Too much month at the end of your money?

What do you do when you have too much month at the end of your money?

Honestly, it was hard enough financially when there were 2 incomes to survive on. Contrary to popular belief, I get no financial assistance from the government (apart from a small Family Tax Benefit I get once a year), as this single mumma earns "too much". Legally, I'm supposed to be paying my ex-husband child support, even though custody is shared 50/50, and he's also working. Thankfully, I've managed to negotiate that we both contribute to cover child care (which, this year, will hopefully not be needed, so we can start using the money for other things for my lil boy).

When I work it out, my mortgage takes up 52% of what I get cash in hand from working full-time (I still have a HECS debt from university study). Manadatory bills (rates, energy, insurance) takes up 25%. So we're at 77% already. Then there's petrol & groceries & phone bill - another 20%, so it's 97%. That gives me 3% of my income to pay that child support, and live. Not much.

Financial stress really is one stressor there are limited things you can do about. Emotional stress you can practice mindfulness, see a counsellor, etc etc. At the end of the day, we only have one amount of money coming in, and can do limited things about what's going out.

I guess what I want to know is, what do you do to
a) ensure your money lasts as long as you can into the month / fortnight?
b) money-saving tips

These are a couple of mine:

* Every pay I transfer a set amount to all possible providers of bills - it's an amount I've averaged out over a year. Then when the bill comes, I'm generally only owing a very small amount, if at all.

* I bake a lasagne every month, and that provides a few decent frozen, cost-effective meals for when money runs out.

* I only grocery shop once every pay, and meal plan as best I can, only buying milk and bread in between

* I visit the Family Restaurant (i.e. mum & dad's) as often as I can to scab leftovers or eat with them lol

* I buy cheap wine ($3.30 a bottle) if I want wine.

* I rarely use the air conditioner, and limit energy consumption in general

* I buy bacon, cocktail frankfurts (my son has these for lunches etc) from the deli counter - much cheaper than pre-packaged.

Any other tips????