Grocery shopping has become a numbers game for Carroll Totten, but it's far from an amusing pastime.

Like many seniors in this troubled economy, she has found a trip down the food aisle has come to mean paying more for less.

"Thank God for the food bank," Totten said while eating lunch at the Larson Senior Center in Attleboro. "Prices are so much higher in the stores. I spend $70 and don't come out with anything. I keep dry milk now, which I never did before."

Totten's struggle to make ends meet is becoming more common among seniors on fixed incomes, say directors of several area councils on aging and others in the field of elder care.

"More seniors are applying for food stamps and fuel assistance," said Madeleine McNielly, executive director of the Attleboro COA. "We've received many more requests for holiday baskets and dinners."

Also, she said, seniors living in older homes are looking to the council for help with home maintenance and repairs.

Though changes in guidelines this year make more seniors eligible for food stamps and fuel assistance, that doesn't entirely explain the increase in applications.

Prices for heating oil, though down considerably in recent weeks, are still well above what they were a few years ago. The same is true for propane, natural gas and electricity.

Though oil prices have fallen considerably in recent weeks, it little comfort, compared with heating costs more than a year ago.

Massachusetts has seen major increases in residential prices for heating oil, according the the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The same is true for propane, natural gas and electricity.

The average price for home heating oil was $2.79 per gallon, down about 11 percent from a year ago, when the price was $3.13.

But go back two years, and the price of heating oil is up 22 percent.