Playgroup administrator Lisa Coupland (38), from Whaplode, has three children, Zoe (14), Jack (13) and George (6), and says the combination of tax and consumer price increases has affected her.

She said: "You definitely notice that prices are going up but there's not much you can do – you just have to go to the supermarket and pay what it costs. You can look at trying to cut down on spending but there are some things that you have just got to do as a parent, such as take your children to school, which is part and parcel of being a mother.

"Petrol and diesel prices are the icing on the cake after the council tax bill and the general price increases."

She says soaring prices have not gone unnoticed by the parents of the 160 children on the group's books and she fears for single mothers and how they may cope in the continuing economic slump.

Time when every penny counts.

South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes slammed the Government for not doing enough to help people cope during difficult times and says the price of many household essentials is spiralling far more than the official rate of inflation of 2.5 per cent.

He pointed to a report released by the Conservative Party which states that the cost of some essential items like bread, eggs and butter has gone up by as much as 30 per cent in nine months.

Mr Hayes said: "In a modern economy a government can't control the cost of living directly. But it can avoid making matters worse for hard pressed families in our area who are struggling to make ends meet. This Government now seems to be so out of touch with the lives of working people that they think they can just keep on piling on the misery, with an extra £110 of taxes a year in the Budget for the average family."

Life kept local at farm shop.

Budget supermarket Aldi has seen a boost in trade at the same time as grocery prices have rocketed in major supermarkets.

Aldi, which has a store in Winsover Road, Spalding, increased its footfall by 25 per cent from March 2007 to March 2008 and its share in the market as a whole has risen from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent in the last year.

Statistics show 50 per cent of its shoppers are now from the upper, middle or lower middle class.