I don't think getting someone else to manage your money would actually reduce your stress. Living on a small income is challenging, as I know first hand. What greatly magnifies the problem is using credit to live beyond your means. I've been there, done that - repeatedly. Writing out a budget can sometimes be part of how we delude ourselves. I now live within my means, and I don't consult a written budget, and I don't feel particularly stressed.

If you have a credit card, consider cutting it up. Credit is addicting. I hope you are not telling yourself that you need to use plastic in order to build up your credit rating. That kind of thinking is part of the disease of credit addiction. Any fee you would pay to a money manager is not "small." It is just another drain on your income. You can't afford that fee. Self-discipline is hard. I don't have a ton of it either. But you can learn to exercise it by first giving up fantasies. Living in reality is the foundation of financial self-discipline. I know escapism when I see it because I've engaged in that myself. That's what you are doing with this idea of a financial manager. You are trying to evade coming to grips with the fact that you only have so much money, and you have to give up lusting for what you can't afford. Wanting is not needing. You have the two mixed up together.

I haven't explained this well at all. But I do feel for you. I've been through all kinds of financial woe. No financial guru is going to straighten your life out for you. You are intelligent enough to manage your own money. What's been defeating you is running from reality, by looking for a "fix."