Frugal Living: 20 Tips to Try This Year

Frugal living isn't about being cheap, it's about avoiding waste so you can save more money. This guide covers 20 actionable tips including cooking your own meals, shopping with coupons, buying in bulk, walking or carpooling, growing your own vegetables, and creating a budget plan. You'll also learn about decluttering, energy savings, and picking low-cost hobbies. The key is being intentional with your spending while still enjoying life.

Frugal living does not mean cheap living. It simply means adopting a lifestyle where you avoid wasting money or resources, so that you can save and stretch your money. This way you can save more money every day and spend less if you just apply some of these tips to your lifestyle.

Here are 20 frugal living tips you can try this year to save money:

1. Cook your own meals

Going out to buy fast food and junks every day is not frugal and neither is it a healthy lifestyle. So, this year, you can try cooking some of your own meals. Home cooked meals are definitely more satisfying and less expensive.

2. Don’t just throw things away, always consider repair or re-use first

Throwing things away is wasteful, especially when you can still use them for something else or when someone else can still use them. There are tons of information on the internet about repurposing, recycling and repairing things yourself, especially in the DIY industry.

3. Get discounts and save money

Many brands have discounts and coupons available for customers. You can find these discounts with certain apps, blogs, website and even on social media. All you have to do is look out and you can get coupons and discounts for things you want to buy and save up to 50% of the money you would have paid without discounts.

4. Try DIY

Frankly, DIY can be a lot of fun and it’s very cost effective. If you engage your family and the right DIY blog, you can have fun doing things you would have paid for, like painting your own home, fixing your floorboards, making your own liquid soap or detergents, making gifts etc.

5. Buy in bulk

Going to the grocery store every day or every two days does not really help you to be frugal. There is also the fact that; buying things in bulk allows you to save money on the bulk price, unlike the unit prices. To avoid waste, don’t buy things you don’t use regularly in bulk.

6. Walk or cycle or carpool to work

You don’t have to drive everywhere. You can just take a walk down the block to your grocery store if you want to get something light, instead of taking your car. It’s good exercise for you, while it also doubles as a way to save cost.

7. Drink more water

Instead of spending so much on beverages, alcohol, coffee / tea and soft drinks, Bella, HR software operator from RushMyEssay, advises that you drink more water. Reserve your beverages and replace them with water which is cheaper and is actually good for your body.

8. Grow your fruit and vegetables

Fresh fruits and vegetables right from your backyard or garden at home are the best and most cost effective. You can save some money by keeping a garden of fruits and vegetables, if you have the space and time to maintain it like Ariana who writes dissertations at BestEssay.com and still has time to maintain her garden.

Additionally, make sure to buy the right kind of seeds for your garden. For instance, if you need to buy cannabis seeds, purchasing from a reputable source is essential to ensure that you’re getting high-quality, reliable seeds. Then choose the perfect strain and quality for your needs.

9. Declutter

We usually don’t know this, but there are usually many things that we no longer use hanging around the house. You can declutter your house by looking through everything and fishing out the things you no longer use and either give them out or sell them.

10. eBay

If there’s an item you’re no longer using or you currently have no use for, instead of allowing that item to rot or spoil from lack of use, you can always sell it on eBay. You get a little cash and give your item to someone who needs it.

11. Turn off the lights when you leave a room in your home

Save money on your energy bills by turning off the lights when you leave a room and turning off your appliances like your television when you’re not using them.

12. Follow washing instructions

Stop shrinking your clothes by using the wrong settings, read and follow instructions when washing your garments to prevent damaging them or shrinking them.

13. Read reviews before you buy anything online

Don’t just buy something online until you’ve read honest reviews like Boom Essays Review.

14. Create a savings and budget plan

Aside planning your meals for the week or the month, you can also make a budget of how much you’re going to spend throughout the month. You can even go further to create a savings plan, so you can start saving for rainy days.

15. Abandon your expensive hobbies

A lot of people spend a lot of money on their expensive hobbies. Why not pick up hobbies that cost you little to nothing like DIY or knitting? You can even pick up habits that can help you earn money like Sandra did before she took professional courses and started working at an Essay Writing Service.

16. Don’t buy clothes indiscriminately

Buy clothes specifically to replace something that no longer fits you or is damaged in your wardrobe or to add something you don’t already have to your wardrobe.

Learn from Jane, who used to spend almost half of the money she earned from writing for a thesis writing service on clothes. After some time, she noticed that most of her new clothes are replica of the ones she already has. Embrace frugal living and don’t buy things just because they caught your eyes.

17. Try shopping at thrift or vintage stores.

18. Give your savings purpose and more determination by creating money goals.

19. Set aside, fun money when budgeting so that you can still have fun while saving.

20. Read websites, apps and follow social media accounts that encourage frugal living and invest time in learning more about frugal living.

In conclusion

We are all different financial-wise, some people have large pockets and some have smaller pockets. Regardless of where you fall, saving money is always a good idea. And I hope you can use the tips discussed here to help you save some money.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Hacks category on Running Wolf’s Rant.