10 Frugal Living Habits to Save You Money Every Day

if you are trying to stretch your income so that it does way more than what it's been doing then adopting a Frugal mindset is so key in getting you to your desired results and then a Frugal mindset along with some everyday practical activities are going to make whatever you want to accomplish accomplishable so the first thing is to let people know ahead of time that you are not spending money let your kids know let your family know at Christmas let your friends know during travel season if you have a financial goal like paying off debt or saving up for a house or paying your property taxes whatever it is if you are in a season of not spending money make sure you let people know so that their expectations are low when it comes to you giving gifts or going on trips or just hanging out on the weekends the kids have to understand that when you go to the Walmart they're not getting any toys or anything extra also for those people that are in your life that do want to support your goals when you let them know what you're trying to do financially they can help keep you accountable the next one is take time out for your mental health a lot of times people's poor money habits are a reflection of their mental health people spend money to feel better they buy and eat lots of food to feel better sometimes just seeing a bill in the mail causes anxiety and they end up with extra fees because they delayed paying the bills which of course then causes more stress if you can't seem to figure out why you're not getting your finances together or why you keep buying things that you don't need with money you don't have just begin to pay attention to your money and your mood patterns how do you feel about things in your life when you feel the urge to buy things how are you feeling while you're spending what are your emotions when you think about financial responsibilities just take some time to focus on your mental health and it can very well make a huge difference in you being able to manage your money more productively find some free Hobbies or at least some really inexpensive ones if you don't already have one look into starting a hobby because they're great for helping you to reduce stress and decompress when life is a little bit hectic or you feel overwhelmed and I know the last thing I want to do when I'm overwhelmed is manage my finances right so having a hobby is just one way to keep you in a good frame of mind but just make sure it's not an expensive hobby I love to craft and crochet my daughter she loves to sew and relatively speaking you don't have to spend a whole lot of money for those types of hobbies but don't walk into a Hobby Lobby with a pocket full of money because those Hobbies can get expensive real quick if you're not careful and the fact is that you do have to spend some money upfront in order to be able to do those Hobbies but there are some that are completely free such as volunteering at a local community organization hiking or sightseeing through nature writing learning a new language on an app like dual lingo just Google free hobbies and try something new regrow your own veggies did you know that you can regrow some of your veggies just using portions of the original vegetable and it's usually the portion of the vegetable that you're throwing away anyway you can usually just take a veggie scrap and sit it in water in your kitchen until it starts growing Roots then plant it in soil either still keep it in your kitchen or in a burlap bag in your yard and then you can decide to only eat those particular vegetables from your own garden or you can use what you grow to help you just have to spend less on those items at the grocery store drink more water instead of juices and what I love about this one is that it's healthy for you too the average household spends about $15 to $20 on fruit juices sodas and sugary drinks every week that's about $80 a month on beverages alone and as we know most of them are full of added sugar and no nutritional value and even when the juice is an all natural fruit juice with no added sugar it it might have some vitamin C but it doesn't contain the fiber that you get from eating the whole fruit and an 8 oz cup of juice is usually about1 12 calories and it doesn't make you feel full so you end up drinking more juice really just costs a lot in more ways than one but if you live in an area where it's safe to consume your tap water that's free and it's much healthier for you you can just put a full picture of ice and water in the fridge and just always have a refreshing drink ready every part of your body and your budget are going to thank you for it avoid all late fees pay your bills on time and I know that's easier said than done sometimes but it if it's already hard to pay your bills imagine how much harder it is to pay your bills along with a bunch of $20 late fees one of the things I do to help me stay on schedule with my bill payments is I either set up automatic payments with whatever vendors I have to pay or I put the bills on my phone calendar set the reminder for one week before it's due to make sure I get it in on time and sometimes I set the reminder to remind me every single day of that week before the bill is due if I don't have the money available to pay it ahead of time I just want to make sure I don't forget renegotiate your insurance rates every year each year your insurance company is going to send you some kind of notification that your insurance is renewing and what your premium is going to be for the upcoming term that is the perfect opportunity to get on the phone with your insurance agent and find out if there are any discounts available that can bring that premium down many insurance companies offer discounts after you've been with the company for a certain number of years or if you've been accident free you can get discounts they'll let you know that if you set up auto payments that the premium can be reduced you might be surprised by how much you can save simply by asking if they have discounts you know sometimes we we have not because we ask not invest in a good quality cooking pan now the type of pan you use makes a difference in the outcome of the meals that you cook I've had some cheap fake non-stick pans that would warp over a short period of time and cause my food to cook unevenly or to cause it to burn and I'd have to throw it out or where half the food ends up stuck in the pan and it just means I'm wasting my food but my favorite pans for economical cooking or cast iron skillets they last for generations and have the added bonus of adding iron to your food which is an essential nutrient for your body plus the more you use them the oil gets cooked into the pan and it becomes more and more non-stick and my grandmothers and my mom they all had cast iron skillets for years I don't have one yet but that's because I received a set of stain steel pots and pans when I got my first apartment almost 25 years ago and they have outlasted all the other pans that I've ever gotten over the years don't buy clothes just because you like them it's best to only buy clothes to replace something you already had or to specifically add something that you need to your wardrobe like a pair of black pants a neutral color cardigan that you can wear with several different outfits a pair of shoes that you can wear with multiple dresses otherwise you end up with more clothes than you need looking through your closet a year later and seeing pieces with the price tags still on them because you never really had a reason to put them on just keep your money and spend it on things that you know you already have a specific use for now this next one is simple follow your clothes washing instructions according to the US Department of Labor the average household spends almost $2,000 per year on clothing and for your children you already know that you're going to have to replace their clothes almost every year because they grow out of them but if you need to be able to hand down those clothes maybe to your younger children you want to make sure that you're taking good care of those clothes so you don't have to buy everybody a new wardrobe every year and then for us adults we're not growing anymore unless you count growing this way but we're not going to talk about that right now but it is possible to be able to keep a lot of the clothes that you have for many years to come and one of the main ways that clothes can get ruined is through improper washing and drying but the fix for that is simple you just flip over the tag and follow the washing instructions I usually try to stay away from dry clean only clothes because of the extra cost but if it says dry clean and you put it in the washing machine just know that you're risking damaging that item and usually the clothes that are dry clean only are the most expensive too so you really don't want to mess those up and there are times when you can go against the instructions but the rule of thumb is read the tag do what it says Heat and cool the human not the home whenever possible Focus your home's Heating and Cooling resources on the individuals instead of the rooms you can use space heaters instead of running your central heating and you can use an oscillating fan to keep you cool in the summer months now when the temperature outside gets to 15° below zero and the heat rises to 110 above Sun you probably need to turn your system on because we don't want the pipes freezing and we don't want the furniture melting but but sometimes we're just a little too quick to put on the house Heat or the air before we really need it and some more individualized options can help keep those energy bills down for a little bit longer turn off the tap when you're brushing your teeth now I think we kind of all know this one but according to the Environmental Protection Agency leaving the water running while you're brushing your teeth waste about four gallons of water and if there are four people in your home and each person brushes their teeth twice per day that adds up to over 11,000 gallons down the drain in just one year and remember you're paying for all of that water that you're not even using so sometimes we need the reminder just turn the water off till you're finished brushing this next tip is to drive as efficiently as possible and I know some of us like to be speed demons on the road zipping around people like you're in labor about to have a baby most times you're just speeding up only to have to stop 2 seconds later at a red light anyway so maintaining a steady speed and avoiding breaking too hard are two things that can help you conserve your fuel and reduce unnecessary wear and tear on your car leading to more frequent and costly repairs avoid single serve snacks and food pouches instead just buy the larger bags of chips cookies raisins and then separate them into reusable resealable bags or even better small containers with lids and even if you choose to use the plastic sandwich bags it's still going to be cheaper than buying the individually wrapped snack bags for instance if you bought the Great Value brand from Walmart of a party size bag of chips it's 13 oz bag it's going to cost you about 23 cents per ounce versus if you bought the 18c count bag of chips still great value it's going to cost you about 43 cents per ounce and I know all of you super frugal people out there are saying you know this is something we already know but there are people out there who never really considered the actual difference in price take advantage of sales to shop ahead when you see gift Worthy items on sale purchase them then for upcoming birthdays or Christmas gifts you know when you're out shopping and you might see something that's just really nice and it's on sale but you know you don't really have a need for it that might be a great opportunity for you to pick it up as a gift for one of the people that you know you always have to buy a gift for and if you keep a list of those individuals in your phone or your wallet you can just check that person off and then keep the gifts that you buy in a centralized location in your home for when the gift giving time time comes and you can also be really intentional about purchasing things at the end of a season when seasonal items are on sale so that you're not having to pay full price on everything the next time the season rolls around if any of these tips were useful to you in any way please give this video a thumbs up and share it with somebody that you think might benefit from it subscribe to the channel if you aren't subscribed yet and I will see you next time bye [Music]

Channel: Frugal Creative Living

Views: 10,550

Keywords: frugal living, frugal living tips, how to save money, frugal living ideas, frugal hacks, frugal living hacks to save money, tips to save more money, how to live frugally, how to live with less, how to spend less money, frugal living tips to save money, save more money, live frugally and save money, frugal living tips and ideas, frugal living hacks, saving money tips, frugal, frugal habits, frugal tips, grocery hacks, save money, money saving hacks, grocery store hacks

Id: 6-vg4UUKgng

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2024