enlarge Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

David Reynolds, who works overtime as much as he can, says family time now mostly takes place in his wife’s floral shop in Windham.

enlarge Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

Laurie Reynolds helps Bethany, a middle school student, with her homework at the shop.

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WINDHAM — Last winter, David Reynolds had to ask his church to help fill his home's heating oil tank. And now, although summer hasn't even begun, he and his wife are dreading next winter.

"We don't want to keep going back and asking for help. There are going to be a lot of other people who need help out there," he said.

Reynolds has a steady job and works all the overtime he can. Laurie Reynolds, his wife, owns Blossoms of Windham, a flower shop on Route 302. The couple and their 12-year-old daughter, Bethany, live in a comfortable, modern home.

But the sense of financial security that existed just months ago is quickly crumbling because of oil prices and the way they are rippling through the economy. David and Laurie Reynolds agreed to talk about their finances to show one example of the struggles that are taking place in households across the state.

Like other Mainers, they turned down the thermostat in their home last winter. They are cutting expenses and forgoing trips in the car. But they've still fallen behind on bills and even had to ask their pastor for help again last week when their power was shut off. And, as energy prices keep climbing, they're wondering if they can afford to stay in their home, or even in Maine, another winter.

"The cost of fuel really does affect everything," Laurie Reynolds said.

David Reynolds was laid off from his job for a lumber supplier in the middle of last winter, just as heating oil prices were shooting upward and the winter seemed like it would last forever. Savings, income from plowing snow and some help from the church and others got the family through the heating season, he said.

A few months and about 100 job applications later, Reynolds got a job maintaining downtown office buildings for a solid, growing company. It doesn't include health insurance and pays $12 an hour, but offers regular overtime. "If it wasn't for the overtime, we'd never be able to keep up," he said.

BARELY KEEPING UP

They barely are keeping up. With savings depleted and expenses like a recent $500 heating oil delivery, they struggle to pay the mortgage and other bills. And then there's the cost of gasoline.

While Reynolds' last job was a few miles from home, the new one is nearly 20 miles away. And his only vehicle is the same Chevrolet Silverado extended-cab pickup that he used to push his snowplow. It gets 14 mpg.

Reynolds' schedule -- he leaves the house by 3:30 a.m. and doesn't know when he'll head home -- would make carpooling difficult, and the family has no money for a more fuel-efficient vehicle, he said.

He is spending $75 a week to fuel the truck -- an added $300-a-month bill -- but only by limiting and consolidating other trips. Bethany Reynolds has to coordinate trips to the public library with the family's other errands, for example, and Laurie Reynolds makes fewer visits to her father in Portland.

Laurie Reynolds' year-old floral business is growing steadily, but is too new to generate a steady income for the family. Rising costs are now making it even harder to turn a profit.

"My suppliers' (prices) have gone up and continue to go up," she said. Even her trash hauler has added fuel surcharges.

Reynolds increased delivery charges several months ago because of rising gasoline costs, and knows she probably should again. She also has started turning down orders for some deliveries to outlying towns in the Sebago Lake region.

"The one reason I service this area, maybe foolishly, is that nobody else does," she said. "Now the rules are changing."

She still has a hard time saying no. Last week, a Portland florist called with a request: Could Reynolds make and deliver a large "get well" bouquet to Limington?

She agreed to do it, knowing that the $8 delivery fee would barely cover the cost of gasoline, let alone the cost of having a second employee on hand to...