Frugal Living: The Ultimate Guide to Living on Less (and Thriving!)
You work hard for your money yet there never seems to be enough.
The money goes out faster than it comes in; most of the time you don’t know where it’s going.
You’re tired of the same old thing when it comes to your finances, too much living left at the end of the money.
This financial cycle repeats itself, week to week, month to month.
You hate to admit it you’re afraid of frugal living. Does it mean a dull life?
Is it a life void of fun?
Not at all, it’s a life of abundance.
Frugal Living, What It Is and Isn’t
Frugal may cause you to think deprivation.
You imagine eating only beans and rice, living in a hovel somewhere with barely enough wood to burn for warmth, while saving every penny.
Or, maybe you think of someone who is stingy or cheap.
Frugal living is not about extreme sacrifice or being cheap. It’s a laser focus knowledge of what you desire financially and directing your money to materialize it.
Frugal living is knowing the difference between needs versus wants, and developing the discipline to successfully manage your finances.
What are the Benefits of Frugal Living?
When you live frugally you budget, you know how much money comes in and how much goes out. Budgeting gives you peace of mind. You’re working a plan so there won’t be any surprises.
Your financial decision-making IQ increases. Taking control of your income means you direct where it goes. This builds confidence in your ability to handle money. Confidence that will enable you to base financial decisions on logic and your goals not emotion.
You’re enabled to take advantage of investment opportunities because you’re prepared for them before they arise. Now you can start that business you’ve always dreamed of building.
The awesome benefits of frugal living gives you choices you can only now imagine.
The choice of where to live based on desire, not bank account. The choice of when to retire based on disciplined investment decisions not age. Choosing from the menu based on appetite not price.
Ultimately you will be able buy back the time you have been selling to someone else and your life will be your own.
Those are some pretty nice perks
Frugal Living: It’s About You
What is your goal for living frugally? What do you want to achieve? This is important to understand because without an objective it will be difficult to maintain your discipline.
If your purpose for living frugally is vague then the actions you take will seem restrictive and limiting. You’ll feel deprived of things you think you want.
You’ll wonder if it’s even worth it. You’ll observe your progress with impractical scrutiny and before you know it, you’ll quit.
You avoid quitting when you know why you’re living frugally. Your purpose will push you to overcome challenges as you make changes in your financial habits.
What’s Your Bottom Line? What Kind of Life Do You Want to Live?
Once you know your purpose you can begin to develop a long-term plan.
Paying off debts is a great place to start but you need to look beyond that and imagine your future.
Frugal living only in the short term is like crash dieting it will have quick results without a long term net effect.
When the debts are paid, what will you do with that extra money in your budget? Will you go back to your old habits?
If you don’t have a plan for that newly freed money someone else does. And who do you think will succeed?
The one with the plan.
Without planning those freed up dollars will slip through your fingers like sands through an hourglass because of impulse purchases.
What really matters to you? You may be striving for financial objectives you don’t even want.
Is outright home ownership your goal? Maybe you want to divide your time between residences. You might not even want to own a home
.
You may discover you want to travel, live an expat lifestyle, be home with your kids more, or perhaps give back to your community through charitable work and monetary contributions.
Maybe living on one income so one parent is home to care for the kids is your desire.
You choose based on your values and your principles.
Your Lifestyle Determines Your Priorities
Prioritizing where your money goes will help you achieve the lifestyle you want.This means being real with yourself, clearly stating what you want, what you need to change, and what you need to do to make things happen.
You might want to pay off the $2500 Visa card balance or donate 10% of your income to the local soup kitchen.
What do you need to do to make that happen? Is your daily coffee run more important than donating to a local charity?
Perhaps you’re a family living on one income. Your goal is to make it work without going into debt while also saving for your children’s college education.
These goals serve as a filter for making purchases. Ask yourself “Do I need this?” “ Will this take me closer to my goal?” “Will this delay my goal?”
You’ll be surprised at how well you stick to your purpose when making a decision from the perspective of your goals.
Clear financial priorities give you power. Power to achieve the lifestyle you desire.
Lessons from the Great Depression on frugal living
You may remember being taught to “clean your plate” when you were a kid.
Maybe your parents told you tales of kids going to bed hungry so you would eat everything on your plate.
During the great depression when work was scarce and food hard to come by, people would stand in long food lines for hours to feed their families.
They couldn’t afford to waste. Not cleaning your plate was wasteful when there wasn’t much in the first place.
Don’t waste your resources, instead use them to achieve your desires.
The great depression taught people to be resourceful.
People would take their used coffee grounds, dry them out in the oven, and use them to brew another pot.
The rich flavor was less intense but when you need your java fix, and you’re surviving on coffee rations, you do what you gotta do.
They did what needed to be done to survive. If that meant a weaker cup of Joe, that was better than no cup of Joe.
Frugal living involves that same ingenuity. It requires being creative with your lifestyle.
You may not need to dry out and reuse your coffee grounds but you can find innovative ways to maintain your lifestyle without spending money.
One of the biggest lessons of the great depression is learning to live without.
If there wasn’t money for something, and it couldn’t be manufactured with the resources they already had, they did without.
Frugal living means deciding what you need and what you don’t? Frugal living means making choices that align with your financial objectives.
Frugal Living Tips: How to live cheap on one income
Whether you are single, a couple, or a family living on one income the practical ideas listed here are for everyone looking to tighten the money belt.
Needs vs. Wants
Differentiate between needs and wants. Much of what we think we need is really just a want. Food, clothing, and shelter are the basic needs of us all. This is a great metric to use when determining a need over a want.
Groceries
Shop on the periphery of the store that is where all of the whole foods are like meats, deli, produce, dairy. Many processed foods down the aisles you can make yourself.
Don’t stroll aisle by aisle, target only the aisles you need like the frozen food section, medicines, toiletries, etc.
Take one of the circulars at the front of the store that highlight discounts on everything from food to household items like dish soap.
Prepare your own food and snacks
Eating out costs more so brown bag your lunch and cook dinner at home. Don’t forget to prepare your own snacks.
When you’re out and about between meals it’s all too easy to drop a couple bucks on a bag of chips at the convenience store. Don’t do it, make your own snacks and bring them along.
Entertainment
Settle in with some friends for an Amazon Prime movie night. Ask the guests to bring a snack or side dish to share.
Get outdoors, hiking and other similar outdoor activities are free. Call the local museum and ask about discounts or free admission days.
Check with your local civic center for a calendar of community activities like street fairs, free arts and crafts classes, or intramural sports nights. Churches offer free concerts throughout the year as do some Civic Centers.
Libraries often invite professional speakers and authors to give presentations. Art shows are usually free. The artists are looking to sell their work so the cost of entry is nothing or minimal.
Second Hand Is Okay
Thrift stores will keep your wardrobe supplied. If you’re patient enough to take your time in a second hand store you can find some nice fashionable threads, name brands even, and for a buck or two a piece.
Is a friend getting rid of a sofa, laptop, dining table, or anything else?
Offer to buy it, most of the time they’ll just give it to you, it saves them from having to unload it.
Scan Craigslist ads or check out garage sales and you may find what you’re looking for.
Embrace DIY Projects
“How to” videos exist for just about everything you can imagine. You can learn how to change the brakes on your car, install a new toilet, build an outdoor deck, and more! Much, much, more!
Do it yourself isn’t just about building stuff you can learn to grow your own food.
You can even learn to grow a vegetable garden if you live in an apartment and don’t have access to a plot of earth.
Learn to ‘can’ your own food for preservation and storage.
Whatever you need done, someone else who knows how to do it has already produced a video showing you how.
Frugal Living Tips for Seniors Among Us
Businesses and organizations often give discounts and goodies to seniors.
The senior discount is something you want to take advantage of every time you make a purchase. Be sure to ask for it.
Eat out for breakfast or lunch as opposed to dinner as dinner entrees cost more. When dining out for dinner look for early bird specials.
Do you need that four-bedroom house where you raised your kids? Could downsizing your house lower your property taxes, utilities, and overall maintenance costs? Check into it, it could free up a good chunk of your budget you can apply elsewhere.
Have you considered generic prescription drugs over the brand names? The difference in price between the two can be significant. If you have several prescriptions, generic costs less giving you more money in your budget.
The storage unit you rent to house your memories, empty it, and cancel your lease.
Many airlines offer discounts on travel but traveling during the off season usually means a reduction in rates on hotels, restaurants, and tourist venues. That’s less money you have to pay for that week away.
Is there an insurance policy you can cancel or at least reduce? If you’re debt-free and have no mortgage on your home you may not need life insurance or you may not need the policy you have. Consider reducing or eliminating it.
Do you need two cars? Think of how much money could be used for other expenditures or little luxuries if you didn’t have a second car. Sure it will take getting used to but if you and your spouse go almost everywhere together one car may be all you need.
Make It A Daily Practice: How to Incorporate Frugal Living Into Your Life
To make change last you must have a plan and work that plan daily. You must practice to make the habit stick.
Then after a while assess your plan, and tweak it to make it even better. Follow the steps below to incorporate frugal living into your daily life.
Keep a budget
Your budget must be written down and tracked if you are to have any success in measuring your progress.
Total all monthly fixed expenses like rent, car payments, utilities, groceries,minimum payments on credit cards, savings toward retirement, etc.,and subtract those fixed expenses from your total net income.
Allocate the difference to savings or debt reduction, whatever goals you have chosen to pursue.
Stick to this budget. To keep you on track, portion out your funds in categorized envelopes spending only what’s inside.
When the money in the fuel envelope runs out then whatever gas is in the car is all there will be until the next month rolls around.
Developing these habits will take discipline but will be worth the results. Having a solid vision and commitment to your purpose will give you the grit to push through.
Inventory your spending
Where is your money going every month? Much of our income slips through our fingers because of little impulsive purchases.
Track what you are spending outside of your budget.
Doing this will help you identify the holes in your spending caused by nickel and dime purchases. Daily jot down every purchase no matter how small or insignificant you think it might be.
When you see how much money flies out the window unnoticed it’s an eye-opener. 5 bucks here, 4 bucks there, doesn’t seem like much but it adds up.
Keeping tabs on your spending makes you mindful instead of continuing to spend on auto pilot.
Reallocate your spending
Once you have identified the leaks in your budget you can reallocate that money toward your desires.
The money you used to spend “here and there” is now redirected to align with your frugal living values.
Whether it’s paying off your car, a credit card, or starting a savings account you are now in control of your spending instead of the other way around.
Plan Your Purchases
The car is going to need to be replaced sooner or later. Do you have a plan for replacing it?
Look ahead to the future and budget for those big purchases. Will your water heater need replacing soon? Start planning for it.
Be sure to consider smaller purchases like a new laptop, new furniture, or a new bicycle. These items can be purchased in cash if you budget to save for them.
Start socking some money aside so you can purchase quality items instead of buying cheapest. Planning ahead lets you buy the brand you want over the brand you can afford.
November and December won’t be huge drains on your income if you have been setting aside money regularly to make Christmas gift purchases. This applies to any holiday or anniversary where gift-giving might be customary.
“Savings” The Misleading Marketing Term
Retail stores study marketing. They have thought out and planned your entire shopping experience long before you dropped in.
Stores love to tell you that you are saving money.
“That’s a 25% savings! In Your Pocket!” proclaim their ads.
Grocery stores even print your “savings” on the receipt, sometimes it’s even circled.
The truth is you haven’t saved anything. You just haven’t spent it. Those “savings” will likely get spent somewhere else.
You may think that it doesn’t matter but it does.
People often waste valuable time driving all over town for these savings. Buying “great deals”.
The purpose for frugal living is not accumulating a bunch of stuff at bargain prices. The purpose of frugal living is to define your lifestyle and make sound spending decisions that support your chosen goals.
Studies have found that consumers spend more when given discounts. They don’t just stop at what they came in for. Since they think they are “saving” money they justify buying more items.
Often spending more money then they originally intended because everything was so cheap.
Discounts and good deals are wonderful but don’t be bamboozled that you’re saving large sums of money. Instead leverage them to your advantage to achieve the lifestyle you’re dreaming of.
Can Frugal Living Make You Rich?
Absolutely! Frugal living can make you rich but not necessarily. That is up to you. The outcome of frugal living goes back to why you want to do it.
If financial independence is the goal then adopting a frugal life and applying the strategies and tips suggested will help you get there.
Living frugally is limitless. The ultimate purpose for living frugally is to eliminate the looming money problem. What is that problem? Poor money management.
Frugal living principles will teach you solid money management habits. You are forced to think differently about how you spend and invest your hard earned dough.
The truth is when you’re asking how to live frugally, you’re really asking, “how can I better manage my money?” and that is an awesome question to ask yourself!
Your Frugal Living Future
Look at what you can accomplish for yourself when you follow the principles of frugal living.
Through disciplined actions you will have taken control of your money. Your debts will be obliterated. Your savings and investments will soar.
You will discover you don’t miss those dinners out because you’ve learned to cook satiating satiating meals at home.
Your time will be spent building relationships with the people you care about instead of chasing after money to pay your bills.
Your time will expand to cultivate new relationships because your mind is free of money worries.
Your life is full and blessed because you have mastered your money habits.
Now you have financial peace of mind and you can’t put a price on that.
Take the time to create a budget. Purchase a small notepad and start tracking your purchases.
You can only go up from here!
