by Gayle Mackenzie

Created on: September 25, 2008

Being a single parent is hard enough but when you have to live on the income of a single parent it's usually even tougher. Having been a single parent with two boys, three and seven years old at the time I definitely found it to be a challenge, but we made and so can you.

You won't be able to change everything. Some of your bills have fixed rates but the ones that aren't are the ones that you can work with. Below are some tips that I used to get us through the roughest times. Use your imagination and your own ideas

TIP# 1
GROCERIES - Get back to basics and learn to stretch out the groceries you have bought. Make a weekly meal plan and stick to it. A smart meal plan will provide your family with nutritional meals they will love. For example on Monday evening you are having chicken, potatoes and a veggie. Tuesday you are having meatballs and spaghetti. Wednesday you will use leftover chicken from Monday to make chicken fried rice and sweet and sour pork chops. Thursday you will use the hamburger from Tuesday's meal to make meatloaf and mashed potatoes with a side of veggies. Friday you will have a salad and hamburgers. Kraft has a great website for this type of planning.

Groceries needed:
-Chicken breast (with bone in more inexpensive-or debone yourself and boil the rest of the chicken for a chicken broth to make a chicken stew later in the week)
-10 lb. bag of potatoes (should last two weeks at least)
-4 or 5 lbs. hamburger
-Rice (jumbo box - should last close to a month)
-Pork chops
-Green onions
-Hamburger buns
-Iceberg lettuce
Tomatoes (two medium)

TIP#2
CLOTHING
Find a good second hand clothing store. When I first started shopping at the our second hand clothing store I was doing it all wrong and had difficulty finding the items I needed to outfit myself and kids. What I discovered was that at in August everyone is looking for school clothes and in May and June they are buying summer wear, so shop off-season. During the winter months I would load up on summer wear and during the warmer months I would shop for winter wear when no one else was.

TIP#3
SWAP MEETS
This was one of the best tips I received and participated in. Talk to your friends and family and invite them over for a swap meet. There was always a theme with our swap meets. We would gather all of our slightly used Christmas decorations that we grew tired and swap them between ourselves. This also works for sporting equipment, general household items, etc.

TIP#4
CUTTING BACK IN GENERAL
-Put on a sweater or open the drapes in the daytime to let the sunshine warm things up instead of cranking up the heat.
-Bake your own cookies instead of buying from a bakery.
-Bring your own snacks on an outing.
-Borrow books and movies from the library for entertainment.
-Play board games together. Your kids will love you for it.

The key to budgeting is habbit. Pay your bills the day you get paid, don't wait until after they are due. Not only will this cost more but it's had to catch up once you get behind. One last and final tip that I recieved from a good friend was "Always pay your rent or mortgage on time. You will always need someplace to live regarless of how much money you have." This is so true. Don't try to make up for being a single parents with your kids by buying them expensive things and not paying the bills. Teach them these life lessons and they will appreciate all of the thought and hardwork a lot more than you may think.

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