Single Mom Does Something Awesome With Her Tax Refund

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Millions of Americans are expecting tax refunds for 2016. While some will blow the cash on a vacation or impulse purchase, a young single mother in South Carolina is making headlines for using her tax refund to pay off an entire year of rent.

Christina Knaack — a single mother raising a 4-month-old and a 2-year-old on a minimum wage job — recently took $5,400 of her $5,600 tax refund and paid off her apartment rent through 2017, Fox Carolina reports.

Knaack writes in a Feb. 22 post on Facebook:

“Instead of buying my kids the latest Jordans or fancy electronics I paid my rent for the YEAR. I’m a single mom and I do it all by myself on a minimum wage job. I know that a roof over my kids head is what’s important.”

Making a living on minimum wage, like Knaack does, can be a challenge. For example, you may find it difficult to come up with enough cash to afford a decent apartment to rent.

As Money Talks News explained a couple of years ago, it’s estimated that the average American earning minimum wage would have to work more than 93 hours a week to make what’s considered a living wage.

Even if you’re a minimum wage earner, there are still ways you can save money. For example, working less might actually result in more money saved for some couples. As we have written:

Child care is crazy expensive. If your household has two income earners and both make minimum wage, you might come out ahead if one adult stays home with the kids. Not only will that eliminate day care costs, you’ll also save on gas and other work-related expenses.

For more tips on getting by with less, check out “10 Ways to Save When You’re Making Minimum Wage.”

How will you spend your tax refund? Sound off in the comments below or on Facebook.

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