Mum-of three Louise Parker works three jobs to provide for Michael, 15, Heather, 12, and Christian, 13 (Picture: Caters)

‘In the run-up to Christmas I will increase my hours,’ mum-of-three Louise Parker admits.

The 48-year-old, from Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, works full-time for a construction company, does shifts at a Working Men’s Club on Friday evenings and takes on catering jobs over the weekend.

She said: ‘I will then be dashing home to feed my kids to make sure they are okay. Sadly, I don’t get to see my children as often as I would like to.’

This is is what widowed Louise will have to do to get through the cost-of-living crisis this festive season.

She lost her husband – the sole earner of their household – five years ago and has been working three jobs to make ends meet for the last six months.

This means she often has to leave her children to ‘sort themselves out’.

She said: ‘Everyone is struggling and unless you have loads of savings everyone is in the same boat.

Louise works shifts at a working men’s club in the evenings (Picture: Caters)

The family are ‘thinking out the box’ in preparation for Christmas (Picture: Caters)

‘A lot of the people I work with are students. Here I am, at nearly 50, going back and working more hours even though I don’t want to.

‘I would love to have time at home, but fortunately for me they are self-sufficient.’

Despite the family’s financial struggles, they managed to ‘think outside the box’ and stay excited for Christmas.

Louise said: ‘I’ve told them we won’t be having big gifts, but as we’re all so busy all the time we’re excited to not doing anything and spend time together.

‘We don’t watch much TV together so we will appreciate all being at home watching Christmas films and playing board games.

‘I’ve never gone big on presents but they are always grateful for what they get, we’ve made more of a bigger deal about stockings.

‘We go big on sweets and chocolates at Christmas as well.’

The mum knows her sons – Michael, 15, and Christian, 13, – will be happy ‘as long as they get Lynx deodorant sets’.

Christian has simply asked that they make a Christmas cake on the Christmas Eve the way they do every year.

‘I’m going to have to focus on that more than anything else and be more appreciative of time together,’ Louise said.

Even with this positive attitude, she has felt the financial pressure of Christmas and resorted to maxing out several credit cards leaving her in debt.

She said: ‘Three jobs have helped me financially, but I’m constantly doing maths and working out if I can afford things and always asking “do I need it”. I’ve also cut out things that aren’t essential.

‘I’ve never been flush with money, but you want to have fun, especially at Christmas. We spent last Christmas being worried about Covid, and now we’re worrying if we can even afford petrol – it’s a bit sad.

‘I imagine lots of people will be in the same position.’

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The widowed mum works a nine-to-five all week and then does extra shifts in the evenings and on the weekends.