Growing up, the cost of living kept increasing. Mum's contract wasn't renewed. Dad's salary didn't go far to feed and clothe five children. I was bullied at school for wearing hand-me-down clothes on dreaded mufti days. Some mornings I would go to make my lunch for school and realise that there wasn't enough bread for us all to make sandwiches; without telling anyone, I chose to go without so that my siblings would have something to eat that day. Sadly, my experience was not unique. I was a child of the 1990s who bore the brunt of the austerity of the times. While things were tough for us at times, for many others their situations were far worse. 