Personal finance is often trickier when you’re single. There’s no second earner to defray fixed costs such as rent or a mortgage, and no partner to provide support – financial and otherwise – in case of disability or long-term illness.

Society itself often penalizes singledom, from booking rates that assume double occupancy to rules about pension income splitting that leave out single seniors.

Toronto journalist Renée Sylvestre-Williams has been chronicling the financial journey of solo earners for years in her newsletter, The Budgette. And recently, she wrote a book about it, aptly named The Singles Tax.

Below is my conversation with Ms. Sylvestre-Williams (edited for length and clarity).

Renée, there aren’t many personal finance books for single people. What prompted you to write The Singles Tax?

There aren’t! I look at the book as a guide to some of the questions that people have about their financial, personal and community lives. I also hope it inspires people to push for changes in policy that could affect single people like housing and retirement.

One of my favourite sections of the book is the one where you write about groceries. There is so much advice about how to save on food, yet so little of it takes into consideration the challenge of grocery shopping while single. Tell us about the issue and smart hacks to get around it.

A common piece of advice is to bulk-buy food. I love the idea of having a deep freezer but I live in a condo in Toronto. Where am I going to put the perishable food? In my living room?

That being said, there are ways in which singles can take advantage of buying in bulk. Dry goods can be stored in closets or under the bed. You can also shop with friends and split the items. A friend of mine did that with some of her friends, and I’ve gone on shopping dates with friends and family who have a Costco membership.

Another great piece of advice from your book: “Borrow, don’t buy.” What is that all about?

The idea behind “borrow, don’t buy” is to borrow the items you don’t use very often that can cost money and take up a lot of space.

One example is tools. Most of us don’t need an automatic sander, a jigsaw or a carpet cleaner. You can borrow those from stores such as Canadian Tire, a family member or friend, or a tool library.

You also talk about “the single supplement” when travelling or dining out. That’s when, for example, hotels charge based on double occupancy. What can single travellers do about this?

Hotels in Canada aren’t supposed to charge the single supplement, so keep that in mind the next time you’re travelling. Tour groups and cruises do, but they are adjusting their offerings for single people. Norwegian Cruise Line has solo cabins that don’t have a single supplement.

It’s no surprise that housing takes up an entire chapter of your book. How can single people make it work?

The housing chapter goes into the alternatives to buying a house or a condo on your own. You can partner up with a friend and buy a place together, or you can buy land and build on it, providing the zoning laws allow this.

Supernuclear, which is mentioned in the book, did something like this in California and showcases people who are doing this around the world. The City of Vienna spoke with me about not only how they manage their housing stock, but how they don’t have the stigma that comes with the term “affordable housing.” And I also feature Senior Women Living Together, founded by Pat Dunn.

What’s one big lesson you learned while writing this book?

It has really reinforced that community plays a big role in our financial and personal lives. Housing is expensive and food costs have gone up, so pooling resources can help. Plus, having friends, both close and casual, is good for our health.

My friends inspired a lot of this book and were there during the entire process.