If you are new to the frugal living scene, these frugal living tips can be implemented by anyone!  Frugal living is not a life of deprivation. You are not going to be re-using your toilet paper or washing paper plates.  

Frugal living just means you are more resourceful and less wasteful than the average Joe.  Don’t you want to be better than Joe? I know I do!

These frugal living tips will get you saving more money than you ever thought possible.  Whatever your financial goals are, these tips will help you achieve them!

I used to be almost put off by the word frugal.  To me, it had this connotation of living in a state of suffering and misery and not spending any money.  Turns out, I was frugal and didn’t even realize it.

Frugal living is just you being very wise with your money and not being wasteful.  So let’s dive into our best frugal living tips to save you money every single month!

Frugal Living Tip #1:  Know where you stand.

This is probably one of the scariest things I ever had to do.   Face my finances.

Do you know how much debt you have?  Do you know how much money you bring in every month?

I buried my head in the sand for YEARS when it came to my finances.  I remember the day I sat down and had what felt like hundreds of papers strewn about all around me.  I was so overwhelmed at trying to understand and organize my finances.

Then I had to face the fact that I was over half a million dollars in debt.  Puke.

If you are trying to be less wasteful and more resourceful, you need to know the ins and outs of your financial situation.

If you want things to be different, you have to know where you are right now.  There is no way to change something you don’t understand.

It may not be easy, but you need to look at your financial situation and be honest with yourself.  You should know every debt you have, where every dollar you make comes from and what other assets you may have (vehicle, home, jewelry, other vehicles).

This will change everything for you.  You need to know where you stand financially.  You can not possibly improve it until you know where you are at today.

Frugal Living Tip #2:  Get to know yourself.

Are you a spender or a saver?  The answer may surprise you!

I thought I was a saver, but when I actually answered a few questions, I realized I was a spender.  I was shocked! I’m the insane budgeter and I have willpower like you wouldn’t believe. I reviewed the assessment a few times before I truly believed it.

You may have preconceived notions about your spending habits and what kind of person you are when it comes to money.  I would challenge you to take a deeper look and really figure out what kind of person you are.

Once you know if you are a spender or a saver, you will be able to identify your own trouble areas and how you could sabotage your progress to become more frugal.

Check Out Are You a Spender or a Saver?  This May Just Be The Key to Your Financial Success!

Learn which one you are and how you can improve your money management for your specific personality.

Once I learned I was a natural spender, I was able to not put myself in tempting situations, I could recognize when I was leaning into my natural tendency and I could avoid the spending traps I used to fall into.

Find out what your natural tendency is for money management is and you are going to just kill it when it comes to being frugal.

Frugal Living Tip #3:  Start Using a Budget

I could literally talk about this for hours.  Ask my husband…hours. A budget should be your best friend if you are trying to be frugal.  

Honestly, even if you aren’t, you should be using a budget.  A budget is your financial roadmap to accomplishing all of your goals.  You design your budget and then you follow your budget.

Meaning, you set the financial rules and then you follow your financial rules.  No one else is controlling you or making you suffer. You are choosing how you want to spend your money.  Then all that’s left to do is spend your money the way you had intended.

Easy peasy.  It’s insane to me that 2 out of 3 people do not live on a budget.  How do they know where their money is going? How do they accomplish anything?  All of that money is just lost every month on random stuff.

If you are trying to save money, you need to be using a budget.  Without a written plan, I promise you, your money will just disappear.  You will get to the end of the month and wonder where it all went.

If this happens to you month after month, you need to know there is a better way.  A budget is not going to control you. You design the budget, the budget controls your money…..are you following this?  This means that YOU control your money.

There is no restriction, only choices.  You get to choose where all of your money will go.  Once you have control over every single dollar, you can really make the work for you.  You can accomplish anything when you budget.

READY TO GET STARTED BUDGETING?  USE OUR FREE BASIC BUDGET SETUP SHEETS TO PUT YOUR BUDGET TOGETHER TODAY!  GET THEM INSTANTLY WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW.

Frugal Living Tip #4:  Eliminate shopping in stores.

If you had told me to do this four years ago, I would have laughed in your face.  Not go to stores? Get real!

BUT, let me explain what I mean by this.  Every time you step foot in a store, you are at risk of purchasing something you didn’t intend to buy.  I know this because millions of dollars of research have been used to set up stores the right way to get you to buy things you don’t need.  

Millions of dollars.  

If you have low impulse control, you are a natural spender or you place value in things, stores will be your downfall.  Don’t even get me started on the Dollar section at Target.

The availability to order pretty much anything online has made it possible for you to avoid stores if you choose to.  This may even mean avoiding grocery shopping in a store if they have Instacart for you.

I don’t care if you go to a store for your groceries, but what I do care about are all of your toiletries, cosmetics, pet supplies, etc..  It would be great if you could order that stuff and have it delivered and totally avoid the store.

I place an order once a month for non-food items and never set foot in a store.  I can’t even quantify how much this has saved me. I used to pick up random items, get Starbucks, buy more than I needed and buy things I definitely didn’t need, but they were on sale and I couldn’t pass it up.

If you can stay out of stores, you will drastically cut your spending!

Frugal Living Tip #5:  Use a meal plan.

Don’t run away!  Meal plans are not hard, I promise!  Before you decide you can’t do this, let me give you a scenario.

You are driving home from work and you’re talking on the phone with your husband.  He asks, “What’s for dinner?” You answer with, “I don’t know. What do we have?”

He replies, “Nothing — while staring at a pantry full of food.”  

You spend money on groceries, but you will still end up in the drive thru the majority of the time (or at least more than you had intended) because you are tired and don’t want to figure out what’s for dinner.  This is totally normal.

This was me even a year ago.  

A meal plan is just going to let you know exactly what’s for dinner every night so there is no question of what should be happening.  Either one of you can actually prepare the meal. The point is to know what you are eating and you will have the ingredients needed on hand.

Your groceries will be purchased with a purpose.  No wasted food, no wasted money, no wasted time in a drive-thru.

If you are totally new to meal planning, you need to start here:

What’s For Dinner?  How to Easily Plan a Month of Meals

Monthly Meal Plan on a Budget:  $100 for Dinners For a Month For a Family of Four

The Life Saving 12-Week Rotating Meal Plan

YOU CAN ALSO GET STARTED WITH OUR FREE MONTHLY MEAL PLAN CALENDAR!  GET IT INSTANTLY WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW!

I avoided meal planning for three years and man, am I kicking myself now.  The amount of money we have saved because of it is ridiculous. It’s at least $400 a month in savings.  That’s ~$5,000 in one year.

Do not be stubborn about this like  I was. Start meal planning today and start saving some serious cash!

Frugal Living Tip #6:  Grocery shop once a month.

If you are tired of spending your life in a grocery store and are tired of wondering how you spend so much money on food every month, this is your answer.

Obviously, if you are going to grocery shop just once a month, you need to be meal planning as well.  The two ventures go hand in hand.

Let’s think about this for a minute.  How many times a month are you currently going to the grocery store?  How much time does it take each visit to the store? Do you only pick up what you absolutely need or do you think of other things you “need” while you are in the store?

Here’s what happens when you are in the store all the time.  Each time you step foot into the store, you are bound to think of something else that you “need” to have.  This is going to make you spend more money than you had intended to.

This will nickel and dime you all month long.  Then the end of the month arrives and you are wondering where all your money went.

When you grocery shop once a month, you are going to save not only your time but so much money.  For me to shop for a family of four takes about 1-2 hours. THAT’S IT FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH. That means I’m only in a grocery store for ~12 hours per year (versus the national average of more than 53 hours per year, according to the Time Use Institute).

That means if you are not grocery shopping once a month, you have 41 more hours of opportunity to buy things you don’t actually need.  Start shopping once a month and see your savings pile up!

Related Posts:

How Grocery Shopping Once a Month Saves You Time and Money

How to Grocery Shop Once a Month

USE OUR FREE GROCERY LIST SHEET TO GET STARTED PLANNING YOUR GROCERY TRIP NOW!  SIGN UP BELOW!

Frugal Living Tip #7:  Stop eating out.

If you are a foodie like me, this tip may actually hurt your heart a little bit.  Eating out is super expensive! Whether you are swinging by the drive-thru at Wendy’s, eating out at Applebee’s or splurging on a night at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, you will ALWAYS spend more than you intend to.

A moderate dinner out for two will include two drinks, appetizer, entree, and tip.  This can easily total $60 by the time you leave. Even if you drink water and cut out the appetizer, you are still looking at $40.  If you do this 2-4 times a month, that is easy $200!  In one year, that’s $2,400!!

Take a look at your spending and see how many times a month you are going out to eat (fast food included!).  The best thing you can do is cut this out completely, especially if you reach the end of the month and don’t know where your money went.

I will admit, this is one of the hardest things I cut from my budget.  Food was my entertainment and my reward for surviving another week. It was what my husband and I did for our together time.  But, seriously, at one time, we were spending close to $800 a month on eating out.

That’s insane!!  If we kept that up for a year, that’s almost $10,000!!

My best tip for cutting this out is to wean yourself off.  Initially, we went down to just 2 times a month, then we decreased it to once a month, and then we were able to cut it out completely.  If you need a slow transition, follow that plan.

If you have serious self-control and can cut it out cold turkey, then do that.  You need to stop eating out if you are trying to save money.

Frugal Living Tip #8:  Eliminate unnecessary expenses.

We all have unnecessary expenses.  These are the budget categories that are variable expenses and things we choose to add to our life.

• Gym membership
• Clothing
• Entertainment
• Sirius Radio subscription
• Dollar Shave Club membership
• Dish Television
• Bark Box for our pets
• Salon nail treatments
• Etc.

This is where people typically start to feel restricted within their budget.  When all of the “fun stuff” gets cut out of their life, people start to panic.  The good news is, you get to decide how much you are going to cut out. Then you can only be mad at yourself because you made the choice.

The best way to save money is to eliminate anything that isn’t necessary.  Cut the gym and work out at home with free videos or run outside. Shop at secondhand clothing stores or garage sales.  Find free activities in your area for entertainment.

Supplement all of these “fun” things with other free or inexpensive alternatives.  The saving will really start to add up.

If you are sacrificing these things for a greater goal, the sacrifice will be less painful.  When you are bummed out you don’t have Dish Network anymore, you can remember what that $100/month savings are helping you accomplish.  It will be worth it.

This is kind of an extreme example, but I used to get my hair cut every 6-8 weeks.  This was $40, and I would typically buy a hair product (I thought I really needed) with every visit.  I would leave the salon spending $60-$80 every time. I decided to cut that out.

I haven’t been to the salon in 15 months.  That is 8 fewer trips I have taken which equals ~$640 in savings.  Holy savings!

Think about what you are trying to achieve and cut out any unnecessary expenses in your life.  Nothing is permanent and you are in charge of your life.

No matter what your reason is for wanting to live a more frugal life, these tips will help you spend less money and be more resourceful with what you have.  Frugal living does not mean suffering. It just means you are mindful about your spending.

Start using these frugal living tips today and start saving money every month!

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