The credit crunch has produced an unexpected beneficiary. Nanny agencies are reporting a surge in demand as young mothers who had decided to put their careers on hold are having to return to the office to boost the family income.

The phenomenon is the latest sign of the pain visited on family finances by escalating food and fuel prices and household bills.

Harmony at Home, a nanny agency based in Ardingly, West Sussex, has seen a 30-40% increase in demand since the credit crunch started to bite last summer. “It’s the busiest we’ve ever been – it’s quite incredible,” said Frankie Gray, the agency’s director.

“We’re seeing former brokers, doctors, highly qualified professional people . . . who had hoped to spend many happy years at home being a full-time mum, but feel the rising costs of running a family leave them with no choice but to go back to work.”

Mothers returning to work have to earn substantial salaries to cover childcare costs, which have risen greatly in recent years. Employing a nanny typically costs between £20,000 and £30,000 a year. Nursery costs have risen by a third since 2002 and are expected to rise by another 10% by 2010.

Carrie Philp, who runs Chalfont Nannies in Buckinghamshire, said: “Many of the people we are now seeing are women who have been away from work for five or six years, usually from the City. They had hoped to stay at home but are finding it’s increasingly hard to make ends meet on one salary.”

Philp said she is also seeing women who feel they have to return to work soon after giving birth for financial reasons. She cited a client who recruited a nanny so she could return to work just seven weeks after giving birth.

Although there has been a long-term decline in the number of stay-at-home mothers, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recording a drop from 2.8m in 1993 to around 2.2m now, elements of the professional and upper-middle classes had so far proved immune.

Before the credit crunch started to bite, Michele Smith, an anaesthetist at Hillingdon hospital in Uxbridge, west London, planned to give up working full-time so she could spend more time bringing up her three daughters, aged five, seven and 10.

“That just isn’t going to be possible now,” she said. “In the past four months it’s really got a lot worse. I find a food shop that cost £100 four months ago now costs well over £100 for significantly less food. I filled up the car with petrol today and it didn’t stop until it was past £70 – I’m sure it was around £20 less last year.

“We are finding it hard – I don’t know how those who don’t have two good salaries get by.”

Six weeks ago Ruth Appleton, from Bridgend in south Wales, returned to work after 3½ years by taking a marketing job for a website. “Rising interest rates forced up the cost of our mortgage by around £300 a month and the higher costs of everything else mean that I needed to earn if we were to maintain our standard of living,” said Appleton, whose husband is a surgeon.

“My husband is also doing extra waiting-list work to earn extra cash.”

According to official government figures, the cost of food has risen by 6% over the past year. However, many staples such as eggs, cheese, pasta, milk and bread have soared by up to 60%.

Fuel bills have also risen dramatically, with gas wholesale prices now 76% higher than at the start of the year. It is thought that domestic prices may rise by as much as 40% as a result.

Figures for May earnings, released last week, officially marked a fall in national living standards as earnings failed to outstrip inflation for the first time in 16 years.Experts say consumers are coping by having to switch to less luxurious foods, holidays and other goods.

Lastminute.com, the online travel agent, reports a 20% rise in sales of packages for cheaper destinations such as Bulgaria and Turkey so far this year. Camping is said to be enjoying a renaissance and eBay, the online auction house, has reported a 30% increase in caravan sales.

John Lewis, which for years appeared to have an impregnable hold on the loyalty of the middle-class shopper, last month announced four successive weeks of falling sales – the chain’s worst performance for two years. By contrast, discount supermarkets such as Lidl, Netto and Aldi claim to be winning new, ostensibly well-heeled customers.

According to the research group Nielsen, combined sales at the trio of budget supermarkets have risen by 11.3% over the past year – double the growth of established, more expensive stores such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda.

Amid the gloom, official retail sales figures last week surprised the City by indicating that the high street was still performing robustly, with growth of a punchy 3.5% in May.

Economists and retail experts believe the ONS figures are flawed. Richard Hyman, a strategic adviser for the accountants Deloitte, with more than 20 years’ experience as an analyst of high street trends, said: “Those numbers are unreliable. No one should take them seriously. They are totally at odds with what I’m seeing on the high street.”

One in four retailers listed on the London stock exchange issued negative trading statement during the first quarter of this year, according to Grant Thornton, the accountants. That compares with just one in 10 in the same quarter of last year.

Jessops, the camera retailer, has suffered a 25% collapse of sales in recent months, while the furniture chain Land of Leather has reported a 32% sales slump.

With average house prices on one measure falling by £165 a day, Homebase, the hardware and furnishing giant, has seen business decline by 12% over the past three months. Carpet retailers have suffered a 10% drop in sales across the sector.

A year of soaring fuel prices has placed under question the future of the two-car family. Phil and Bean Lumb from Aylsham, in Norfolk, recently sold one of their family cars and are increasingly relying on local buses. Phil Lumb, a lawyer, now makes his 13-mile commute into Norwich on his bike.

“I felt it was March when the screws really started to tighten,” said Bean Lumb. “But it’s not just the petrol – insurance, maintenance and tax all seem to be going up.”

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