10 Frugal Living Hacks to SURVIVE High Cost of Living Areas

now this might be hard for some of y'all to believe ladies and gentlemen but Frugal Living ain't just for US country folk away from the modern Temptations living a quiet life and saving money by hanging our laundry outside no Frugal Living is also for the high class of society the young people living in urban cities parting it up on the weekends and enjoying all the modern luxuries you can still be frugal while living in a high cost living area in fact unless you're making a ridiculous amount of money the only way you're going to survive a high cost living area is by being Frugal and as someone who has recently traded in his cowboy boots and headed off to the big city I want to share 10 Frugal Living hacks that I've developed while living in a high cost of living area in the first hack is live in a central location even if it's slightly more expensive so I recently moved to Atlanta Georgia and if you've ever been here you know that most of this city is very car dependent and having to depend on a car in a city can really increase your cost of living because you have to drive and stop and go traffic using more gas you have to constantly pay for parking in City roads wear down your car quicker but one hack that has allowed me to save money despite being in a high cost of living area is just choosing to live in a very central location where all the amenities are within walking distance and also living in a location where there is a lot going on so I don't feel the need to leave I don't drive that often because I live in a very central location and that cuts my cost of living drastically because I don't have to depend on my car and even if it's slightly more expensive consider living in a very Central area where all the amenities are around you when you don't have to rely on your car you can cut your expenses drastically because cars are a huge thing that Mak City living expensive now the second hack is concentrate fun spending on the weekends and with others now a huge part of living in a high cost living area is that there's just a lot more going on more restaurants more events and more fun things to do and just because you're Frugal doesn't mean that you can't do these things I mean I often say that being Frugal is just being intentional in one intentional hack that has allowed me to save money while still enjoying these things is throughout the week I save money on things by cooking at home making coffee at home and doing tasks myself and because I'm saving money throughout the week doing these things I can use the money I would have spent to enjoy the weekend and do things with others if you live in an area where there's a lot going on you should still do these fun things but just be strategic about it when you focus on saving money throughout the week and using that money to have fun on the weekends one you don't go over budget and two you get more value from your money if you're intentional with your money you can still do the things that everyone else is doing but you won't go broke because of it now the third hack is do things but don't go all out since I moved to a higher cost of living City I have been spending more money just because there's a lot more fun things to do and one fun thing I did last month is that I saw the Broadway musical Hamilton and although it did cost money me and the person I went with went The Frugal route and instead of paying $500 for front row tickets we spent $80 for tickets in the balcony even though we got cheaper tickets we still enjoyed the show and had a memorable experience and if you live in a high cost of living area you should still do these fun things but just go The Frugal route I mean here in Atlanta you can get a ticket for a baseball game for $11 see a concert for $27 or see a Broadway show for $80 but if you go all out you'll spend way more if you live in a place where there's a lot to do you should still do fun things but just go The Frugal route and don't feel the need to go all out because at the end of the day what you're going to remember is just being there now the fourth hack is embraced free things going on the beauty of living in a higher cost of living area is that it's generally more dense and when things are more dense there's a lot of free things that go on I mean since I moved here in Atlanta I've been to the St Patrick's Day Parade the Persian festival and every day I walk through beautiful Parks all of which are completely free and so another Frugal Living hack is just to embrace all the free stuff going on if you live in a densely populated area there is always something going on and if you seek out these things you can fill up a whole day without spending any money now the fifth hack is always leave your house with a full stomach in a water bottle now this is a very simple hack but it can save you so much money if you're going out to do something fun always leave your house with a full stomach in a water bottle and that simple advice can save you so much money because if you go out and get hung hungry there's $20 for a meal and if you're thirsty and buy a bottle of water there's another $3 you do that two times a week that's $2400 a year always leave your house with a full stomach in a water bottle to avoid overpaying for those things now the sixth hack is buy more experiences in less stuff so I don't make tons of money but I have been able to enjoy living in a higher cost of living area because I basically use all my discretionary spending on experiences and very little on stuff it makes it much more manageable if I was a materialistic person I don't think that I could afford to live here and if you live in a high cost of living area focus more of your discretionary spending on experiences rather than buying a bunch of stuff now the seventh hack is find the cheaper options when you live in a high cost living area what often sends people over the edge and makes them take on debt is not necessarily rent but it's all the expensive options around like expensive grocery stores expensive trendy restaurants and expensive CrossFit Gyms these expensive options can really send you over the edge but one hack that can allow you to save money is just do some research in find cheaper alternatives like discount grocery stores finding hole-in-the-wall restaurants and finding cheaper gems even if it doesn't seem like these options are around they are you just have to actively seek them out but if you can find these cheaper alternatives you can save a lot of money and not go over budget now the E tack is don't be a yuppy now in case you don't know what a yepy is a yepy is a young urban professional in yuppies usually wear fancy clothes drive a fancy car and have the latest technology and I'm not going to lie I live in a pretty nice area and where I live there are so many yuppies I mean I have never seen so many Mercedes BMWs and Teslas in my life and although yuppies look like they have a lot of money because they have all these nice things in reality they are just drowning in debt and so another hack if you choose to live in a higher cost living area is just don't become one of these yuppies be fine with having an older phone a simple car in blue jeans and a t-shirt because the second you become a yepy the second you become broke and a slave to your possession and yuppies are the reason that everything is becoming so expensive anyways now the ninth hack is get cheaper things when you leave your area where I live in Atlanta things are a lot more expensive in the City compared to when you go outside the city in one extreme example is the price of gas where in the city it's about $3.90 a gallon but outside the city it's $320 a gallon which is a 70 c difference which is a lot of money I mean on a philli that is a $113 difference and one simple hack that I do to save money is that whenever I leave the city to just fill up my tank of gas and do other errands that are cheaper to do outside of the city because it allows me to save money now the 10th hack is track and stay on top of your expenses since I have moved a higher cost living area my expenses have increased drastically they have about doubled which is fine I knew that I would be spending more money when I decided to move plus where I was living before my expenses were ridiculously low but now that I'm living in a more expensive area I'm finding increasingly more more and more important to stay on top of my expenses and track every single dollar I'm spending on a spreadsheet when you live in a high cost living area your spending can quickly get out of control but if you stay on top of your spending and track every single thing you're spending you know exactly how much money you're spending and where it's going and I made a video right here exactly on how to budget and track your expenses with a free spreadsheet because I a nice guy but by tracking your expenses it prevents you from overspending and staying within budget and those are the 10 Frugal Living hacks to survive a high cost of living area and with that much

Channel: Austin Williams

Views: 35,862

Keywords: Money, Personal Finance, Frugal Living, Buy Nothing, Frugality, Dave Ramsey, Investing, Cost of Livng Crisis

Id: gtlzm0nqGns

Length: 10min 18sec (618 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2024