When I've paid my bills and look on my bank balance, this is unfair," she added.

Callumn Hardman, a supervisor at non-profit community café The Cavern, in Gloucester, rents a one-bedroom flat in the city centre with his partner, which costs £700 a month. The 22-year-old uses apps like Monzo to try and budget but still lives "pay cheque to pay cheque"."The bills all come out at the start of the month and most of it is gone within the first few days," he explained."Everything is a scrupulous process of 'how can we make this the cheapest that we can?' and 'how am I going to be able to put things away for a rainy day?'.

Mr Hardman tries to have one driving lesson a week at a cost of £35 an hour.

"Driving lessons are extremely expensive so between trying to push myself to get all those boxes ticked I won't have money by the end of the month," he said.

"I'm trying to progress myself and learn to drive and these extra things that are quite normal and should really be just sort of staples of quality of life."This criticism of young people saying 'they don't know how' (to save), I just don't think that's fair because actually this is the first time that any generation has had to face everything being quite so expensive," added Mr Hardman.

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]