The main issue of people nowadays is a lifestyle that tends to be consumptive. You might be one of them that have been struggling with that lifestyle. That’s the reason you need a guide to frugal living.
Why must you live frugally? Before you know the reason, let’s talk more about it to make you understand and change your lifestyle afterward.
What is Frugal Living?
Frugal living meaning is to save as much as you can. It is not like you are being cheap but you try to be more resourceful, especially if you are hard to manage your income. By living frugally, you can control your cost of living and save more money.
Being cheap means you are buying something by the price, not the value. But when you are living frugally, you try to save money but still purchase something by seeing the value over the price.
That is the basic difference between being cheap and frugal.
After understanding the meaning and concept of frugal living, you can check on your lifestyle. Whether your lifestyle has been organized or vice versa? If it has not been organized yet, you might try frugal living.
Here are some of the best frugal living tips if you want to begin a new lifestyle.
1. Reducing Food Cost
If you are a foodie lover and could not save money because you always spend it on food, then you need this trick. Living frugally does not mean you reduce your meals. For example, three times a day becomes two times a day.
No, that is not the concept of frugal living.
You can try other choices if you want a normal meal but still saving some money. Here are some tips for reducing food costs in frugal living.
- If you tend to buy meals at restaurants or delivery, try to collect some coupons. It helps you to save some money.
- When you are trying to live frugally, why don’t you try to live healthier as well? You can grow some herbs and vegetables at home. Then, cook your food to be more frugal.
- To know how much you spend on meals, you can make some plans for your meals. Then stick to the plan and try to get the best price of groceries and collect more coupons. So, you can save as much as you can.
- If you are working, you should bring a lunch box. So, you do not have to buy meals for lunch at work.
2. Frugal in Shopping
How many times do you shop in a week? How much money do you spend when shopping? Do you always buy branded products?
Try to answer it one by one and make some plans on shopping to reduce the expense. If you have answered all of them, then try these frugal living tips with a big impact on your life.
- If you are often going shopping in a week or almost every day, then try to make it twice or once a week. For example, you go shopping only on Sunday and Wednesday.
- When you reduce the time for shopping, it does not mean you can buy anything you want when it’s shopping time. Otherwise, you should have some plans of what you need for a week or several days ahead.
- Do you use branded products such as clothes, shoes, bags, and so on? If yes, then try to go to a thrift shop! You can find some branded products of good quality at a cheaper price.
- Another option of frugal shopping is buying things on sale or discount.
3. Household Needs
Conscious or not, households’ needs cost the most after food in our lives. You spend more money buying things like electrical, cleaner, furniture, and so on.
Buying things when on a sale or discount could not always be the best option for you. Sometimes, the items that are on sale are not things you need.
One thing you should keep in mind when trying frugal living is considering the value over the price. So, what should you do to reduce your household needs cost?
Here are some tips that might help you.
- When you do not need any light at noon, turn off all of the lights at your home.
- After the rice is cooked, unplug the rice cooker so it does not consume too much power.
- Try to use second-hand things before you buy a new one when you need something.
Being frugal does not mean you are being cheap and always buy second-hand things or the cheapest ones. In this guide to frugal living, the value of things you need comes first, then price.
But, if you can find things you need with a good value and cheap, why not.
Article Sources:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/frugal-living-guide