20 Habits Of Frugal People In 2023

when I started work as a trainee lawyer two years ago I was in 60 000 pounds of student debt and had spent years pinching pennies trying to make the most of student discounts and really being Thrifty with my money one of my goals was and still is over the next five to fifteen years to create Financial Freedom for myself and I knew having read Rich Dad Poor Dad that in order to do that I have to stop working for money and start making money work for me that is the number one thing that differentiates Rich Dad from Poor Dad essentially I needed to be able to save and invest enough money into various different Investments That Could Be businesses that could be property that could be the stock market in order to generate income passively so that in a 10 or 15 year time span I would have enough income to pay off my student debt over time and then also enough income to essentially choose how I want to spend my time so if I want to carry on in a career as a lawyer I absolutely you can and will do that but only if it's by choice not by necessity of needing and being tied to my salary so in today's video particularly given the current climate in which everyone's money is increasingly stretched and you know everything is costing more I want to share 20 money saving tips from frugal people that I've picked up or just from reading listening in a general obsession with personal finance I absolutely think we should obviously be enjoying our lives particularly as young adults before we have like huge financial commitments to Children Etc and so hopefully these 20 tips will be realistic will allow you to continue to do the things you really love and enjoy while also putting away some money each month and moving towards Financial Freedom tip number one is to set up direct debits for the day after you get paid essentially as soon as money comes into your account let's say I get paid 2 500 pounds a month a healthy amount post tax I then pay out my rent so 750 pounds of rent that goes out the net next day if I have a phone bill that gets paid out the next day I have it set up so that is my direct debit day so phone bill 50 pounds any expenses so for example Beth and I each pay an amount into a sort of joint account that we use for food Etc every month the amount that I have to pay into that every month comes straight out another 200 pounds on that that's a thousand pounds in total gone out my bills also get paid that's another 200 pounds out I know that I've spent 1 200 pounds leaving me with 1 300 pounds I then automatically set up that same next day after I get paid all of my investments to come out of my account so if I'm making an investment into an Isa like stocks and shares I set or if I'm buying some art or Masterworks today's sponsor more about them later that money comes straight out of my account on the day after I get paid so that I know for the rest of the month exactly how much money I'm gonna have to spend I take that amount after all of my expenses and my investments divided by four in my head and then I have a very good idea of what I can afford to spend each week and I can kind of keep track of my spending habits and just work out like have I spent you know 100 pounds on a night out and I need to cut back a bit this week or have I actually not spend that much money and I can afford to do a little bit more it allows me to kind of spend that amount completely guilt-free knowing that I have that money to do it as I please personally I really hate budgeting and tracking spending I find it takes ages to work out exactly what you're spending money on I find it makes me feel really guilty about spending anything overall for me just a kind of miserable thing to do so I much prefer this method final tip here if you're thinking you know Liam actually my phone bill comes out I don't have a choice when that comes out then just transfer the money on the day after you get paid into the account that you pay it from just have two accounts running so basically you have a spending account your salary goes into it and all of your expenses come out of it on the day after you get paid you can then pay from there throughout the course of the rest of the month from that other account but if you have that one account where money comes in all expenses go out the next day then you know how much you have that month next tip Envision what your life would look like with Financial Security with Financial Freedom I'm just about to release another video about motivation the power of motivation on the human mind and what you can do to feel motivated but essentially this is as part of my kind of practice of each morning envisaging where I see myself in three or five years I include within those thoughts when I'm walking around the park what would my life feel like if I didn't have to have a job if I chose to have a job because I like doing it and because yes I earn good money doing it but I actually I had enough income from other places and from my investments to be able to choose exactly how I spend my time and I really find that kind of practicing daily or at least a few times a week imagining what that Financial Freedom will feel like really really helps me to just switch my brain whenever I'm kind of tempted to make a kind of ridiculous purchase or spend money on something I don't really need or have deliveroo open and I know this week I've kind of spent too much money already but I'm like kind of feeling lazy it just forces me to think actually like this 20 pounds does matter if this is a systematic behavior of overspending over the long term stop be responsible and kind of like know that this spending isn't going to make that big a difference to My Life Third is to sign up for price comparison update so this is a very relevant one for me I literally just received an email just before I sat down to make this from compare the market saying my home insurance is about to be up for a new and I could have home insurance from 108 pounds a year and I had a couple of weeks earlier received an admiral email when I went back through that says my insurance premium is about to be 200 pounds well I could easily have not looked Elsewhere for a better deal but being signed up through a price comparison website for yearly updates on stuff like home insurance car insurance just means that it's kind of effortless for me they automatically send me those quotes it reminds me to look out in the market again every year and I think you honestly can probably save three to five hundred pounds a year just by doing that quick 15 minute switch across your different Insurance products next tip I'm sorry Apple Fans this one's not gonna be popular avoid brand loyalty and by this I mean you know where between product a and product B there is not a huge quality difference don't just go with the brand that you kind of historically have bought or you feel like you have some loyalty to instead shop around if there is a brand that you really feel like Associates with your values and you really love them yeah sure buy that product but if there is a phone that you think has comparable quality to an iPhone for example then don't just buy the super expensive iPhone because you think you need to have an Apple iPhone instead shop around prioritize what the features are that you need and then buy the product that makes no sense for you like for me having an iPhone 14 pro as a content creator who literally makes money from creating beautiful videos and images makes sense because this has an amazing camera on it or three amazing cameras and I really love like all of the apps and function technology I have set up in the workflows I have with my editors like this for me is a huge productivity tool but for other people it may make sense not to spend like over a thousand pounds on a phone tip number five buy ready slash easy meals and I guess this is kind of controversial but effectively what I try to do on a weekly basis is have at least like two or three meals that are basically just like bun in the oven generally quite healthy ready meals or things that pasta Parcels that you literally just put in some boiling water and some sauce in the microwave and it's done in 10 minutes because I know that I have a busy life I know that it's really easy for me not to cook and I know that it's so easy for me just to go on deliveroo and order something which is crazily expensive so spending three to five pounds on a decent healthy ready meal is way cheaper than the 20 to 25 pounds I usually spend on a meal just for me on delivery if I can get one takeaway a week rather than maybe four which I honestly could quite easily do that's a 60 to 70 pound a week saving which is 3640 pounds a year or about 11 of my post tax first year trainee lawyer salary next tip say no to EXP offensive friends so this doesn't mean never see expensive friends it just means if you have friends who you know spend hundreds of pounds on a night out or who you know if you go shopping with them you'll likely end up shopping some really expensive shop and buying something because they always buy stuff and spending hundreds of pounds you don't have either spend less time with that friend or probably better just suggest other activities say no to the shopping trip and instead suggest going for a walk around the park tip number seven carry a water bottle and a coffee cup so I mean just from an environmental perspective single-use plastic obviously not great but also just buying bottled water around is so flipping expensive now it's often like two or three pounds a bottle if you're buying two of those a day it really adds up pretty quickly similarly if you carry a reusable coffee cup with you most coffee shops give you money off your coffee next up we have to consider commuting costs when deciding where to live so the rental market at least in the UK has gone kind of crazy at the moment so rents are really really high and I think the Temptation is often for people would say okay actually I could save like a 500 pounds a month if I live just a little bit further out of London for example but actually what they don't consider is that rent and mortgage is one cost but inherently tied to that is also the cost of commuting so if you're commuting from some commuter towns around London in the UK your commuting costs can be as high as around 6 000 pounds a year which for me at least is you know four months rent it's like a crazy amount of money so definitely make sure you factor in when you're doing your maths and where it's best to live either time you'll lose commuting but also the cost of commuting next up do a subscriptions audit so scroll through your banking app and just look how much money am I spending on these different subscriptions each month and work out are there any subscriptions you could cut back on and then kind of tied into that next tip tip number 10 is to share subscriptions so for example like Beth and I paying for two separate Netflix subscriptions would kind of be crazy instead we actually share the Netflix subscription with our parents so we don't pay for Netflix we're just on their account we then pay for Amazon Prime which a couple of our parents use and best family then has an apple music subscription so we get that through the family plan so for Amazon Prime Netflix and apple music we just pay for Amazon Prime as I mentioned a huge part of becoming financially free is having enough money each month to put away a small amount into long-term Investments and one of the apps that I use to invest is Masterworks today's sponsor as I grow in my career and my earnings rise but I also become more and more pressed for time I'm increasingly looking for smart Investments that will enable me to build a diversified portfolio of assets that hopefully grow in value over the long term without me needing to spend lots of time learning and making complex investment decisions my personal approach to investing even more so given the current geopolitical and macro economic uncertainty is therefore to invest gradually in a diverse range of assets and asset classes and hold those assets it's for the medium to long term so when I heard about Masterworks I was really Keen to start using the platform and to tell you about them Masterworks enables investors to gain access to the high-end Art Market the Art Market itself has doubled S P 500 returns over the last 25 years and has shown even stronger performance at times of high inflation on top of that contemporary art has a negative correlation with other asset classes the only problem it costs millions of dollars to add Blue Chip art to your portfolio well that is until now Masterworks analyzes millions of data points to identify which paintings seem most likely to rise in value acquires the painting and breaks it up into SEC qualified shares for you to invest in Masterworks is so far offered over 130 paintings on their platform with 500 000 users today they've sold six paintings for an average net return to investors of 29 as a result demand for art is high and there is a wait list to access Masterworks but my viewers can skip it by just clicking the link in the description alrighty next step is to buy furniture on local Facebook groups or Facebook Marketplace or even eBay so he picked up when we moved into our flat here a table and chairs for 100 pounds like a whole table and really nice chairs that probably cost about 80 pounds each new we got our friends who were moving to Germany we got their sofa for free and we also picked up a desk chair from Facebook Marketplace for 50 pounds I've actually been really really shocked like how much value you can get from Facebook Marketplace or Facebook groups people generally like even Beth and I have done it at times have stuff that's way more valuable but honestly they just want rid of it they can't be bothered with the hassle of properly selling it for like what it's actually worth so they kind of just really undervalue it's like come pick it up take it away from us we don't want this anymore just get it gone so you really can pick up some absolute Bargains tip number 12 is the meal plan it's kind of well known but like shopping with a list is so much easier first of all you don't spend as much money on random stuff but but mainly for Beth and I the biggest problem when we don't have a list is I'll just kind of go around the shop and be like huh we could have that meal one day oh we could have that meal another day we could have that meal another day as I go around the shop and then we end up buying way too much food because I haven't actually planned Oh wait we're both out for dinner on Tuesday and Thursday and I have work drinks on Monday until late so probably won't be until late or I'll have dinner at work and actually we only needed three meals and I bought six we waste a whole ton of food and money in the process yeah what is it okay we've got a Bonus tip from Beth uh it's not another one because I already had 20 in my list best bonus tip is to either share cooking with other people I think I'm my colleagues would personally find it a bit weird if I went into work and offered to cook for them but I do like the suggestion like make bigger portions so like if you make for example we often make or actually Beth makes it uh chili con carne chili sin Carney actually veggie chili she'll make enough for probably like four or five meals and then we just put individual portions into freezer bags in the freezer and then whenever I'm home alone and can't be bothered to cook I can just grab one out the freezer Bob's your uncle 20 pounds on delivery Save Right There thanks Beth okay we're back on with my actual tips the next one aggressively negotiate phone deals so I think people you know young people at least I hope kind of generally know this but my parents have historically been terrible at it they basically enter into a phone contract with a phone 54 pounds a month and after two years they then just stay on that paying 54 pounds a month when they should have had their tariff reduced now I think that's kind of been stopped like phone companies aren't allowed to get away with doing that anymore but it is still the case that if you continue your contract you're probably getting a worse deal than you could be so when you are getting a new phone contract if it's one with a phone find the best deal on the market and basically don't say no for an answer call Up Ring through to the number on the phone when you call your network is I'm thinking of leaving then tell them about the exact deal you've got chances are they'll get within a couple of pounds of meeting it and then I would recommend you just stay with your current network if they've offered you you know within a couple of pounds because it's a bit of a faff changing not a huge map but at least for me personally a couple of pounds a month isn't worth it but you know up to you tip number 14 is to sell stuff so old stuff you have there are websites where you can sell old mobile phones for example uh Beth's top tip was to sell old textbooks I know she did that a bunch at University and you actually get quite a lot of money for them I'm also a little bit of a clean freak so often Beth and I will do like a general clean out of our house and we'll amass a ton of stuff for the buffet I had like a load of stuff in my parents Loft that I sold two summers ago at boot fair I think I made like 350 pounds in a weekend selling stuff like video games and stuff that I no longer use next make sure that you have a rewards debit and or credit card so I personally have a debit card at the moment with Chase they have an amazing introductory offer again not sponsored or anything but it's an amazing deal you get one percent cash back on a debit card for the first year plus they have five percent interest on like save the change savings account and I think now up to 2.1 interest on their savings account which is really strong in the market overall like a really strong offering they're just launched so they're trying to get people to use them and I would recommend it then also a credit card and Amex just buying the best one that's available at the time and make sure you then use it and pay it off do not get stung by interest on credit cards because that will absolutely wipe out any benefit of getting one number 16 also linked to credit cards is to get a card that doesn't charge you abroad so the chase one doesn't but there are a whole bunch of cards out there and especially like all of the startup Banks revolute Etc generally give you very good rates when you're making transactions abroad so just make sure you have one of those I have a one card that gives me like a pound charge every time I use it such a pain so yeah just make sure that your card doesn't charge you for making transactions abroad next tip is to get take out or take away in the UK from your I don't know why I wrote takeout but I did uh want to get a takeout from your own home so by that I mean when you're going on a walk around the park why don't you just pack your reusable coffee cup in your rucksack and use that when you're out and about or just take one on the way to work take a Nespresso Pod coffee in your reusable coffee cup to work rather than buying a print on the way into work similarly take some leftover dinner or the chili sin carne that Beth cooked last night into work the next day heat it up in the microwave rather than buying the 12 pound salad you don't have to do it all the time but a couple of times a week could save you 20 to 40 pounds a week okay we are nearly there three to go and this is a big one understand that sailing is better than earning so there's a saying something like a penny earned is a penny saved or a penny something like that a pound earned is a pounder saved wait what is the saying no it's a pound saved as a pound earned yeah or a penny saved as a pet anyway the point is that that isn't right like a penny saved is not a penny earned because if I save a pound by not buying delivery the NASA pound I get to keep if I earn an extra pound then I pay tax on that and for most people that would mean that actually they're probably left with 60 to 70 percent of that money so you know around 60 or 70p so actually a pound earned is like 60 or 70p which is obviously less than a pound saved which I get all of plus interest over time so if you cannot buy you know a 20 pound delivery it's actually kind of the same as earning 24 or 25 pounds for an ultimate tip and this one is again from Beth is to push your employer to give you more so in some jobs like mine it's not necessarily that applicable but in Beth's industry where she's contracted with different employers quite regularly she has found that any over salary like it's worth negotiating and really putting yourself out there to say actually you know what I value myself I want more money than I had for the last three months and second of all if there are things that you need like screens or monitors or laptops to do your job or you know you think you need to travel for work and they should give you that backers expenses don't let them kind of take you for granted instead push the point actually no I need this you know monitor so please can I have one and she's found the vast majority of the time your work will say yes and finally by quality for longevity so again last tip also courtesy or at least inspired by Beth historically she has had a very I'm gonna buy the cheapest low quality item she has been a big fast fashion user not because she doesn't care about the environment but because she genuinely always has been just like super Thrifty and unwilling to spend money so for example shoes she's bought like five or ten pound pairs of shoes from Primark actually she's ended up spending way more money on shoes because the shoes last her two three four five six weeks and then she has to buy a new pair she has now moved away from that mainly because the environmental reasons but actually has found she saves money by buying for the long term buying something quality it and then keeping it for years so yeah those are the tips and just as a final thought like to say 10 000 pounds in a year you need to be saving 883 pounds a month that is a lot and I appreciate that lots of people's salaries aren't as high as mine or best and we are in a very fortunate position but I do genuinely believe that if you are saving 50 60 70 pounds a week on takeaways that you would otherwise be getting if you're being really diligent with your subscription sharing subscriptions you're cutting out a few if you kind of then have one percent cash back on your bank account if you then also have a decent interest rate which is coming into play at the moment you really can get some decent interest rates out there it's actually not impossible to save a good few hundred pounds if not close to 883 pounds a month and at the end of a year you could have ten thousand pounds of savings so yeah I just kind of wanted to give that context on kind of everything I just shared hopefully you have found this video helpful and please do let me know if you have any top money saving frugality tips in the comments below and I look forward to speaking again very very soon

Channel: Liam Porritt

Views: 223,751

Keywords: save money, how to save money, cost of living crisis, Money saving tips, tips to save money, personal finance, money, Liam Porritt

Id: NvRvdSV5nPo

Length: 21min 29sec (1289 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 03 2022