What to Know
As grocery prices continue to soar, many of us are looking for ways to stretch our dollar.
TikTok user Jess (@jessrecovershere) is one such person — she’s a single mom making $15/hour without child support or federal assistance, and she shared a few of the strategies she uses to survive on a limited income.
Jess explained that while she makes a base wage of $15/hour, she is also a licensed cosmetologist, which means she’s eligible to receive tips as part of her job.
That means that, while it depends on the person and the tip, of course, she can average up to around $40/hour when working.
Still, the single mom uses a variety of strategies to make ends meet, such as:
- Only shopping at discount grocery stores like Walmart or Aldi (she added that Dollar Tree is no longer worth it, since they’ve raised their prices)
- Utilizing food pantries when needed
- Filling out those random surveys and forms to get free things like drinks and fast food
- Never, ever buying bottled water
Here are more of her money-saving tips — some may surprise you!
First things first, Jess shared that credit card debt is 'not avoidable.'
Jess listed her “number one” way for “making it” as credit card debt. While she declined to give exact details, she said it was unavoidable to live without it.
Next up? The single mom said she never gets her hair or nails done.
“I mean, you can tell, but it’s just not in the budget,” she admitted. “It’s not a priority.”
Her second strategy was a surprising one: the single mom skips paying for home Internet.
Jess admitted that opting out of having home Internet is a “tough” one, but it’s a crucial part of her saving strategy.
Plus, not having access to home Internet leads her into her next strategy and money-saving hack.
She completely skips all streaming and subscription services.
Jess maintains that she does not have subscriptions or streaming for a single thing.
In fact, she says in her TikTok that she took things a step further and even closed her bank account down completely so anything linked to it would be shut off. (Instead of a traditional bank account, Jess added that she switched to Chime, which appears to be a financial company that partners with different banks and is not a bank itself.)
The mom also has a hotspot on her phone that they can use when needed, but says she and her son “watch a lot of PBS Kids.”
She uses an app to find free little libraries.
This is your editor’s note that real libraries still do exist, of course, but Jess utilizes free little libraries to source books for her son.
There is an app called ‘Free Little Library‘ she uses to help her find free little library locations, where she’s able to bring the books home and keep them.
She says 'no' to thrift shopping.
According to Jess, “thrift stores are rip-off.”
“I don’t know what’s going on… but they are scamming people,” she added. “You can buy sh*t cheaper brand new than you can at Red Rack. So forget thrifting.”
Instead of relying on big-chain thrift stores, Jess instead recommended looking for church sales, food pantries that offer clothes and household supplies, garage sales, or even just friends cleaning out their closets.
She gets her sweet treats at Sonic's Happy Hour.
Last but not least, even those of us on a budget deserve a sweet treat now and then.
For Jess, the frugal choice is to hit up Sonic’s ‘Happy Hour,’ which runs from 2-4 p.m. every day, for half-priced beverages and other deals. That way, she can still get that sweet treat hit, for a fraction of the price!
Jess ended her financial advice TikTok by acknowledging that “this is not ideal” and urging anyone else struggling to survive to realize it’s not entirely their fault if their dollars don’t stretch like they used to.
“We are living in a f**ked up economy,” she said. “I understand that you have to sacrifice to make it, even if you go to school for something, even if you have a trade like I do, people making $24 an hour in the Midwest are not making it. So don’t beat yourself up. Don’t feel bad about it.”
