10 Easy Tips to Stay Frugal in Your Life

You don’t have to clip coupons every day and skip your morning coffee most of the time to save money and remain frugal. There are easier and far more effective ways that can keep you frugal for your life time. You just need to make a habit for the things or just make it a practice and automatically these acts will be a part of you and your family. You’ll realize one day that frugality is your way.

In reality, being frugal is what we need to embrace these days. We are in this era where spending overpowers earning. Having said that, it is high time for us to develop the frugal mindset so we can better manage our finances. Whether you are earning much or earning low, it’s but wise to be frugal in many aspects.

Here are 10 tips on how to stay frugal even during tough times

These are not very hard to make a habit of. Try one at a time and don’t leave till you make it your daily routine.

Live Within your Means

Unless we realize that we can only spend so much, we will never arrive into that situation where we can manage to live within our means. Living within our means is saving much and spending less. If you know that you level of earning can only afford a 3-star hotel, why book in a 5-star? Don’t be too concerned on what others will say. You must not let others dictate how you will live your life.

Salary – Savings = Expenses

To be honest, most of us are doing the other way around. What we do is Salary-Expenses = Savings. If we continue to do this, then we can never have even a penny to save. Again, this is a matter of mind setting. Decide how much percentage of your salary you can allot for your savings. Normally it’s 20%. Once you received your salary, set aside the 20% and then spend the remaining.

Recycle

Learn how to take care of your things. If you have issues on how you use your things, you are most likely buying new items every now and then. Be practical by recycling your items for other use. Try peeking DIY sites and see what old resources you can recycle.

Use store Brands 

Not for everything that you buy. We don’t always buy store brand. But there are things that we always buy store brands. Like Sugar, flour, etc. For items you dispose regularly, it’s okay to use these store brands. Are you still going to use high end brands for items you know you will be throwing after use?

Use High end Brands for Items with Long Term Use

Good examples are your appliances at home or the clothes you buy. Don’t be fooled by brands that offer low price yet are below standards. Always read the labels before you buy.

Schedule your Activities

Proper scheduling work wonders in your finances. Unscheduled activities mean unscheduled expenses. This is like impulse buying with a lot of hidden charges. Beware!

Swap and Sell Items

Who says you always need to buy something new? With the advent of social media, it is now very easy to sell and swap your items. Start your inventory and see how many you can sell and swap. Then proceeds of your selling can be used to a valuable new item.

Carry Exact Amount of Money + little extra for emergency

If you really want to save, then don’t carry your credit card with you. Remember this especially when you are at the groceries or the mall. Stick to your buying list and leave your emergency fund alone.

Stay at Home

When not important, just stay at home. Enjoy your yard, enjoy DIY projects in your garage. Have fun with your children, play with them. When nothing’s there to do there’ll be something to do, things that you kept on pending for months. Since being a home owner, I find it challenging to get time for doing nothing. Always there’s something that needs my attention.

Picking up trash from the yard or putting the reptiles out of the door, there’s always so much work. Even using Facebook and Pinterest are so interesting. You can watch movies at home from YouTube, Netflix. You can borrow Movies from Library.

You do not need to go out on an expensive vacation, or a trip tot he mall. Home cooked meal with your children would be more tasty than you find at the restaurants.

Shop in Advance

Buying out of season is cheap and wise. Have you tried it? The discount is big if you buy out of season. As per the law of demand and supply if the demand is low and there’s supply the price comes down. When you buy in-season, with the same supply the things move faster, seller then command the price of the items.

Readers, how do you make changes in your habit to save money while not sacrificing quality of your life?