Top 19 Practical Ways to Save Money as a Single Parent

Managing finances as a single parent can feel like a juggling act—balancing a budget while raising a child is no easy feat! Did you know that single parents typically face about 30% higher expenses compared to two-parent households?

But don’t worry, there are 19 effective strategies and ways to save money as a single parent every month without sacrificing what’s important. They are realistic budget, automatic saving, smart saving, affordable childcare solutions, smart shopping, reducing utility bills, community resources, 2^nd hand clothes and toys, meals planning, managing interest and debts, saving unnecessary fees and fines, lowering transportation costs, healthcare and insurance savings, budget-friendly entertainment options, negotiating bills, 30-day rule for big purchases, cutting unnecessary subscriptions, teaching kids money management, and gifting or selling unused items.

Let’s dive into practical advice that can help you navigate your financial journey with confidence!

1- Create a Realistic Budget and Track Your Expenses

The first and foremost tool is to set a realistic budget that meets your family’s needs and gives room for saving without cutting important spending in the same time. This is important for anyone trying to save money every month including single parents.

Setting too low budget means you’re cutting off necessary spendings for your family’s wellbeing and leads to taking from the money assigned for saving which makes you feel unsuccessful. Setting too high budget won’t give you much access to save enough.

Common tip advised everywhere is to spend around 50%-80% of your monthly income and save and invest the rest. I don’t like giving fixed numbers because everyone’s needs and goals are different, specially single parents who have more challenge since they only have one source of income and other individuals to support.

To come up with the ideal budget plan as a single parent saving money every month you need to identify two things:

1. Needs and wants list for the whole family
2. Average spending limit per month

For the average spending liming per month, I shared more details and steps to follow and tools to use in the “Proven Strategies for Saving Money Every Month” so you can check it out. To understand more about the needs and wants and coming up with the most accurate list, you can check the article “Is saving money easy”.

2- Set Up Automatic Savings for Your Family’s Future

Once you’ve created your average monthly budget, the rest will be saved. To prevent yourself from accessing that saved money you need to move it away as soon as possible from your main bank account you use for spending to another bank account dedicated for saving money. This way you’re setting up barriers to spending from it specially if it’s in another bank with no credit or debit cards issued or if there are fees for wiring them back to your account.

You can easily setup automatic wiring orders from your main account to the other account for savings using the bank’s website or application which most have. If not possible or if you’re receiving your income physically by cheque or cash, then you can build the habit of immediately or soon depositing them in the bank account for saving.

I don’t suggest saving the money at home because you’ll lose the extra money you can have from saving your money in the banks as I’ll explain in the next strategy.

3- Save Smartly

Now you have identified your spending budget and therefor your saving budget. After that you set up your automatic transfer to the money you want to save to another bank account dedicated for saving. This is where you still can do couple of things to maximize your savings like:

1. Consider using a high-yield saving account rather than a current/checking account. This is how you can gain interests on the money you’re saving in that account.
2. Consider starting a 529 college savings plan or other long-term savings options for your child’s education.
3. Consider saving by investing into Cash Funds with cumulative periodic return and periodic distribution if your bank has it. It’s different from the Certificates of Deposits (CD) where you can easily gain daily interest and redeem these funds anytime without losing interest money like with the CD. This is what I personally do.

4- Find Affordable Childcare Solutions

As a single parent with kids you need to look for opportunities to support your childcare need and allow you to save money each month. You can check one or more of the following options:

1. Explore In-Home Care: Consider hiring a nanny or using in-home daycare, which can be more cost-effective than traditional centers.
2. Join Babysitting Co-ops: Swap babysitting services with other single parents to save money on childcare.
3. Check for Subsidies: Look into government assistance programs for subsidized childcare.

5- Shopping Smartly

Shopping is everyone’s main spending channel and single parents are no exception. That’s why you need to do it in a way that fulfills your needs and saves you money each month. I suggest doing one or more of the following:

I- Batch your shopping

Do your shopping less frequently during the month instead of when needed. When you set specific times to do your shopping like 2^nd and 4^th week of the month, you lower your spendings because now you’re not allowed to buy anything in between these times unless absolutely necessary like buying diapers for your babies. You can try to manage it but sometimes it goes out of hand and you’ll need to buy extra new ones.

To give you an example from my life, I do my shopping for home supplies every two weeks, groceries every 7-10 days to have them fresh, and any big home appliances annually around November or December where most deals happen.

Another way this saves you money, to a lesser extent, is saving indirect finances attached to the shopping like car expenses including gasoline or parking fees for example.

II- Use coupons or cashback apps

There are apps that give you coupons or cashback when you use them or purchase through them, then you can use these coupons or cashback to spend in selected number of stores affiliated with these apps. Examples of these apps include Honey, Rakuten, or Ibotta for online and in-store purchases. You can either use these apps or check if your current apps have similar feature.

III- Discounts

Another way to shop smarter for saving money every month is benefiting from discounts for the products you’re shopping for. This is easily monitored if you’re shopping from a hypermarket that has a website or an app where you can find deals and discounts.

You can even connect this discount strategy with the batching shopping one and select those times to shop when the store is offering discounts. This is what I personally do when I discover that there are deals going on couple of days ahead or after my planned visit so I shift my visit to benefit from these discounts. This applies too when you shop for kids clothes, toys, school supplies, and training supplies for example.

IV- Points

Another way to buy products is by using points given to you by the store you’re dealing with. I found out that the hypermarket I’m using has an app that tracks my purchases and gives me points to redeem which I do every few months when I have decent amount to use.

You should check if the stores, shops or hypermarkets you’re dealing with has this feature and use it to your advantage.

6- Reducing Utility Bills with Energy-Saving Tips

It’s obvious I know and it really makes a difference when applied. Check the following tips:

1. Upgrade Appliances: Use energy-efficient appliances and LED light bulbs.
2. Adjust Thermostat:  Lower your thermostat in winter and use fans in summer to reduce heating and cooling costs.
3. Unplug Devices: Unplug electronics when not in use to save on energy bills. This is what your kids have to do with you. It won’t make a difference if you’re following the tips above while your kids are leaving lights on all day long or not closing the tap correctly.

7- Utilize Community Resources and Support Systems

As a single parent, you’re most likely eligible for support systems and resources which can aid in your saving money challenge. You can explore the following:

1. Seek Out Assistance Programs: Access local community programs for food, financial aid, and other resources.
2. Join Parent Groups: Connect with local single-parent groups for support and resource sharing.
3. Apply for Grants: Look into grants or scholarships available for single parents.

8- Buy Second-Hand for Kids’ Clothes and Toys

As parents we all want what’s best for our children including dressing them up in fine clothes. You can still achieve that while saving good amount of money through buying second-hand clothes or toys. When anyone hears this for the first time, they think dirty and torn clothes  which is far away from the fact.

Second-hand clothes or toys are called this way and are cheaper than first-hand ones in that they just have a simple defect that doesn’t align with the brand quality for its loyal customers. Most of the times, they are very small defects that are unnoticeable or can be easily fixed and still being cheaper than buying the original perfect piece.

9- Plan Meals

One of the essential needs to provide for your family as a parent is food, specially if you have children, and more specially if you have growing babies. You have to provide it either in-house or buying meals from outside which is a lot more expensive of course.

This means that you need to think of ways of reducing the need to buy meals from outside to maximize saving money every month. One way you can do this is by planning your meals ahead of time for the following day or even week. This supports your saving money project in the following ways:

1. It saves money cooking meals in-house rather than buying them with higher prices.
2. You get to save on groceries and ingredients bought in the same time if there are deals or discounts on them, and if you used your points to purchase them.

10- Pay Off High-Interest Debt First

Saving money is not just about putting money into your bank account, it’s also about reducing any fees taken from you repeatedly. Paying interests for credit cards and loans is the single most point you need to consider here using any or all of the following strategies:

1- Focus on paying off credit cards and loans with the highest interest rates.

2- Consider consolidating your debt to lower your monthly payments.

3- If you have a big loan to settle like for the house, then it’s more effective to use the debt snowball method where you settle small debts first then moving to the bigger ones and so on. This way you will build momentum and decreases number of debts you have.

One of the greatest books I always refer to in  my coaching is the Total Money Makeover by David Ramsey and that’s why it’s in my highly recommended books to read. Check it out.

11- Eliminate Unnecessary fees and fines

Why people pay $1200 on a $1100 bill? It’s because they failed to pay that bill or renew their subscriptions in time so they had to pay more for the fines. This is an easy way you lose money that you could have saved easily, specially when you are a single parent juggling too many things daily between work and home.

That’s why productivity and time management are the corner stone habits I teach anyone including parents to stay on top of tasks, specially the ones with negative impact if not done on time leading to financial losses.

You can simply use one or more of the following techniques:

1. Set automatic renewals for digital products or subscriptions provided that your balance is always funded. If needed, you can set an automatic transfer from your salary to this balance if possible. This way your balance always has enough fund to pay for the automatic renewals needed.
2. Set reminders on your calendar for the recurring bills or payments needed if they don’t have automatic renewal feature, like monthly installments or credit card fees or electricity bill or driver’s license for example. This way you can anticipate required payments ahead of time and avoid penalties.

If you have a lot of finances to manage and adding these reminders to your primary calendar will make it messy and unproductive for you then I recommend creating another calendar called “Financial Calendar” just to mark finances and use it each week or month to plan ahead for upcoming payments, add the tasks to the original calendar then uncheck that calendar during the week to only manage tasks, including the ones related to payments.

12- Reduce Transportation Costs

Another way you can save money is by modifying your transportation costs as follows:

1. Carpool: Share rides with other parents or use carpooling apps to cut fuel costs.
2. Public Transport: Consider using public transportation if it’s available and cost-effective.
3. Maintain Your Vehicle: Regular maintenance can prevent costly repairs and improve fuel efficiency.

13- Save on Healthcare and Insurance

Diseases are relatively a recurring guest specially when you have children. They keep getting sick with various disease and sometimes more than once in a month. That’s why modifying your healthcare and insurance system is important in lowering diseases frequency or severity and saving money as a result. You can check the following tips:

1. Shop for Insurance: Compare health insurance plans to find the most affordable coverage.
2. Use Preventive Care: Regular check-ups and preventive care can reduce long-term medical expenses.
3. Apply for Assistance: Explore government health programs for single parents and their children.

14- Find Budget-Friendly Entertainment Options

Fun activities are essential part of your children’s wellbeing so I don’t believe in cutting them off as a reason to save more money. What we can do is doing small modifications to have fun and save at the same time. Afterall, fun isn’t always about spending too much or expensive activities.

1. Free Activities: Look for free or low-cost community events and activities for kids.
2. Home Entertainment: Plan movie nights or game nights at home instead of expensive outings.
3. Discount Passes: Use discount passes for museums, parks, and other attractions.

15- Negotiate Bills and Expenses

Negotiation is one of the undermined and underused tools that can easily save money just by using one sentence like, “is it impossible to have a discounted price?” or “How can I afford that giving my situation?”. It’s not going to always work but sometimes it will. One of the essential books about negotiation I read recently is “Never Split The Difference” by Chris Voss so check it out for effective negotiation strategies.

16- Use a 30-Day Rule for Big Purchases

As mentioned earlier, waiting before buying can reveal if the purchase desire is real or not. If it’s saving you money on the small purchases, then it will definitely save more on the big purchases like home appliances for example.

One of my recent big purchases was a 65” TV and I followed the same concept. My wife and I decided we need one in August or September, and we know that in November there are white Fridays deals and in December there are huge deals in one of the big stores, so we decided that to reconsider this decision again comes November, so that if we still want it we buy it and on sale. We bought it with 31% discounted price.

17- Cut Unnecessary Subscriptions and Expenses

Subscriptions are like trolls getting inside your finances without realizing because you made one click months ago and forgot about it. This is one of the ways you lose money monthly which can easily be turned into savings.

1. Review your family’s subscriptions (streaming services, apps, memberships) and cancel what’s not being used.
2. Opt for family plans or bundled services to reduce monthly expenses on entertainment or mobile plans.

18- Teach Kids About Money Management

Getting your kids involved in learning about money early on is one of the best ways to set them up for financial success later in life. It’s not about making them little accountants overnight, but helping them understand the basics in a fun, age-appropriate way.

Age-Appropriate Financial Lessons for Children

For younger kids, start with the simple stuff, like the value of coins and bills. Play store at home or let them hand money to the cashier during errands—it makes the concept real for them. As they get older, introduce concepts like earning money (maybe with a small allowance tied to chores), saving for something they want, and understanding needs versus wants. Teens can dive into bigger topics like budgeting, credit, or even how interest works.

Fun and Interactive Ways to Teach Saving and Spending

Turn money lessons into games! Set up a “spend, save, share” jar system and encourage your kids to divide their allowance or gift money into these three categories. Use board games like Monopoly or apps designed to teach financial literacy—it’s learning disguised as playtime. You can also plan mini-goals, like saving up for a toy or contributing to a family outing, so they see the payoff of good saving habits.

The Benefits of Involving Kids in Family Budgeting

Letting kids peek into how the family budget works can be a game-changer. Show them what goes into the grocery list, how much things cost, and why we sometimes choose one brand over another. If you’re comfortable, share big-picture goals like saving for a vacation or reducing debt. It helps kids feel included and builds their understanding of managing money responsibly. Plus, you might be surprised how creative they can be about finding ways to save!

When you teach kids about money management, you’re not just helping your family save now—you’re setting them up with skills that will last a lifetime. And who knows? Maybe they’ll start saving for your retirement fund someday! 😉

19- Declutter and Gift or Sell Unused Items

This is not exactly a direct saving money strategy, and it seems more of a making money tool so I kept it at last, but it might work from the angle that you’re selling unused items in a good condition before it breaks down or deteriorate and lose money value. So technically you’re saving its value.

As a single parent you may have a lot of items that you no longer will use and you can sell them to other new parents like baby stuff including stroller, car seat, etc. You can do the following:

1. Go through your home and gather items you no longer need or use.
2. Sell your unwanted items on platforms like Facebook Marketplace, eBay, or OfferUp.
3. If you can’t sell them, at least you can use them as gifts for other parents instead of buying gifts so you’re saving money on that.

Conclusion

Navigating finances as a single parent doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By implementing these 19 practical money-saving strategies, you can manage your budget more effectively and reduce financial stress as a single parent. Start with one or two tips that resonate with you, and gradually incorporate more as you see what works best for your family, and remember, every small step counts towards achieving financial stability.

Ready to take control of your finances? Begin applying these tips today and watch your savings grow while maintaining a fulfilling life as a single parent!