Direct Your Money
This simple hack is difficult to train yourself on but easy to do. Don’t let your bills control you. Control your monthly statements by deciding where to put your money. It’s hard when you have a lot of outstanding debt to several lenders, but you need to prioritize. Come up with a hit list for eliminating your debt and target lenders one by one. Once you are debt-free, maintain this discipline of deciding where every dollar of your income goes. This is the number one way to keep your finances in check.
Cook at Home
Cooking at home saves money. You have to work really hard to make home-cooked meals more expensive than even fast food. You don’t even need to meal plan, or clean out your pantry, although the more you practice home cooking, the more you will inevitably find ways to continually cut costs on food.
Learn Practical DIY Skills
You can learn and do anything from home with the power of internet streaming. Put your Youtube addiction to good use and learn DIY home improvement hacks to save on service costs. Manage home repairs, vehicle maintenance, or hone a skill that can earn you additional income as a freelancer.
Manage a Household Budget
Like directing your money, establishing a budget for your household is always important, but even more necessary with only a single income. The simple way to do this is to continually update yourself on your bank statements and reevaluate your spending. Shape the direction of your money by cutting expenses and determining where more money is needed. The trick to a successful budget is eliminating credit card spending. You can only work with what you have, otherwise, your debt will increase, and digging your way out will become even harder.
Start Investing Right Away
As you budget and direct your money, look for an opportunity to seize some of that income for yourself before you pay anything out. You should start by building an emergency fund (that is only for emergencies), and then start investing that money in your future. It is easier than ever before to invest and trade using apps like Robinhood and Acorns. It will make a difference in your long-term goals and you can even set up college funds for kids in the form of an Acorns Early account.
Become a Two-Income Family
This sounds like a silly solution, but you can stay at home and be a wage earner without clocking in a nine to five job. Even a couple of hours a day freelancing can earn you a little bit of financial wiggle room.
Ask for a Raise or Promotion
Who says that a single income family can’t increase that paycheck to give you more financial freedom? If you don’t feel comfortable asking for a raise as an earner. Start putting more effort in at work and build your confidence in your own value to the company. Look for opportunities to move up and express your interest and desire to earn more.
Build a Social Network
Get away from the computer and put yourself around real people. Become involved in your community and establish relationships with people who have common interests. This hack opens up a whole new world when you try it for the first time and you will never look back. Okay, referring to personal relationships as a hack may be a little crass, but people help people. When you network outside the home, you will find more opportunities presented to you. Alternatively, social media is mostly about marketing to you… mostly.
Join a Free and Trade Group
Okay. Facebook has its usefulness. One of the key frugal hacks a single income family can use in social media is Free and Trade, community groups. These are groups you can join in your local community where neighbors give things away for free. Sometimes it’s trash. I’m not going to lie. Like, actual trash. But often you can find things you would have paid for that your neighbor just doesn’t want anymore and (for some reason) isn’t interested in selling!
Keep Operating Costs Low
Lots of household hacks overemphasize how to conserve water or cut down on electricity. Cutting cable, reducing insurance, etc. are all good ways to shave off some of your monthly expenses. Although these hacks save you money, you don’t see the advantage without a strong foundation. without seeing immediate benefits, you will likely return to spending more money on convenience. However, once you have your budget figured out and you have settled into a financially viable routine, that is the time to begin tweaking things and freeing u even more money for your budget. Look first for what will yield the best results. If your water bill has a base level that is already high, you might not benefit much from reducing your water use. You might want to focus on electricity use instead as a way to save. Always evaluate where your money goes and how much your costs can be tweaked in order to increase potential cash flow.
P.S. Check out 5 Easy Money Moves Every Single Parent Should Make and 5 Budgeting Hacks to Try if You Have No Idea How to Save
