How To Survive Financially As A Single Mom

Make no mistake; it’s tough to be a single mom. Finding a way to juggle the responsibility of caring for your kids, along with the challenge of making enough money to support you and your family, may seem next to impossible at times.

Let’s not pretend like there’s an easy way to go about doing this; there just isn’t.

Nonetheless, there are some things you can do to make managing your money a little more straightforward. Today, I’ll give you some great tips to keep in mind if you want to really take control of your finances as a single mom.

Pay Off Your Debts First

This is a bit obvious, but the less debt you have, the more money you’ll be able to put towards investments that will help you increase your wealth even further.

If you want to buy something and you can afford to pay for the entire thing up front, then, by all means, go right ahead. But if you have to finance something, it’s a sign that you won’t really be able to afford it, and it’s more likely that it’ll just be a money pit for you.

If you have a credit card, don’t charge more to it than you can afford to pay each month. Even though you might be tempted to go over your monthly credit budget to claim some extra rewards points, it’s never worth it in the end.

That’s not to say that all debt is inherently bad, however. Sometimes, going into debt can be acceptable if you know there is going to be a decent return on your investment. Examples of “good debt” include things like a car with low depreciation, a student loan, or a home mortgage.

Make Sure Your Family Is Protected

When we say “protected,” we’re referring to insurance. One of your priorities as a single mom should be to secure disability coverage and life insurance for yourself.

In many places, it’s mandatory that you have both car insurance and homeowner’s insurance, but if you don’t have either of these, we’d highly recommend that you get them as soon as possible.

There are a lot of single moms out there who don’t have life insurance in particular, and it’s understandable as to why.

Life insurance can be prohibitively expensive for many single moms, and a lot of people, in general, tend to avoid getting life insurance because deciding how you want to support your family and loved ones after you die can be a pretty uncomfortable process.

But you absolutely need life insurance, especially if you’re a single mom. Even if you know that your children will be under the care of a trustworthy guardian after you pass, there are several expenses that life insurance can prepare your children and their guardians for.

These might include the need for a bigger home for your children and their guardians, additional childcare that your kids might require, expenses related to schooling and extracurricular activities, and money to help buy your children a home or pay for a wedding once they’re grown up.

Establish a Monthly Budget

Developing a budget and sticking to it rigorously is one of the best things you can do as a single mom to keep your head above water financially. But if you’re not the greatest at managing your money, figuring out how to budget your income might not be the easiest task.

To start, you’ll need to calculate your mandatory expenses for the month. These include things like rent, utilities, car payments, groceries, phone and internet services, and whatever else you pay for that you need to maintain a reasonable quality of life.

Then, you need to calculate how much income you make in a month. Once you have this figure, subtract your mandatory monthly expenses. The remaining amount will be your budget for any extra expenses.

Lastly, try and calculate how much you spend on optional expenses like takeout meals, extra clothes, and services like Netflix or Amazon Prime. If the total amount of these expenses goes over your budget for extra expenses, it’s a good indication that you could potentially be spending your money more wisely.

Even if you know how to calculate a budget for yourself, it can still be pretty tricky to do it on your own. We would recommend downloading some budgeting software or visiting a budgeting website, as both of those contain tools that can vastly simplify the process of figuring out what expenses are within your budget.

Bear in mind that when creating a budget, you need to be honest with yourself about your spending habits for it to make a difference.

Talk to Your Children About Financial Responsibility

If you’re a single mom and you’re in a tough spot financially, you can’t sugarcoat the situation for your kids. Make sure you talk to them frankly and honestly about your financial situation.

This will help keep your family focused on what actually matters financially and will help your kids differentiate between what they want and what they need.

Giving your kids a small weekly or monthly allowance is a great way to help them independently learn about financial responsibility. If you’re a single mom, you need to make doubly sure that you yourself are engaging in responsible financial practices, because it’s important to set a good example for your kids that they can put into practice as they get older.

As your children grow up, they’ll be able to become financially independent a lot sooner if you’ve demonstrated how to spend and save money responsibly.

Your children’s financial independence will, in turn, put less of a strain on your own finances, and you’ll be able to place more of your own money into investments of your choosing.

Find Ways to Earn More Money

We imagine you might be rolling your eyes a little bit at this tip. But if it was that easy to just earn more money at any given time, we wouldn’t be bothering to mention this to you at all.

Make no mistake; it’s pretty hard a lot of the time to make enough money to live comfortably, especially if you’re a single mom. But now that so much business these days takes place over the internet, there are a few relatively easy ways you can make money as a single mom, all while staying home.

These are just a few of the online jobs that can potentially generate a pretty decent source of income if you put in the work.

Start a Blog

Starting a blog can be a pretty great way to make a little bit of extra money on the side, without putting in too much time or effort and without making a large initial investment.

As a self-employed blogger, you’ll have the freedom to work the way you want and feature the content of your choice on your blog. This, plus the fact that blogging can potentially be quite lucrative with the right audience and the right monetization, means that it’s definitely worth considering as an occupation if you want or need to spend a lot of time around home.

While running a blog can be relatively easy, it’s still not something that comes naturally to everyone. If you want a more in-depth guide on how to start a successful blog as a single mom, you can find all the info you’ll need here.

Become an Affiliate Marketer

If you already have a blog, an excellent way to make some money through it is via affiliate marketing.

If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, the basic premise of it is that you promote a product or a service on your blog or other online space, and then receive a commission if someone buys this product or service because of your promotion.

Becoming an affiliate marketer is fairly easy since all you really need is a platform to promote your chosen products on and a merchant who is willing to work with you.

If you’re in need of a tool to help get you set up as an affiliate marketer, look no further than 12 Minute Affiliate. The 12 Minute Affiliate system contains a variety of software designed to help people who are new to the business quickly get started as an affiliate marketer. You can find out more about the 12 Minute Affiliate system by clicking the link above.

Check It Out

---

Become a Freelancer

One of the best ways to make money for anyone who spends a lot of time at home, including single moms, is to become a freelancer.

There are many types of work that can be done freelance. Writing and editing are among the most common types. But you might also want to consider other freelance work, like working as a virtual assistant.

A virtual assistant works with clients remotely to help them with technical or administrative situations. For example, some businesses that need phone receptionists choose to hire virtual assistants rather than have someone work in-house. The virtual assistant then usually takes calls via Skype or a similar service.

However, most virtual assistants tend to either have previous experience in real-life business situations or previous experience working online, so if you’re a total newbie at either of these things, then this career path may not be for you.

Conclusion

In the end, there’s no clear-cut solution to earning money as a single mom. Everyone’s situation is going to be slightly different, and it’s up to you to figure out how to budget and invest your money in the best possible way for you.

Being able to secure a stable financial future will greatly benefit both you and your family, and hopefully, after reading the tips that we have to offer, you’ll be in a better position to achieve financial success as a single mom in the future.