When single mum Ebony Russell's relationship ended 18 months ago, she had no savings to her name.

"I kind of tried to tell myself it's not that bad, you know, we're fine — and it really wasn't," she said.

With the help of support services, the young Adelaide woman found housing, but paying for groceries and bills is still a weekly challenge.

"I do end up overdrawing my account if I need to because having those essential items for my toddler is, you know, it's non-negotiable," she said.

With the cost of vital goods having risen dramatically, Ms Russell has increasingly had to turn to charities for help.

She turned to not-for-profit organisation Treasure Boxes "for material support", and got it.

But it came after she was knocked back by other services who, Ms Russell said, have been inundated with calls for help.

"I've found that a lot of services I've reached out to in the last few months are so at-capacity with the amount of people that they're supporting that they have to say, 'I'm sorry, but we can't help you at this time'."

Demand for blankets exceeds supply

Treasure Boxes supports disadvantaged children and their families, and is experiencing unprecedented demand.

"We've always been quite a busy service anyway," chief executive officer and founder Rikki Cooke said.

"But in the last few weeks we've certainly seen a huge demand for our services, to the point where sometimes we're running out of things.

"We've never had that before."

In Ms Russell's case, the delivery of nappies is a small but much-needed gesture for a household in desperate need.

"It kind of saves me from that future risk of more debt," she said.

Ms Cooke said demand for Treasure Boxes' support had doubled, and the strain on families was so great that the group had recently started to run out of donations.

"Things like cots run out very, very fast, and we certainly ran out of warm blankets and quilts about a month ago and put a call out to our community, and the community came up [and delivered]," she said.

"Between 20 and 25 families a week was what we'd normally support. We're seeing in excess of 40 families a week at the moment, which is a lot."

Treasure Boxes is far from the only not-for-profit support group being overwhelmed, according to the South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS).

"Most would tell me that they are right under the pump," SACOSS chief executive officer Ross Womersley said.

"They're seeing increases in the numbers of people who are seeking out their assistance, increases from people who previously they might never had expected to seek out their assistance."

Ms Russell said she initially thought to herself that "there are other people who need it more", and was reluctant to get help.

"But they were so kind, and it was definitely worth it. [There's] a lot of emotional support as well," she said.