Single Mom Life Hacks

• Meal Planning

  Dinner is not my favorite meal to cook because after you have had a long day at work, the last thing you want to do is cook. You are too exhausted to think about what meals to cook that you actually want to eat. If you are anything like me, eating the same meal over and over again is what makes you spend more money by going out to eat, simply because you are sick of the food you have at the house.
  
  My solution is a monthly meat delivery from Butcher box, weekly organic veggie delivery from boxed greens, and Instacart delivery for eggs, dairy, and any dry goods you might need. I keep a list of mostly 30 min meal and crockpot/Instapot ideas on the fridge that contains the meat and veggies from all the deliveries. This allows for variety, ease, and healthier options for meals. Yes, you will pay for delivery, but how much is your time back worth to you? 
  

• Cleaning

  We clean once a week and don’t bother what happens for the rest of the days. Because we are busy living life and doing more important things than to stress out over cleaning every day. If your house is messy, good! This means you are making memories. Have you seen how fast you clean when you learn that company is coming over? Enroll your kids(s) to help you. Agree on what chores they will do, and be honest if they can actually do them…if you have to redo it, probably should not give it to them until they can do it the way you want. This helps you so you don’t have to do it all and teaches them responsibility.

• Pay Bills on a Schedule

  Sometimes living paycheck to paycheck is not something you can help in the immediate. For me, it was not until I found work that paid me weekly that I was able to get out of that rut. It taught me how to pay my bills when I get paid so it’s like the money is not even there and I cannot overspend. I also found that when you pay bills like loans or credit cards, it will help to reduce your overall interest, saving you money in the long run. This also helped build my credit and allowed me to have a low-interest rate on my car loan and mortgage. On the occasion, you get a surprise overpayment, and you can cash in on the months where you could use one less bill so you can get that birthday present, or go on that trip.
  
  15 Easy Ways to Manage Your Money

• Saving

  Saving is always an uphill battle. You can setup automatic transfers and once you get a good chunk of change…BAM! Surprise bill and there it goes, like it was never there before. When you can get to a high amount, you have the option to get into high yield savings, you will not earn more than 4-6% or less like 2% depending on what is happening in the market. You also have other investing options when you have a high enough amount saved, though when you are a single mom like me, that may not be an option yet. 

• Reducing Debt

  Credit cards are a son of a bitch! I have been dancing with debt since I turned 18. In order to build you have to spend and payback. When you are a single mom, that is sometimes the only way you can make ends meet. It can screw ya in the end or you can make it work to your advantage.
  
  I was able to eliminate my debt completely once using the snowball method, then yes, you guessed it, accrued more debt. It got worse, so I opened a debt consolidation loan; that raised my score above 700 after the payoff because thank you lord, nothing was late. This enabled me to buy my first house!!!!! Now I am back in some credit card debt, and I have a few loans I am working to pay off. Find the debt reducing method that works the best for you, be disciplined and stick with it. 

• Career/Biz Tips

  You get to a point where you need to have two jobs just to make ends meet or have a little more to just go out to eat. After dabbling in many different industries, from retail to law to nightlife to dentistry to bartending to merchant services/credit card processing and too many more than I care to list here.
  
  My last position enabled me to learn and grow financially, though I am not perfect and am still working towards my new goals. Don’t limit yourself and put all your eggs in one basket, just find what you want to do and put all your effort into making it work so you can earn more money. Be quick to change the method if it is not working, don’t change the goal. Start a side hustle to earn more money (find the bonus list in the guide). Invest your money and make money work for you, don’t work for money.

• Overcoming Obstacles

  The battles and how to handle them is probably the most emotionally taxing part of being a single mom. You don’t have anyone to really bounce ideas off of when you are trying to deal with an obstacle, whatever that may be. Yes, you have your family, and friends; they will provide you ideas on how to handle it, and you will find some that have found a partner to help. I never had the partner to help, only family and friends. I would do research as well, depending on the topic, I am a googler!
  
  In the end, I always went with my gut feeling and worked it out. It is important to speak open and honestly with your kids about any issue/problem/gift that arises and always be willing to find another way to make it work.

• Find Your Tribe

  These are your people, the ones who make you laugh, sit with you when you cry, tell you all the mean things you knew you needed to hear. These people are your support group, happy hour honeys, road trip warriors and will be there for you through thick and thin. Find them and hold onto them!

• You Need Your ME TIME!

  Kids will drive you insane. Even if you need to hide in the closet, no judgement. Mine was such a great baby, it was not until she went into school that I affectionately called her my little devil child. She threw a chair at her teacher in preschool once. I sure do love that little devil. Her mood swings were borderline insane between the ages of 8-12. We have a great relationship, and I still need my time to myself. Do more of what makes you happy, taking care of yourself is one of the best ways to take care of your loved ones.