Frugal living is the ultimate tool you can use to achieve most of your financial goals. But what does frugal living means? In summary, people who are living frugally do not spend too much money on themselves. That is they watch every dollar they make and tightly manage their spending.
Why would anyone want to live frugally? Some people want to save money for their big dreams whereas others do not have money to spend.
Many people think that frugal living is a bad thing whereas others find it differently. Some people try to live frugally and failed whereas others succeed. Few ones who succeed reap endless rewards.
If you are interested in living frugally or have tried and failed, this article was written for you.
Changing one’s lifestyle is always difficult.
The good news is that I am here make sure that your transition is as smooth as it can get.
With you in my mind, I put together a list of 19 tips you can use to successfully live a frugal life and save money.
1. Mental programming
The truth is that you don’t get up in the morning and start your frugal living journey. You must take proper steps if you are going to succeed. Otherwise, you would end up like millions of people who never made it to the finishing line.
The most important step to take for frugal living in mental programming. I am not talking about meditating about the issue. Instead, I am emphasizing having peace of mind about the new lifestyle you are about to start.
You must know that your comfort zone will be violated. For this reason, it is important that you make peace with it before you start. Your journey will not be easy since you will be adjusting to a new way of living. Some of your friends will tell you to give up. Others will think that you are crazy. Sometimes, you will have a second thought about your new norm.
The only way you can make that extra step is by having a strong mindset about it and focusing on your goals.
2. Know why you want to live frugally
Why are you interested in frugal living? Why can’t you continue your lifestyle like everyone else?
This is a very important questions. The answer to this question differentiates winners and losers.
Do you want to save money for college? or
Do you want to be financially independent? or
Are you saving money for travel?
What about retirement?
Whatever the reason, you must be honest with yourself. Know exactly what you want. This will keep you on track and give you the strength to push forward on dark days.
Always remind yourself the main reason you started before giving up.
3. Understand your income
Before you start living frugally, you need to know how much money you make. That is know your net income.
You can not focus on saving money if you don’t even know how much you make.
Your net income will help you make a budget that saves you money based on your new lifestyle.
4. Know your expenses
Do you know how much you spend every week, month, and year? If you don’t know these numbers, it is a time you start evaluating your expenses.
You cannot know how to save money if you don’t know how much you are spending.
The best way to know where your money goes is through budgeting. Your budget should have every expense you encounter every month and year.
If you want to make a budget that includes short-term expenses, include your weekly expenses. Keep in mind that some expenses such as rent will be broken into smaller parts. For example, to know how much you spend on rent every week, you will divide your monthly rent by 4.
Please, read the following article if you wish to learn about making a budget step-by-step.
>>More: How To Make A Budget: Step-By-Step
5. Pay off debts before starting your frugal living journey
One of the most important step you will take if you want to successfully live a frugal life is to pay off all debts you have.
Debt is one of the major things that can turn you into a homeless instantly. If your main goal of living frugally is not paying off your debt, make sure that your debt is paid off first. I mean all of it.
Without paying off all your debt, you will be paying interest every month depending on the contract between you and your mortgage lender/debtor.
Let’s assume that you want to live a frugal life so that you can save money for your travel. At the same time, you have a mortgage that is not fully paid off yet.
Instead of saving money for travel, you can allocate those funds toward your mortgage. This way, you will pay off your mortgage faster and pay less money on the house due to less interest payment.
Check with your lender to see if you will pay a pre-payment penalties before you submit extra payments. Some lenders charge a fee if you pay early or more than you are supposed to pay at a given time.
Once your debt is fully paid off, you will continue living frugal which will then save you a lot of money much faster.
6. Take advantages of cash back and mile points
Living frugal means that you take advantage of every discount, sales, and money-back service. One of the best ways to make money on your purchases is to use cash back credit cards.
Yes, credit card providers ran out of customers. In order to acquire new customers and retain the ones they have, they offer cash back rewards and mile points on some purchases and travels.
Make sure that you use a credit card on purchases that give you cash back or mile points.
Using credits will also help you built your credit history and increase your credit score.
These days a good credit score can help you navigate complicated financial situations. Always try to kill two birds with one stone.
Cash backs will benefit you only if you use your credit cards wisely. Otherwise, you could end up wrecking your credit score and credit history. The following tips can help you stay within acceptable limits while maximizing your cash bak rewards.
- Make sure that you pay off all balance every month to avoid interest charges and fees
- Use at most 30% of your credit limit at any given time
- Do not spend more than you can afford to pay off during a payment period
- Make payment plans
- Avoid cash advance (Do not withdraw cash from your credit cards)
- Automate your payments
>>MORE: 11 Easy Ways To Save Money On Flights
>>MORE: How To Make Money With A Credit Card?
7. Frugal living: Pay less on groceries
Did you know that food can cost you a ton of money if you do not watch what you eat?
You should always have a balance between what you eat and how much you spend on them.
In order to achieve a frugal living lifestyle, you must minimize your grocery expenses. Buying brand name foods is one of the biggest mistakes many choppers make.
I don’t think you want to end up like everyone else. The following tips can help you minimize how much you spend on groceries.
- Avoid packaged food
- Never buy brand name products
- Do not buy water
- Do not buy pops
- Learn how to cook
- Processed foods come with a price and deadly chemicals
- Avoid food waste by purchasing only what you can consume 100%
- Never spend a penny on precut or prepackaged produces
- Use coupons
- Compared prices across multiple stores
You can also reduce how much you spend on your food by growing some of them. For example, you do need to buy basils, mint, cilantro, and other herbs all the time. Having one growing container can solve the problem.
The only things you will need are seeds, sun, compost, and water.
You can also take it to the next level by having your own garden. Not only that you will be eating fresh and healthy food, save money, but also you will be gaining experience that cannot be taught in schools.
To learn more on how to save money on groceries, read the following article.
>>MORE: 45 Ways To Save Money On Groceries
8. Learn how to cook
From my own experience, the main reason people eat in restaurants is because they don’t know how to cook!
Many people suck at cooking. They make meals that they or their family members can’t eat. Would you keep cooking if none wants to eat your food? I think you can. The more you cook the better you become (as long as you are willing to improve and learn from your mistakes).
Learning from your mistakes will be the first step on overcoming any cooking problems. At least, that is how I did it.
There are many websites and tutorials that teach how to cook. You can follow a recipe and make a beautiful meal for yourself and your loved ones.
I did not forget those who work two or more full time jobs. Those hard workers out there can still cook for themselves.
The key is meal prepping. Yes, making a lot of meals at once gives you a chance to spend less on food and achieve to live frugally.
9. Frugal living: Never buy books
Do you like reading books? Books are the greatest sources of knowledge and wisdom.
The good news is that knowledge does not have to cost you a fortune. Public libraries have a lot of books that you can read for free. You just need to show up there.
Most libraries let you take a book for three weeks which is enough for you to finish a book. If you did not finish a book in 3 weeks, you probably don’t like it, you are busy, or took a huge book. Oh, you can always renew it.
You can also find free books to read online in the form of PDF or eBooks. So, tap into these resources before you spend a fortune on books.
Students can also buy used books, use international editions, eBooks, use no books at all, etc.
If you want to learn more on how you can save a fortune on books, please, read the following article.
>>Related: How To Save Money On Books? 10 Tips You Can Use
10. Frugal living: Cut down transportation expenses
Transportation is one of the many ways people waste a lot of money. In order to live frugally and save money, you must first learn how you can save on transportation.
The following tips can help you live frugally by saving on transportation.
- Downsize on the number of cars you have
- Use only one car and drop each other off from and to work
- Walk to work is possible
- Reduce how much you pay on insurance
- Use a bicycle to work. They can reach everywhere and you will have a good workout
- Public transportation is a great way to live frugally
- Work from home and save all it
- Sell your new car and buy only used one
- Don’t get a car wash every week
>>Related: How To Save Money On Gas? 9 Tips To Use
>>Related: How To Save Money On Car Insurance? 20 Tips
11. Buy used clothes and electronics
Where you shop can make a difference between being broke and retiring rich. If you buy new clothes and shop at expensive stores, you are doing it wrong.
Do you you upgrade your smartphones every year? If yes, stop as soon as possible.
Consider using the following tips to help you save money on gadgets and clothes.
- Use the same clothes for a long time
- Sell some of your clothes
- Only buy used clothes for you and your family members
- Do not buy new phones every year. Replace them only once they are dead
- Always buy used electronics
- Buy multiuse electronics
12. Do not buy brand name products
Did you know that brand products cost more and they:
- Do not taste better
- Perform better
- Do not have more ingredients than generics
- And Look better?
Yes, everything you know about those brand products is just about advertising and packaging. Their performances are not better than other products.
Every product you buy from medications, food, drinks, electronics, clothes, and other products should be generic if you really want to live frugally and save money.
You will always get the save results from generic products. So, stop wasting your hard earned money on just packaging and name.
13. Live in a small house
Why would you have a 4,000 sq ft house if your entire family can fit in a 1B1B? If you want to live frugally, downsize your house. If your house is too big, consider selling it and buy one that accommodates your family and saves you money.
Big houses cost more money in utilities, rent, homeowners insurance, property tax, interest on mortgages, etc.
In order to reduce all these expenses and live frugally, you must reduce the size of your house. The following tips can help you save money on the house.
- Do not buy new construction
- Do not buy a house in class A or B
- Buy a small house
- Live in a trailer
- Live in a tiny house
14. Frugal living: Home frugal
The best way to save money is to start from where you live. I mean your house eats a lot of money from you.
So, how do you save money on your house?
The following are some of the tips you can use to live frugally in your current or future home.
- Turn off the lights in a room that is not occupied
- Use energy-saving light bulbs
- Do not use dish wash. Use your hands instead
- Do not spend too long in the shower
- Take cold showers
- You probably don’t need to take showers every day
- Save on electricity by prepping meals
- Wash clothes with hands
- Do not use the dryer. Use a drying line instead
- Participate in energy-saving programs from your utility company
- Use smart thermostat
You can use the following article to learn in detail how to save money on utilities.
>>Related: 16 Ways To Save Money On Utility Bills
15. Become the best friend of DIY
The best way to live frugally is to adapt to the do it yourself (DIY) system. Doing whatever you want to do yourself will save you a lot of money.
It is possible to do anything these days because of the power of the internet. There is nothing you will ever want do to that does not have answers online (for free). Yes, someone else has been through your shoes and somehow they got answers.
All answers are online if you know where to look. By doing it yourself, you will save money on materials, contractors, time, etc.
The following tips can help you get started with DIY.
- Ask someone about things you don’t know how to do
- conduct research and watch tutorials
- Continue learning
- Buy multi-use tools
- Buy good quality tools
- Know and follow the rules
16. Frugal living: Stop all paid subscriptions
Entertainment robs you thousands of dollars every year.
Think about all the subscriptions you have:
- Netflix
- Hulu
- Amazon plus
- Youtube
- Disney
- ESPN
- Video games
- etc.
You are the one who knows what you have. I guarantee you that you pay a lot of money to buy these kinds of stuff. By canceling all of them, you will save a ton of money. Yes, instead of giving your money to corporations that don’t even know that you exist; you can save it for yourself.
17. Use coupons and discounts
Coupons save a lot of money for a lot of people. You can save money too if you choose to use them. Before you go shopping make sure that you have all coupons possible. If your current company does not have coupons, find a different store.
The following tips can help you on your frugal living journey.
- Print out coupons
- Buy items with discounts
- Only buy what is on clearance
- Products that are about to expire sometimes cost half the price
- Use online resources to get more discounts
18. Frugal living: Only drink tap water
The one and only one drink you need is water and it is free. Yes, you don’t need to buy bottled water, sweeteners, juices, pops, and other chemically mixed drinks.
You just need water and its is cheaper. When you drink water from your tap, you save money and improve your helth.
Try this tip for one month. You will be surprised on how great your health will improve.
19. Extreme frugal: Dumpster diving
Last but not least(depending on who you ask) is dumpster diving. Did you know that most of those products thrown away are edible? Yes, just because a product is expired (depending on what it is), it does not mean that you cannot eat it.
Grocery stores throw away products because of a small crack in the package, past due date, etc.
If you want to take your frugal living adventure to the next level, consider dumpster diving. You will be amazed by how much food you will find in there for free.
More learning resources
- How To Make A Budget: Step-By-Step
- How To Save For A Down Payment?
- Mortgage Refinance: How To Refinance A Mortgage?
- 11 Ways To Save Money On Hotels
- 16 Ways To Save Money On Utility Bills
