Managing Money As A Single Parent – Part 03
Welcome to the latest series here at the wildly popular JosephSangl.com – “Managing Money As A Single Parent”!
Part Three Move to equal payments where possible.
As a single parent, surprises are unwelcome, especially financial ones! Seek to eliminate these sorts of issues by moving to “equal payment plans.” Many utility companies offer these options that basically even out your annual costs into equal monthly payments. This means your electricity costs will be the same all twelve months of the year. The same is true for natural gas, fuel oil, water, and other utilities.
You can do the same with many of your known, upcoming non-monthly expenses like annual insurance premiums, homeowner’s association fees, and membership dues. Convert to a monthly payment system to prevent the dreaded “budget crushing” expense. Essentially you want to convert your KNOWN but non-monthly expenses (like Christmas, car repairs, etc.) into “every paycheck” expenses. Instead of attempting to pay for $500 of Christmas presents out of your December paychecks, you save money from each and every paycheck throughout the year for Christmas. It is much easier to save $20.83 per paycheck (when paid twice a month) than it is to save $500 in one or two paychecks, right?
PRACTICAL STEPS TO TAKE:
- Call each utility and known, upcoming, non-monthly expense and establish an equal monthly payment plan.
- Use the Known Upcoming Non-Monthly Expenses Calculator to establish savings for these expenses every paycheck.