Ms Boyd lives with her four sons, aged 6, 8, 13, and 14 years, and pays $98 a week in rent.
She is a casual worker at Kmart and, with benefit payment, her family survives on about $425 a week. She often has to cancel her electricity payments to buy food.
"I can't afford more heaters and I've even insulated the hot-water cylinder with towels to keep the power bill down. Every now and then I ring my power company to cancel payment so I can pay for something else," she said.
"My kids wrap themselves in blankets and bunk in the lounge during winter because it's so cold in the room."
She tried to cope alone but said the pressure forced her to seek help from a budget adviser, which she said had helped immensely.
"There's no shame in seeing a budgeting service adviser because they can help more than anything."
The Whangarei Budgeting Service is encouraging struggling families to reach out and ask for help to avoid getting into debt.
Service manager Maureen Gwillim said budget advisers could put people in touch with, or negotiate on behalf of, their power companies or liaise with Work and Income. Ms Gwillim said winter was usually the toughest time for families. Heaters and water cylinders chewed up the most power.
She said many families who could not cope with electricity costs, particularly in winter when power bills usually spiked, were embarrassed to seek help until it was too late.
"We can help in so many ways but there are people out there who are embarrassed to seek help. There are a number of options available such as easy pay, smooth pay or pre-pay, which makes it easier for people to pay their power bills," she said.
Electricity Authority figures revealed 149 homes in Whangarei and Kaipara had signed up to Globug - a pre-pay electricity plan - from February to April this year, while there were 170 in the Far North. The plan allows users to also track their consumption of electricity.
Luke Blincoe, general manager of Globug, said a family with an average consumption would save $93 a year in power bills in Whangarei and $156 in the Far North, provided they took advantage of prompt-payment discounts.
A check on Powerswitch shows Nova is currently the cheapest electricity provider in Whangarei.
Nova charges $1984 a year based on an annual average consumption for a medium-sized household using 7858kw of power.
Trustpower is the most expensive at $2364 a year.
In the Far North, Energy Online is the cheapest at $2672, while Mercury Energy, owned by Mighty River Power, is the dearest at $3081.
5 Tips to save power
• Turn off lights when leaving a room.
• Close curtains and windows at sunset in the winter. Heavy and closely-woven full-length curtains conserve more heat.
• Repair leaky taps. One dripping hot tap could cost you $80 a year if you left it dripping that long.
• Turn down your hot water cylinder - it does not need to be above 60C. This will save you around $25 per hot water cylinder a year.
• Turn off that old beer fridge and save up to $120 a year.
