She knows she has to - somehow - scrape together hundreds of dollars to pay the ever-rising bills.

“When it gets to $700 you think ‘why does it have to cost so much?’” the mum of two children, aged three and five months, says.

“It really does cut you.”

Electricity charges for thousands of Riverina residents increased on July 1.

The average increase for Origin’s customers is 8.7 per cent.

“It is my biggest bill, with gas,” Ms Williams said.

“My gas bill kills me every time I see it.”

Roanna Rosetta from Anglicare said the charity through its emergency relief services was seeing the strain on individuals and families who simply don’t have enough money to cover increased costs of living.

“Increased electricity costs are particularly hard during winter as people have the added pressure of heating bills,” Ms Rosetta said.

With Wagga’s winter being particularly wet, many families are being forced to spend more time indoors where they have to use their gas or electrical heaters to keep the kids warm and the television on to keep them entertained.

“The price of gas has increased dramatically over the past year,” said Trevor Urquhart, the Wagga regional president of St Vincent de Paul.

Mr Urquhart increasing energy prices was putting enormous pressure on household budgets.

“And we believe it will increase demand on us for assistance, especially from people on welfare payments,” he said.

“It’s pretty tough on them.”

And worse may be coming, with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre tipping the current rises may be just the tip of the iceberg.

Origin spokesman Ryan Auger said the company was aware of the impact of increased prices on households and had programs in place to assist customers who had difficulty in paying their bills.

“Ring us, and ring us early (f you can’t pay a bill on time), we can help and are more than willing and able to help,” Mr Auger said.

The state government’s response to skyrocketing energy bills is to advise customers to shop around.

But a survey by Energy Consumers Australia found many people felt there were too many barriers to switching providers.