Living cheaply or, more accurately, frugally, doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of comfort and quality. Instead, you can make choices and adopt habits that let you get more out of your money. This also helps you save for vacations, retirement, and emergency expenses.
Following are 20 tips for living cheaply.
Make Your Own Hardtack
Also called sea biscuit or ship’s biscuit, this baked food is made from flour, water, and a little salt. It’s cheap, nourishing, and easy to make.
Separate Wants From Needs
Make a list of things you spend money on and identify each item as a must-do or a want-to. Make a plan for satisfying the needs and reducing or eliminating the wants.
Get a Roommate
Another person cuts the rent in half. A third cuts that even more. Just be sure you carefully vet potential roommates for compatibility, honesty, and responsibility.
Buy a Cheaper Phone and Plan
Cell phones are necessities for most people these days, but you don’t need to upgrade to the newest, fanciest model every year. Also, make sure you get a plan that covers your needs so that you’re not paying for what you don’t use.
Cancel Cable
Cable was never a great bargain, but it was once about the only option, and the cable companies knew it. With streaming and other alternatives available now, you can cancel cable and stop paying for bad service and hundreds of channels you don’t want.
Reduce Subscriptions
Many subscriptions both online and paper automatically renew each year. Are you paying for subscriptions you’re not using and may not even remember you have? Take stock.
Sell Unused or Unwanted Items
These things take up space and don’t serve much purpose. If they’re in good condition, you can sell them at yard sales, online marketplaces, thrift stores, etc.
Shop at Thrift Stores
You can also buy things at thrift stores and get a great bargain. Some of what you’ll find there is junk, but be discerning and look for items that are good quality.
Cook Your Own Meals
Restaurants are expensive, including for takeout and delivery. Cooking your own meals can drastically cut your food costs, and you’ll appreciate restaurants more when you do go to them.
Buy Secondhand Clothing
Some people attach a stigma of being poor to buying secondhand clothes but look past that. Lightly worn items in good condition look good and perform well, and you can save a lot on them.
Do Basic Auto Maintenance Yourself
Dropping your car off for basic maintenance is convenient, but it’s an unnecessary expense. By changing your own oil, refilling fluids, replacing wiper blades, etc., you can save money and use it for your needs.
Avoid Convenience Stores
Have you ever noticed that the same bottle of soda costs a lot more in a convenience store than it does at a grocery store? That’s the price of convenience. Impulsive buying is also easy to do at those stores.
Skip Starbucks
Make Starbucks and similar places a treat, not a regular thing. Brewing your own coffee at home is a lot cheaper than paying for gourmet coffee several times a week.
Use Coupons and Look for Sales
Clipping coupons isn’t as common as it used to be, but it’s still a thing. When shopping, especially for groceries, look for in-store coupons and discounts.
Don’t Move From Place to Place
If you like where you’re living, stay there as long as it makes sense. Moving is expensive. Even if you do it all yourself, you spend a lot on gas with all the back-and-forth trips.
Make Meals With Potatoes and Rice
Potatoes and rice are versatile, filling, and cheap. Dishes including them can feed an entire family at low cost, or they can feed a single person several times.
Don’t Buy Frozen Foods
Frozen foods cost quite a bit more than their fresh and canned counterparts a lot of the time. They also tend to be less nutritious.
Eat Leftovers
A lot of people shovel leftovers straight into the trash because they don’t like eating leftovers or don’t feel like wrapping them up and putting them away. This is literally throwing money into the trash. If you really hate eating leftovers, prepare smaller portions.
Consolidate Trips
Don’t make separate trips for getting gas, buying groceries, shopping for new shoes, etc. Ahead of time, plan out your errands and then do as many as you can on one run. You’ll spend less on gas that way.
Hold Off on Children
Parenthood is a huge commitment, and it’s also very expensive to raise children. First of all, if you’re not positive you want children, don’t have them. If you do want children, wait until you’re more established in your career and your earnings are higher.
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