Back-to-school about tough choices for single moms in a dual-income world

As a single mom, Heather MacDonald has found all sorts of ways to make every loonie count: she buys one type of fruit and vegetable each week, depending on what’s on sale; gets coupon alerts by email; and never buys anything at full price.

But there are always things that throw the Vancouver resident’s best-laid plans off track: birthday parties, the start of sports seasons (and the requisite gear purchases and team fees), and the beginning of school, when the list of supplies, from pastel pencils to extra-fine markers, is long. That’s when she finds it especially hard to make it on a solo income in a dual-income world.

“You don’t save money,” MacDonald says. “It really bugs me that I can’t save. There’s no fallback. It’s pay cheque to pay cheque.”

Female lone-parent families are significantly poorer than all other household types in Canada, with 21 per cent of all single mothers being low income compared to just 5.5 per cent of married couples, according to a recent Poverty and Homelessness in Canada briefing note produced by Canada Without Poverty and the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation.

In 2010, lone-parent families were three times as likely to be poor as two-parent families, the Citizens for Public Justice’s 2012 Poverty Trends Scorecard found. Families in British Columbia are especially hard hit: One in five kids B.C. is poor, the highest rate of any province, according to the 2013 Child Poverty Report Card.

MacDonald says it’s vital that single moms find out what programs are available for them, whether through social assistance, recreation and community centres, or local colleges and universities.

Then there are organizations like KidSport, a national not-for-profit that provides financial assistance for registration fees and equipment to kids aged 18 and under.

MacDonald is also always comparing prices: the Real Canadian Superstore is her first stop for most goods, but she knows that yogurt tubes are cheaper at Costco, while her local deli has the best deals on lunch meats.

Tough choices

Vancouver money coach Melanie Buffel with Money Coaches Canada, herself a single mom, says making ends meet means making choices.

“One of the hardest things I’ve had to do as a parent is to say no to my children,” Buffel says. “But it’s so important to help them understand the importance of using your resources with intention and to achieve what is most important.

If your child really wants to join band and needs to rent an instrument it means there will be less money to spend on the newest trendy clothes. We keep the focus on what we can do, cultivating a sense of gratitude for the relative abundance in our lives and don’t spend time worrying about keeping up with the expectations of others.”

Buffel acknowledges that back to school can be a tough financial time for single parents, with the need for clothes, school supplies, and sports team fees.

For starters, not everything needs to be replaced: her kids reuse things like pencil cases, binders, and lunch bags whenever possible.

Her family has held clothing swaps, and they enjoy “treasure hunting” at local thrift stores.

Budgeting: Your key to success

Buffel runs her own family finances through a detailed savings and spending plan, setting an annual budget for school-related costs, clothes, and lessons and activities within that larger plan. She divides the annual figure by 12 and puts that amount into a savings account each month.

“I set it up as an automatic transfer that happens right after my pay lands in my bank account so it doesn’t rely on my memory or my willpower to make it happen,” she explains.

“It’s too easy to get caught up in a buying frenzy that leaves a credit hangover,” Buffel says. “Our plan takes into account the limit of my income and assigns amounts to each important goal I’m working toward, including vacations, retirement and post-secondary education for the kids.

“The only rule is that it needs to balance,” she adds. “I don’t want to spend more than I earn. The time to start saving for back to school 2015 is right now.”

Teaching tools

The start of school can also be a lesson in itself for older kids when it comes to money. One August, Buffel decided to give her 13-year-old son the freedom to take the amount they had set aside for his back-to-school clothes shopping and go shopping on his own.

“I felt like I was taking a big chance and he could come back with one T-shirt and a handful of video games,” Buffel says. “Instead he made me very proud … when he came back with two pairs of jeans, four T-shirts, a button-up shirt, socks, underwear, and a haircut all for under $100.”