Marty Sharpe Millicent Smith, of Hastings, keeps a picture of a 480kg woman on her fridge to remind her not to eat chocolate biscuits. Mrs Smith, 73, is less worried about putting on weight than she is by being tempted to spend money on luxuries such as chocolate biscuits. She is oneof thousands of pensioners who will struggle to pay an extra $4 a week when the new carbon tax is imposed. On a pension of $511.62 a fortnight, $4 a week, can make a big difference. "When you multiply that by 52 it's quite frightening," says Mrs Smith, who is quick to point out that there will be others worse off than her. Her power bill is about $60 a month, the telephone bill hovers between $50 and $60, and rates on her humble Mahora flat are $183 every two months. "I try and keep the bills out of my mind because I don't want to worry about them. "I went to get my car registered a while ago and found out the warrant had run out. It needed two new tyres as well as the rego. That cost $450. It's things like that, surprises, that make the difference," she said. Mrs Smith's car, which will cost more to run from April 2007 under the new policy, may be the first casualty. "The phone bill is important. I like to keep in touch with my son and daughter. When you're my age, you like talking to people. Knick-knacks don't mean a thing really. The furniture truck doesn't follow the hearse to the cemetery does it?" she says. "It's not just the $4 a week. It's all the other things going up at the same time - the supermarket costs, the bank charges, rates. "It's just another thing we didn't need."
