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He’s my ex friend now. Thankfully other people have been far more thoughtful after I was honest about my money worriesThis article is part of the heat or eat diaries: a series from the frontline of Britain’s cost of living emergencyI’ve had a disaster since my last column. I was driving back from work one evening in December when a car veered on to my side of the road on a bend. I went off the road straight into a tree. Luckily, I was only going at about 10 mph and, though my little Kia was written off, I was physically OK. If I’d been driving any faster I would have gone over the edge with a 20ft drop on the other side.No car means no work. I had to scrape together £750 to get myself a new motor. The only reason I managed was that I’d just taken out a £600 social fund budgeting loan from the government, which is available to me because I’m on employment and support allowance. That 600 quid was going to help me through Christmas – ask anyone struggling financially and they’ll tell you how tough that time of year is, and it’s much harder as a single parent like me. In the end, the £66 from the energy bills support scheme enabled me to put enough bits and bobs away to buy the kids presents. Cars loomed large again. My son got a remote control car. I gave my daughter a £50 New Look voucher to get herself some new clothes.As told to Simon Hattenstone. Liz is in her 40s and lives in the south-west of England. Names have been changedDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...