How to Survive Financially as a Single Mom

Being a single mom brings on different challenges and stressors that you won’t face when you’re in a marriage or relationship raising kids. Raising kids on your own as a single mom isn’t easy. When it comes to being a single mom, you have to learn how to have more financial strength than when you have a partner to help you with that struggle. Today I’m featuring a few tips to help you survive financially as a single mom. 

Learn to Budget

The first step to handling finances is to develop a budget and stick to it. If you’re not sure how to create a budget, it’s a simple as reviewing your income versus expenses. You’ll find during this review that you may be spending money on extra things, work to remove some of the extras so that your budget is based on your major expenses such as housing, food, and utilities. From there you can work to budget in some extras that are meaningful in your life, but you must learn to budget based on needs vs income before you allow any additional spending. 

Avoid Overspending

Now that you’ve developed a budget for your household, it’s time to avoid overspending at all costs. Learning how to survive financially as a single mom will take strength, determination, and motivation at every corner. If you’re someone who needs to spend a little something extra to feel more motivated in life, then allow yourself to have a weekly allowance that’s used for some extras. This will help you to avoid overspending and ensure you stay in budget no matter what. When you use this method to avoid overspending, you’ll also find you can start to slip some cash aside into a savings account. 

Focus on Earning

Even though you may feel upset about being a single mom, or have days that you simply feel you can’t make ends meet, you must remain focused on earning. Be sure you get enough sleep overnight and are eating a somewhat healthy diet. On days you don’t feel like getting up to go to work or dealing with the kids, consider eating a citrus fruit such as grapefruit or organs. Citrus fruits have been known to give people a little boost to get started in their day. Remember that you may be struggling financially now, but staying focused on earning and using a budget will help you survive and work towards a more lucrative financial future. 

Consider Relocating

Lastly, if you find that your cost of living is simply too much when you evaluate your income versus the necessary expenses, you may consider relocating. The kids may not want to move and this may be a difficult decision to make, but in order to survive financially as a single mom, you will have to make some sacrifices. If you can relocate to a place that costs less, then you’ll be able to enjoy quality time with your kids because you won’t be as stressed out after work hours. You will also find that you can save money to do some extra things with your kids if you can find a way to get your cost of living lowered. 

The biggest key to surviving financially as a single mom is to have the strength, willpower, and dedication to stick with a budget and remain optimistic that you can make some slight changes to improve your quality of living. Remain patient and calm as you work towards your financial goals so that you can survive financially as a single mom.