A mother of three children says she can't sleep at night, worrying about how she will pay bills and buy food.

Ali Moreno was speaking as the cost of living continues to climb across the board.

She came to Ireland some 16 years ago from Moldova, and told The Hard Shoulder things are getting worse.

"We're trying to do the best... I know everyone, families, they're struggling.

"But I think a parents job is really much harder and it's very difficult for us - especially with the increasing prices on the food.

"Fuel - OK, what can we do? But you have to try and think 'How do you cut off on some food or get something cheaper?'

"It's not getting cheaper, every time you go shopping you can see increases of prices in food.

"You have to feed the kids, you have to send them to school... the list is really long, but you have to pay your bills.

"So you have to balance the small little money that you get.

"I'm not saying I'm not grateful, I am grateful - but it is hard for us to juggle between.

"And you wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and thinking: 'What do I do - will I buy food or I'll pay the bills?'

"If I won't pay the bills, I'll be cut off - or if I won't pay the rent, because lots of parents are on very high rent."

'I'm doing what's necessary for them'

Ali says the money from working is still not enough.

"The money that is coming - even if you are working - being a single parent [with a] part-time job or full-time job it's not enough.

"You have to pay €2,000 upfront for the rent and the deposit as well - where this single mom that is not working with kids can get this money?"

An electricity bill is seen in this 2013 file photo. Picture by: Rosemary Roberts / Alamy Stock Photo

Ali says she is paying the minimum amount of her electricity bills every week.

"If you pay every week at least something, which I'm doing every week - I'm trying.

"I am living in a place where everything is electricity, and even in the summertime it's not coming cheaper in the wintertime.

"I'm paying €20 per week, and sometimes when I don't have it because the kids are going to school - they have some event, or you need to buy them clothes and shoes.

"I'm not doing that with the bills because I'm doing what's necessary for them, because they can't go to school with no shoes.

"I'm trying to juggle... and it's really stressful, so much stress that really sometimes you don't know what to do.

"It's overwhelming sometimes, it is".

'I'll try to figure out something'

Ali says her last food bill came to €148, which she was afraid she couldn't pay.

"I nearly cried at the till because I was afraid I wouldn't have enough money.

"It's just not right."

And she says that's all she can afford until she gets paid again.

"That was my budget... and the next wages are in two weeks - it's OK.

"I'll try to figure out something, I'll try to juggle.

"But the point is why a parent should go through the worries.

"Our responsibility is to raise a good, educated child, to send him to college to get the job.

"I've been there with my oldest son; unfortunately he had to drop out from the college.

"He loved college, which I was surprised... they couldn't pay the SUSI grant.

"Apparently I brought him to Ireland on a special visa, and we're not qualified, so he had to drop out from the college and go back to Moldova".