A mum-of-five with a combined household income of £62,000 has turned to using Klarna to manage her grocery bills amidst the soaring cost of living. Laura Caine, 40, finds it tough to stretch her £1,000 monthly Universal Credit and her husband Martin’s £50,000 salary as a games programmer to meet their family expenses.
The family, with children ranging from 18 to nine years old, faces the challenge of affording three meals a day, leading them to rely on the buy-now-pay-later service. Laura has recently had to use Klarna for food shopping because she “can’t afford” the upfront cost of a substantial grocery haul.
Both Laura and Martin have reached their credit limits after their energy bill doubled from £200 to £450 per month. While some people benefit from settling debts interest-free over a short term, many schemes impose fees for missed payments.
Laura shared: “I’ve seen the struggles of so many families – I’ve been to food banks with mums and dads with their kids, waiting and wondering what they will be getting, it’s awful. The way I shop now, if I have £35 to spend for the week, I could get a £105 shop using Klarna and that’s £105 worth of food in your cupboards and pay £35 per month back for three months. If I do it this way it means I can take my kids to places once a month like museums or a train ride somewhere.”, reports Stoke on Trent Live.
Despite her reliance on Klarna for groceries due to her situation, Laura does not recommend others follow suit.
She explained: “The last shop I did I spent £1,050 and am paying £350 back each month. The same shop used to be £500 pre-Covid which just shows how much costs have gone up but it will last me a month and a half, which is not bad for a family of seven.”
Laura’s grocery haul typically includes plenty of fresh produce. “I’ll get 10 packets of carrots at 65p a bag and prep them and put in the freezer,” she shared.
“Potatoes I’ll get 10 bags and keep them in our cellar. I buy fresh meat and freeze it as well as flour and butter as I make giant tray bake cakes in the big tray for the oven, I also get crisps and squash.”
Before turning to Klarna, Laura had to depend on food banks, and she still visits wholesalers to stock up on bulk items like toilet paper and flour for baking bread.
Laura recounted: “Last year my benefits switched to Universal Credit – whereas before I was on tax credits and it has given me a cash flow problem. Instead of getting paid once per week I got paid once per month, which made things even more challenging, which is why I’ve had to start using Klarna. It just means if an emergency pops up like having to pay for an MOT or gas bill – even though it is more money, in the long run it allows me to make ends meet.”
Determined to reduce her reliance on food banks, Laura strategised.
“When money eventually came in, I decided how can I make sure that we don’t go to food banks anymore try and get food that would last longer,” she remarked.
“So I found Klarna that’s how I ended up starting to use it, I don’t recommend it to people who can’t afford it. I know it’s not the ideal thing, but with the cost-of-living crisis, I’m having to use it.”
Laura prepares all meals from scratch and freezes prepped vegetables to ensure nothing goes to waste.
“I’ve got big freezers, I homeschool my five kids and always make sure there are three meals a day,” she said. I don’t want to fall back into the cycle of relying on food banks again.
My mum was poor back in the 1980s and 1990s and we had to survive on sugar sandwiches and chips and I feel if I go I am taking someone else’s slot who might need it more.
“She used to get paid on a Monday and by Thursday she had no money left or food and then my grandma would have to help her out.”
Laura home cooks all her children’s meals from scratch and makes “stews, soups, roast dinners, homemade pizzas, cakes and cookies.”
“For lunchtime I usually make sandwiches with meat that I’ve cooked or sometimes cooked meat I’ve already bought,” she said.
Laura claims most people don’t realise just how much food is needed to feed a large family.
“With seven people in the house having three meals a day that’s 588 meals a month,” she said.
Laura says something needs to be done about the cost-of-living crisis which is still severely impacting families.
“It’s our next generation – we need to feed them, they’re going to be tired, they need to step up, kids need to be fed and the older generation is also struggling,” she said.
“People need to be helped out much more by the government.”
Laura also helps out her local community by collecting food being thrown away at supermarkets. “If there’s a small Tesco with food going off reduced stickers you can take it from there,” she said.
“I will knock on the older people’s doors who are also struggling to get food. It’s hell right now not just for my family but for many other families as well.”