Dealing with inflation as a single mom
When we are faced with inflation we feel that we are slowly being choked as every commodity becomes unbelievably pricey. Especially if we are struggling with our budgets and can hardly cope up, we think we become helpless. The sadder fact is that single mothers doubly feel the strain once inflation sets in.
What is inflation anyway? Inflation is actually an economic phenomenon wherein it affects the whole country or even many countries as they experience economic downfall due to the weakening of the purchasing power of their currencies compared to the price of the commodities. In short, inflation occurs when the demand for goods becomes greater while the needed commodities become scarce. To meet the needs, the production expenses doubles up but this makes the commodities more expensive.
In essence, inflation sets the prices of most commodities higher including the cost of services so the values of the currencies of the countries affected are devaluated. Though inflation occurs only for a short period of time, it can predominantly affect the lives of the buying public because their income would not be practically sufficient to buy their needs. For us all, inflation is a nightmare. For single mothers, this is not only a nightmare but a tragedy.
Even the U.S. who has a very productive economy is sometimes afflicted with inflation. Unfortunately, divorce is predominant in this country and a lot of single mothers have to cope up. That is why we thought of providing them tips and suggestions to enable them to live through inflation.
Devising Contingency Plans with Inflation
It is typical for single mothers to be severely affected by inflation because they singlehandedly carry their families’ expenses that even they are employed they must have contingency plans. As such, their contingency plans would be to reduce the expenses by letting go some of the unnecessary expenditures while inflation happens. If you are a single mother who still have a reliable employment to count for, these are the things you should consider so that you can still be able to cope up.
Beating the Effect of Inflation
- Plan your spending or have a budget plan.
If you have a budget plan, obviously you want your money to be spent accordingly. So in order to have the money when you know there is a payment coming, all you got to do is save. Make sure you save some money wherever you get your wages and allot some on important payments such as your home utility bills, kid’s tuition fees, mortgage, groceries, and other unavoidable expenses while sticking to your spending limits. Sometimes you can also make flexible adjustments but make sure you leave some money that are for your basic needs. - Be creative with your purchases.
Single mothers are innately smart buyers. However, when inflation strikes, things can get crazy and suddenly you can’t afford to buy what you want and sometimes even what you need. So try to always look for alternative resources that your money can buy. For example, if you like a certain brand of food or maybe home cleaning products but you can’t afford it, look for more affordable foodstuff or products that you can utilize for the time being. Sometimes you will even discover that the things you patronize can be equaled by cheaper goods and finds them when you are on frugal mode. Especially with grocery goods, try cheaper brands from time to time and buy things you really need in small bulk. This can save you a lot more than retail buying. - Eliminate unnecessary expenditures.
Unnecessary expenses are what we call the things you can actually live without like gym membership fees, expensive vehicles, out-of-country’s vacations and so on. The thing is when inflation strikes try to live on what you can afford only. For example, if you are a health buff and need to abandon your health club membership for a while, you can still exercise at home, jog or go biking. For your trips, why don’t you and your family try hiking and camping in one nearby forest park? This is even a refreshing opportunity without no cost. If you can’t afford to buy a new vehicle, settle for public transportation or second hand cars for the meantime. - Cook for your family instead of constantly eating out.
Food is an ever expensive necessity and unfortunately, we can’t live without it. If you have a habit of eating out with friends or family, maybe it’s time to consider cooking and sharing your foods because for sure your friends are also feeling the constraints. So instead of eating out and make the restaurant owners wealthier while they don’t feel the inflation dilemma and you get poorer, schedule a night with your family or friends maybe once a week and cook out and bond. - Keep your priorities intact.
This is an important part wherein you don’t want to run up on debts and think about dealing the problem of paying it later. Your priorities are to survive within your means and not accumulate payments that you may not be able to pay accordingly. The secret to be on the right track, actually is lowering your expenses, save and invest your money on more important projects that your family needs. Although you cannot control economic conditions, you still can control your own spending and saving attitude. - If things get to worse, rely on government aids.
The government knows that when the economy is at its worse, everyone can get severely affected so this is the time that government aids become more prevalent. So try to look for food stamps programs, financial assistance for single mothers including free government school programs for you and your kids or any government aid program that you can rely on to help you and your family get through the hard times.
Being single moms is already a burden on the part of the women who bears everything to make ends meet. They single-handedly pay the expenses so that their kids would live just like any other children. However, inflation can bring about chaos on the single mother’s budget and this is why we have to come up with the solutions above and hopefully these can help. It just goes to say that there is always life even the hardest of life with single mothers because they are already survivors and they inherently know how to survive with the littlest means.