How to Save Money as a Single Mom: 3 Simple Methods to Use

1. Round up

My first suggestion for saving money is that when you budget, round up. When I go to budget for my utilities, my utilities often are $80 to $85 per month in the winter, at least for my electricity. Instead of budgeting for $85, I budget for $90.

What that does is give me an automatic buffer in my budget. This is important, especially for utility costs, because they can increase month to month. So I've already rounded up and hopefully have accounted for any change in that amount I'll have to pay.

If I don't have to pay the whole $85 or whatever, now I have this extra money that will be left over that I could use to add to a savings account.

So it's really simple. Just round up your expenses to the nearest 10th place. Whatever leftover money you have at the end of the month after paying bills, just throw it into a savings account.

2. Use grocery store pickup

My second piece of advice is to use grocery store pickup. What it did for me was a couple of things. One, it helped me avoid impulse buys, especially at a place like Walmart. They have housewares, toys, clothing, and so many more temptations.

As you pick up your bread and eggs, you can easily go over and pick up a new hoodie.

Grocery pickup keeps you out of the store, which for a lot of people, being in that sort of situation causes the impulse to buy, which is not good for your budget.

What I love about it the most is that when I have my grocery budget, I can literally see, as I'm putting things in my virtual cart, exactly what the total is. So there's no surprise when I get to the checkout.

Limit your exposure to stores that cause impulse buying, especially if it's a situation where you like to shop.

3. Automate your savings

My third tip for saving is to help support your saving efforts, and that is to automate your savings. Automation has enabled me to save a set amount. You can even do this at the direct deposit level with your company.

So instead of saying, I'm going to remember to put $50 every time I'm paid into my savings, just set it up to deposit into your savings automatically. You want $50 (or more) to go to a separate account every time you're paid so you don't see it.

Hopefully, you won't miss it, and it's happening automatically on the back end.

A bonus tip for automated savings is to make sure your money is being put to work in a high-yield savings account. There are several online high-yield savings accounts, which is important because as your savings account grows, you're earning money on the money you're saving.

The bank is making money off of your savings. So please do yourself a favor and make sure you're getting some of that interest as well. By the way, high-yield savings accounts are not investment accounts, so you won't lose money if the market crashes.

How to save money as a single mom

Those are my three quick tips for how to save money as a single mom. How do you save money as a single mom? Share your tips in the comments below.