As a single mom, networking can sometimes help you survive financially and help you see great business ideas and grant opportunities, all you have to do is stay connected. Networking involves a group of people with the same interests, business ideas, or innovative skills meeting each other and creating job opportunities and job ideas. So as a single mom make sure to interact with people having similar ideas or sharing the same interests as you.
6 Ways To Survive Financially As A Single Mom?
As a single mom, you always want to do all it takes to keep your kid happy and then you have other things to handle financially, so you tend to struggle financially, the following are ways you can survive financially as a single mom:
- Get To Know Your Money
- Make Smart Money Decisions
- Being Intentional About Your Spending
- Don’t Rely On Child Support:
- Start A Side Hustle
- Plan Ahead
Get To Know Your Money
Like every economist would do, you should learn how to handle your finances. Know how your money is coming in and going out. By doing so, you can tell how much you are earning, how much is coming in and what you are spending on a daily basis, how much is going out.
Make Smart Money Decisions
Make smart money decisions by buying what is necessary and cutting down on things that are not required at the moment. And not saying you should live cheaply or not spend your income, all I am saying is to spend wisely and be modest in whatever you are doing, you can have unplanned expenses to save for the rainy day.
Being Intentional About Your Spending
Just like a woman would spend and buy everything she sets her eyes on when she goes to the market without a planned list, the same applies to someone who is not intentional about her spending. Spend wisely. Set your priorities right, make your decision about what you need for the month, and stick to it.
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Don’t Rely On Child Support
It doesn’t matter if your kid’s father provides everything he or she needs. Try not to rely on that support, make your own income, and also assist in bringing up your child.
Start A Side Hustle
Like most people would do to have an additional income aside from the main source, you can set up a side hustle you do after work hours or when you are on holiday.
Plan Ahead
Plan ahead of the future, be intentional about your dreams and goals and set them right. If you want your child to be in the institution in the next two years, plan for the fees and the necessary registration fee. If you want to move into your own house all you have to do is plan ahead and start saving now.
What Can A Single Mom Do To Make Money?
There are various ways you can make money as a single mom using your skills and ideas without having to leave the comfort of your home, or not tend to your kid. You can also choose to work physically either way you are earning an income. The common ways to make money online are:
- Freelance Work
- Customer Service Representative
- Online Tutor
- Proofreader
- Writer/Blogger
- Pet Sit For Your Friends/Neighbors
- Health Coach
- Become A Childcare Provider
- Get Creative
- Marketing Specialist
- Visual Assistant
Freelance Work
If you have great skills in editing, graphic design, or content creation, you can get paid for these skills by online businesses, publishers, etc.
Customer Service Representative
You can be a brand’s customer representative in the comfort of your home if you have the ability to interact with customers, relate with them and provide solutions to their difficulties online.
Online Tutor
When parenting you tend to teach your kid and help them improve on subjects they find difficult. You can use their added skill to earn income just by teaching kids online for a few hours.
Proofreader
You can be a proofreader, working with online stores, publishers or companies. All you have to do is be consistent, check the formatting, confirm facts, and check grammar, you also have to be detail-oriented and find out the smallest errors.
Writer/Blogger
Using your experience in parenthood you can write for online resources and many publications that provide topics for parents and guide them in parenting.
Pet Sit For Your Friends/Neighbors
You might have not thought about it before, but pet sitting can actually make you earn. You can tend to your friend’s and neighbor’s pets for a period of time when they are away.
Health Coach
As a single mom you tend to have tips you use to make your physical appearance appealing and your body shape intact. With these ideas and tips, you are aware of you can train other moms on how to stay fit, on their physical appearance, and how to stay healthy.
Become A Childcare Provider
You look after your kid properly and you also know how it feels when your child is not tended to properly, so by being a childcare provider, parents who close late from work can take your services and trust their kids would be well taken care of after school hours or when they have business trips.
Get Creative
Think about creative things you could do on your own like designing an office, decorating a room, or planning a mini-party or get-together. Anything that requires service and you also enjoy doing can enable you to earn an income.
Marketing Specialist
If you are good at modeling and helping brands improve sales either verbally or with your advert skills you can get a job as a marketing specialist for an organization.
Visual Assistant
You can be an online assistant too if you are good at doing online research, making calls and responding to clients’ complaints, setting appointments, or writing a proposal for an organization.
11 Ways Single Moms Can Enjoy Life
Get To Know Yourself Better
When you get to know more about yourself you set your goals right, you understand what you want for yourself, you get to think about the future and what you want to achieve in the near future. You begin to love yourself more and you get to reflect on the things you have gone through and how you overcome then you would realize you deserve a pat on the back and you tend to love yourself more.
Self-care
Setting out some minutes for yourself. Doing something nice to yourself. It doesn’t have to be something big, even though it’s buying yourself a favorite flavor of ice cream or treating yourself to lunch. Showing kindness to yourself generally.
Doing What You Love
As a single mom, you can make yourself happy by doing things you love. It could be singing, playing the instruments, trying new recipes, reading or writing. Try setting out a day to do what makes you happy.
Go Out Often
Go out often. Visit new places. Get to see the world from the outside. Visit fun places or take a short vacation, of course, you can go with your kid so you won’t miss enjoying motherhood. You both can enjoy the adventures together.
Hang Out With Friends
Go out with friends. Attending events with friends makes you think of the good old times and helps you relieve the moment.
Spend Time With Your Kid
Of course, motherhood is a whole lot of fun and experience. Spending time and going out with your kid can make you happy. You get to know more about your likes and dislikes, your similarities, etc.
Surround Yourself With Your Loved Ones
Be with people that make you happy, surround yourself with people that bring positivity into your life, and people that love you to a fault.
Remember Your Strengths
In life we tend to have good and bad times, it’s bound to happen, and nobody is perfect. When it happens learn to draw your strength from the good times, you can try relieving moments your kid made you happy or something that made you smile. It would help you take away the negativity.
Mastering A New Language
You can master how to speak and write a new language in your free time, it would be fun as well as innovative. Mastering a new language would be an added skill.
Joining A Book Club
Joining a book club would keep you updated on the latest books. You would get inspired by people. Get to know what others think about a particular book, share ideas, and laugh about a page in the book. As long as you are having fun.
Go On Dates
If you are ready for it and you think you can give it a try. You should go on dates. And try to concentrate on the person you are with and not what happened in the past.
Conclusion
Being a single mom can be fun and exciting, as much as it is difficult and tasking. You just have to make a sensitive budget, start the year or month writing out things that are important, and set your priorities.
Try as much as possible to eliminate debt, do not borrow because your kid wants something so badly, and plan ahead. Ask for assistance when it is necessary. Be realistic about what you can afford, you don’t have to claim to be what you are not or what you cannot afford just to please your child. By all means, protect yourself and your child or children, that should be your top priority.
– Ilufoye Ibukun