High rates of inflation are hitting people and businesses hard.
Bill-payers are struggling to keep up while paying higher prices for food and services.
Inflation hit 5.4% in the year up to December.
The last time it was any higher, John Major was Prime Minister and Wet Wet Wet were at the top of the charts.
Although it’s been 30 years, the struggles being faced are all too familiar.
“It’s getting beyond a joke, basically,” said 48-year-old Rose Leckie.
“I was homeless a couple of years ago and I’ve been trying to make ends meet, basically.”
“I busk for a bit of money,” said the former carer looking to get back into the industry.
“I’m in debt, definitely in debt”.
Services providing support are being inundated with requests.
“We’ve seen a three-fold increase since the start of the pandemic,” said Viv Sawers, chief executive of Govan HELP which runs The Govan Pantry.
The project has more than 1700 subscribers who pay a monthly fee of £2.50 to access food from the organisation’s shelves.
Ms Sawers said: “We’re only open two days a week and that’s down to the limited amount of supplies that we’ve got.
“We are really concerned. We want to be open longer than we are, we just don’t have the supply of food.”
There are warnings that it may get worse before it gets better, with rises in wages falling behind.
“There are tips people can take around budget planning, but there is no one size fits all solution to the problem,” warned Colin Mathieson from Advice Direct Scotland.
The Bank of England expects inflation to reach 6% by the spring but hopes rates will fall soon after.
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