“I kept the car as motivation really, but there\u2019s only so much you can do until at one point you turn around and go \u2018there\u2019s no point, I can\u2019t afford it’,” said Beca, from Deiniolen, Gwynedd.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not just about lessons, it\u2019s the insurance, the tax, the petrol, everything else with it.”<\/p>\n
Beca now has a full-time job working on the sewing machines at a nearby factory but feels young people from lower income families are being “ignored” by politicians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The general election on 4 July will be the first time she has been able to vote, but Beca is not convinced she will.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s a lot of people still struggling. The cost of living crisis is still a thing. Prices of things haven\u2019t come down yet,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Families are trying to get heard and trying to tell politicians, but nothing is being done.<\/p>\n
“You just feel like you\u2019re stuck in a loop \u2013 you can\u2019t get out \u2013 and it\u2019s going to be the same for the rest of your life, because this is what adulthood is.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve had a lot of people asking if I\u2019m going to vote this year because I\u2019ve just turned 18. At this point in time, I don\u2019t feel like they are listening.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Beca says if she can’t afford lessons, she’ll have to sell her car<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Beca said she was grateful that her job paid above the minimum wage for her age, but the \u00a31,400 she earned each month was not enough to afford driving lessons, pay her bills, buy food and pay for train and bus fare.<\/p>\n
She said she felt many people her age were exhausted by the cost of living.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve noticed that a lot of people my age going into hospitality, a lot of them drop out of college like I did,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Rent is like \u00a3700 a month, that\u2019s just not possible on an 18-year-old’s wage.<\/p>\n
“I guess you could call us anti-social \u2013 it\u2019s just that we don\u2019t have the money to go anywhere, we don\u2019t have the money to go to the pubs like [our parents] used to.”<\/p>\n
Beca\u2019s mum Delyth agreed that things were getting harder for her children.<\/p>\n
The 46-year-old charity manager, who is a single mum to three, said she had to make clear to her children that they could not “rely on the bank of mum to bail them out”.<\/p>\n
She added: “This generation now, they\u2019ve gone through all that lockdown and lost out on so much.<\/p>\n
“When I was younger, if you wanted to go and have a night out it was always manageable somehow and I wasn\u2019t from a rich family. Now they have to budget for everything.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Delyth says the family have been cutting down on food waste by making curries from leftover roast dinner <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Delyth said she sat down with Beca every week to look over her budget and finances and the only “extravagance” her daughter ever included was having her hair and nails done.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s just for her sanity really,” she said.<\/p>\n
Delyth said the whole family had struggled in the past few years and would occasionally go without a weekly food shop and eat anything left in the cupboards to save money.<\/p>\n
One of Delyth’s recent inventions has been “roast dinner curry” made from the leftover meat and vegetables from her Monday night dinners.<\/p>\n
“I do work, I do earn, but it\u2019s just never enough really. I used to be able to do the weekly shop for about \u00a345 \u2013 now it\u2019s double that.<\/p>\n
“We used to be able to have short breaks, nothing major. I can\u2019t remember the last time we had a day out as a family, it\u2019s not within our reach anymore.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/77fa\/live\/62498970-235a-11ef-9172-ad9a68451ccf.jpg.webp\")
![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Beca](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/9d37\/live\/b31a5190-235a-11ef-a13a-0b8c563da930.jpg.webp\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Delyth](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/e9d6\/live\/0c511ae0-235c-11ef-9172-ad9a68451ccf.jpg.webp\")
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