Frugal living is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot, but do you really know what it means? Living frugally doesn’t mean you suddenly have to reduce your living space to a single bed and table and only buy the cheapest foods. Frugal living is all about cutting down on extra costs so that you can ultimately live more comfortably, do more of the things you love, and buy what you’ll really enjoy and use. Check out these 7 easy ways that you can start living a frugal lifestyle.
Smart Spending
This one is at the heart of frugal lifestyles. Examine your expenses carefully. Do you need that daily latte? Are you getting the best deals on your groceries? Are your premiums as low as possible? Just how many things are you subscribed to that you don’t get full use out of? Asking yourself these questions can help you cut down on your expenses right off the bat.
Smart Saving
Of course, the main benefit of frugal spending is the amount of money you save. If you find yourself with extra cash because you were spending smartly, don’t use it for something else. Stick it right into your savings instead, and watch your savings account grow and grow.
Shop Wisely
This goes for everything from groceries to clothing and more. Keep an eye out for door-buster deals. Watch out for seasonal items that are on sale. Pay attention to whether or not any stores in your area are closing, since many will have clearance sales at that time. Try shopping for holidays for the following year at the end of the season in the current year, so you can get it all on sale.
Use Your Coupons
Coupons make a world of difference when it comes to saving money. You may think that pinching a few pennies here or there is miserly rather than frugal, but you can actually save quite a bit of money if you coupon correctly. Always check online couponing stores before shopping, and sign up for club cards when possible to get the best deals.
Don’t Set Lofty Goals
The most practical tips for living frugally will always involve giving yourself a little bit of wiggle room. If you set yourself a super stringent budget or try to completely overhaul your lifestyle in one night, chances are you’re going to get frustrated and give up. The key to sticking with a frugal lifestyle is to implement small changes over time, experiment with what works for you, and give yourself room to splurge and have fun every now and then.
Determine Your Tiers Of Wants
Related to the above, you don’t have to cut out all of your wants but you should at least start ranking them based on personal importance. Creating tiers of wants will help you pick and choose what fun extra things you want to put your money toward, and which ones can wait until you have a little more in your wallet.
Focus On Doing Things Yourself
This goes for everything from gifts to pampering to home renovation projects. In some cases, it really isn’t a choice and you absolutely need to hire a professional or get someone else to do the work for you. But more often than not, you’ll find that putting a little time into learning something can give you everything you need to know to be able to do it yourself. Do you need someone else to paint your nails? Should you really be buying a card instead of making one yourself? Ask these questions before you drop your cash.
I say use coupons and generic brands.
Do you need it or do you want it? Most people have a ton of wants but you don’t NEED that purse, you don’t need those high heels etc
I always shop after the holidays for holiday items. I don’t have a TV so no expense there, but I do get a massage every other week at a massage school ($26).
Saving money is my New Year’s resolution so I will definitely be following a lot of these suggestions. Hoping to form good habits this coming year.
These suggestions are so sensible that most people will overlook them. The word “budget” brings on thoughts of only spending on necessities and nothing else instead of realizing that it simply means to make the decision of how you want your money to be spent. Thanks for the reminder.
These are great tips! This serves as a great reminder to start the new year off right. I have made the switch to generic brands for most things. I don’t regret it one bit!
These are great tips. I shop for sales and coupon.
I have been really trying to work on this. It is not an easy thing to do. This article is great. Thank you so much for sharing. God Bless
Great ways and pointers to live well but live frugally
thank you for the tips ! this will help me with one of my goals for 2018 ! happy new year !
Tons of great ideas. I already coupon, which saves me tons of money on groceries and other items I would normally buy.
The easiest things I do to live frugally are shopping store brands for groceries, meal planning, not making impulse decisions on anything over $20,
I go by these things all the time. One thing that makes it harder is it takes so much longer when you are doing most things yourself, the “to do” list gets longer. But it is worth it to try to live more frugally for most people, they do not have enough savings for retirement or even emergencies, health care, you name it!
I really try to think about how much I need something and if it will be something that I will get use out of. Just taking a minute to think helps cut down on wasteful spending.
Lots of great ideas! We live fairly frugally I think but there is always room for improvement!