Share this:
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?
Share this:
Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
This is the first time I’ve seen the idea of saving first being explained as “Salary – Savings = Expenses” rather than “Salary – Expenses = Savings”. I love that formulaic representation!!
due to this formula they picked the article on Lifehacker today. It’s really easy to explain this way, right?
I think these are very good tips. I don’t have any to add, just wanted to compliment you on a well done post.
Thank you so much Carole, really appreciate the feedback!
“Habbit”? Spellcheck is your friend.
I know habbit is right spell as per dictionary but as per colloquial American English, habit is the correct spelling 🙂
Great tips SB.
Sometimes it’s as simple as going without something for a week, then seeing if you really need it. We used to live by extended cable service but after forcing ourselves not to use it for a week, we realized how frivolous it was. Tons of savings anyone can find just like that.
I like how you say ‘salary – savings = expenses’. It’s important to first consider how much you want to save and then spend accordingly.
This can be helpful for one if he follows it blindly.
nice tips. Thanks for your sharing
I’ve come across an article about how to save your money but I couldn’t remember where. Anyway, it says there that it’s good to follow the 80-20 rule when it comes to managing your finances.
20% goes to your savings
80% goes to everything else. Now, this would be divided into two more categories:
50% goes to your everyday needs (bills, groceries, etc.)
30% goes to personal expenses (if you’re not a big spender, then maybe you have an extra 30% to put into your savings!)
While this or the salary-savings=expenses looks easy on paper, it’s sometimes hard to do for some people, especially those that doesn’t earn that much to start with. With their very little income, they would rather or need to spend their money for their needs first and then end up not having enough money left to save. How then could they save?