50 FRUGAL LIVING TIPS That Really Work | How we live frugally to SAVE MONEY

hello welcome back to my channel today's video is all about how to save money I have a ton of tips and tricks for you guys on how to live frugally and save money day in and day out so if you're struggling with being able to save them this video is for you hey guys my name is Kristin I am a blogger at sent and purpose calm I've had my website since before I had my youtube channel but I just recently changed the name and I felt like sense and purpose really better reflected my mission with my website and my youtube channel I haven't yet decided whether I'm going to change the name of my YouTube channel but just to give you a heads up if it does change it's still me so don't leave stick around and if you're not a subscriber I hope you'll subscribe I make videos about saving money budgeting living frugally a couple of other random things here and there but I'd love to have you as part of my YouTube family I have 50 tips on how to live frugally these tips are in no particular order some of the tips could save you a ton of money and some of them are probably only gonna save you a little bit at a time but remember a little bit of savings compounded over time it does add some of these we practice as a family but a couple of them we actually don't practice and I will mention which ones as they go through the tips I know you'll hear a lot of people talk about myself included some of the bigger things like sticking to a budget cutting costs cutting coupons you know there's a lot of things you can do in your everyday life and so many of them really without much extra effort that can help you save a ton of money so let's get into the tips tip number one two three and I think four are all around the same thing water I don't know about you but our water bills kind of pricey where we live plus I have really been striving to be more environmentally conscious over the past couple years and I feel like that kind of tied in to our debt free journey and living more frugally and just being like I said a lot more intentional and purposeful use refillable water bottles that's one of those items that yes you're gonna spend a couple dollars on but be smart you I'm at t.j.maxx you can buy them at Walmart you can buy them even at Aldi for much less than you would pay at say Target or Bed Bath and Beyond but getting a refillable water bottle and not only will help you cut back on your plastic consumption but it will allow you to refill your water anywhere plus you're not going to be flying through bottled water as much now personally we use a lot of refillable water bottles but we also do buy bottled water we buy a case maybe every month or so I really like to have a bottle to offer guess if somebody comes to our house they're also really good in a pinch like when my kids forget to fill up their bottle for soccer they can grab one really quickly on their way out the door and we're good to go but I am really kind of on them about refilling them and there's nothing wrong with it honestly our fridge water tastes great we have a whole house water filter in the basement and then it's filtered in the fridge as well so it's double filtered water it tastes wonderful personally when I drink out of a plastic water bottle I refill up multiple multiple times as if it's reusable and then I throw it in the recycling the other thing is I have the kids just fill their cups from the sink all the time they don't need to get a bottle every time they want to drink water they can just fill the cups and another thing that I do is I don't waste the water so pretty much every morning when my kids go to school there will be like three cups my kids and my husband sitting on the table halfway filled with water so instead of dumping it down the drain dump the water in a plant or in a pet dish your dog your cat whatever pet you might have and that way at least it's getting used and they're not wasting it I always have a bottle of water with me now sometimes it's refillable sometimes it's just a plastic bottle but I always have water with me I keep it in my bag I keep a bottle in my car and if I'm going somewhere that I know I'm going to be grabbing a bite to eat or a snack I am sure to have a bottle of water with me you will pay anywhere from one to three dollars per bottle of water depending on where you're getting it and what you're buying you can buy almost an entire case for that amount so you will never catch me paying for a bottle a single bottle of water out somewhere unless it's like an emergency situation I always keep my own bottle and never never once have I been approached about did I purchase the bottle there or been given a hard time about it the next thing we do and by we I mean mostly me because my husband doesn't really care and I'm all over it my kids so often will use paper plates I use a lot of paper products I know I should cut back and that would save me a lot of money but for us that's a matter of convenience because I feel like I spend half my day washing dishes so I am not ready to give up our paper products but I do try to be careful with our consumption because so often my son will make a bagel and he'll eat it on a paper plate the paper plate is completely clean - a crumb or two and he'll go and throw it in the trash so I tell him instead of throwing it in the trash just flip the crumbs into the sink and stick the paper plate on the counter and then I use it for my breakfast or my lunch so just take a look obviously if the plates gross you're not gonna reuse it but if there's nothing wrong with it there's no reason you can't use it again the next thing we do is we really strive to practice zero food waste and this is a tip that I picked up more so or I should say this is more a term I picked up once I really got involved with the debt-free community over on Instagram and here's my Instagram handle if you don't follow me you can find me over there and I always tried to not waste food I always was a big cheerleader for cleaning off your plate because I always felt like it was bad to waste food because there are so many people that are starving in the world and I just feel like it's not being grateful for what we have only just throw so much food in the trash there are so many tips and tricks for cutting down on food waste one of the things that we do is we do a leftover night or should I say at least one leftover night every single week in our meal plan and sometimes it's a leftover from an actual meal if I made a larger meal and we have enough for actual servings again but a lot of times it's almost more like a smorgasbord where I am just grabbing random containers from the fridge and the other day my kids had a small bowl of Turkey and risotto and a small bowl of mac and cheese leftover and that was their dinner and you know what they don't care our kids it really doesn't matter to them it doesn't have to be a full meal it doesn't have to be anything fancy but the point is there wasn't enough for a full serving of either of those dishes and it would have ended up sitting in the fridge for days until it went bad and it would have got thrown out so instead that was an entire extra meal I was able to serve my husband wasn't home and I eat my own thing but an extra meal I was able to serve for my children I didn't have to take the time to make another meal and I didn't have to use money to make something else while that was getting thrown in the trash so striving to practice zero food wastes if you search to the hashtag around Instagram you'll find a whole bunch of information and a whole bunch of extra tips another big way to combat zero food waste is meal planning so really taking the time to sit down create a meal plan I have some free resources with my blog I will link those down below and I have a really in-depth meal planning video coming up for you next week but taking the time to learn and get efficient at meal planning will ensure that you're using those leftover ingredients in another meal and you're really wasting very very little food and think about it throwing your food out is literally like throwing your money right in the garbage the next thing I do is I try to use Ebates anytime I shop online now you can find most any store in Ebates and a lot of times I don't earn much money because I do the majority of our online shopping on Amazon and Amazon sometimes will give you a little bit of cash back in certain categories but none in other categories but I'll always go up through Ebates first because even if I can earn a little bit it's better than nothing and I've gotten multiple checks from Ebates now for twenty five forty fifty dollars where they are literally sending you free money you can also earn twenty five dollars any time a friend uses your link and signs up with their own Ebates account I'm gonna put my link down below you would get $10 I believe for free when you try a bait and then you would also be able to share your link with your friends and earn money that way but almost any store I've ever shopped at online I've been able to find any bait it's super simple you just go to the Ebates website search the store you're looking to shop up click on it it's right to that stores website any shop as you normally do and once your transaction is complete and ships and process then you'll see some cashback come up in your Ebates account and they will send you a physical check for that money at the end of each quarter super simple I really try to never do any online shopping without getting some sort of cash back for it another tip when it comes to online shopping is obviously look for coupon codes sign up for emails now be careful with that because if you're someone that's really triggered by every sales email or every coupon you get in your email then it's probably going to do more harm than good it's going to cause you to buy things that you don't need and in that case I suggest you stay away from this tip but if that doesn't effect you then absolutely sign up for different stores or different retailers emails because they send so many coupon codes and sales alerts and flash sales and online sales only and it can really help you save a lot of money another tip for shopping is shop at discount stores now that goes for grocery stores and other stores as well I know not everybody has an Aldi in their area that's my personal favorite but there's a lot of other discount grocers there's lethal there's Trader Joe's Trader Joe's is a little bit more expensive than Aldi but it hasn't unique and different items that I think it's worth the trip and they have some really good quality items as well but in addition to discount grocers don't forget about the discount stores we all love Marshalls and TJ Maxx would be careful because it's so tempting when you see those tickets where it says retail price $100 and your price $20 and you think you're getting this amazing deal which you are but often it can make people I think spend more money than they were originally intending also shopping secondhand is a great way to save money this is one of those tips that I mentioned that we don't do I do not shop secondhand and telling myself for years I should shop secondhand but for me it's a time issue I feel like going to the thrift stores even kind of going down the rabbit hole when you're buying items on different apps online like Poshmark or eBay I really get sucked in and I will just sit there and purr the rack after rack after rack and it just takes too much time and for me my time is always more valuable but if you're someone who's good you've been 15 for a long time you're good at it absolutely shop second-hand Facebook Marketplace thrift stores eBay there's so many places now where you can get amazing deals and I know a lot of people really enjoy them it's almost a fun hobby for them the next group of tips I want to talk about are all around things you can DIY to save money I have a whole other video on things that we di WA and our family to save money I'm gonna link that up above but I'm gonna mention them here too because I know sometimes people just land on random videos and they're not watching all your videos and if you are hearing me repeat myself I'm sorry but these are some good tips guys so I want you to hear them the first thing I di why is I trim my own hair at home I use something called the unicorn method I'm planning on trying to do a video on it whenever my hair needs a trim so you can see how it works but there's also tons of other videos on YouTube just google it or search it in YouTube and you can see how to do it it's a way for me to keep up in between hair appointments I get my hair done probably only twice a year where I get some fresh balayage and a real cut and style but in the meantime my hair is very dry and it gets split ends really often so I just turn it myself every couple weeks I'll also trim my daughter's hair myself as well the next thing I do is I do my own nails at home now I know sometimes doing your own nails takes a lot of practice but that's just it if you continue to do it you'll get better over time and I also suggest that maybe you invest in some better quality products because it does make a really big difference you could take the money that you would spend on one manicure or pedicure and sit down and really research all the products that you would need to give yourself a salon quality manicure and pedicure sit down and go ahead and spend that money and purchase all the products and then you have them so you're gonna put a little bit of money out in the beginning but it's going to pay off in one manicure or pedicure another thing we you DIY is my husband changes our oil he didn't always do this he didn't even know how in fact he looked at but you to many asked a friend who does his own to show him so he went over and helped his friend do it and that way he was able to learn how to do it himself and he has saved us a ton of money over the past two years doing our oil changes himself and that leads me into the next tip which is learn how to do other smaller car maintenance to yourself you know you can swap out your wiper blades yourself just go to an auto parts store look it up on YouTube ask a friend you can do your car detailing you can wash your cars at home you can maybe even learn how to give yourself new brakes my husband taught himself how to do that as well all of the smaller car maintenance things you can learn how to do yourself and you are going to save hundreds and thousands of dollars the next thing I do is I make my own coffee sure you'll see me with a Starbucks here and there usually because I have a gift card but I love making my own coffee at home I make my own cold brew my own bulletproof coffee my own lattes I have another video on how I make bulletproof coffee up here you can check that out it's for a keto version and a non keto version and I love it it's so good it tastes better and the best thing about it is if you're watching what you eat or trying to live a healthy lifestyle you're completely in control of what goes into that coffee instead of paying five dollars for a giant cup of sugar another thing we do is smaller home repairs at home again if you don't know how to do things you're not handy check out YouTube guys is such an awesome resource you can find anything anything anything on YouTube these days and of course in some situations you might need to make a small investment purchase a tool purchase some supplies but it's always going to be cheaper than paying somebody to do it now of course I don't recommend you do huge mechanical improvements if you don't know how not only could it be dangerous but you could make things a lot worse and end up costing yourself a lot more money in the long run but go ahead and YouTube things check it out plus you'll be teaching yourself some amazing the skills that are really going to serve you well through the rest of your life one other thing I DIY at home is I to do small clothing repairs when necessary I suck at sewing but I can sew a button on or I can sell a hole in the seam not very good at fixing zippers but a lot of people are and zippers are cheap you can just go to the craft store pick it up again you can check out YouTube to learn how to do these simple fixes but if you have a good quality piece of clothing that has a lot of life left in it it's crazy to get rid of it just because there's a small hole in it the next thing we do is pack lunches my daughter never never buys lunch at school my son is allowed to buy one lunch per week so that's a total of about ten dollars a month that he gets to spend on lunches and otherwise he packs every single day my husband takes his own lunch to work I work from home so I'm always eating at home and we rarely go out to eat if you absolutely are intent on going out to eat here's a couple of tips to save money at restaurants number one use the apps that we talked about like Ebates ibotta where you can earn cashback or points and then you can actually purchase gift cards and you're pretty much eating your meal for free another tip is if you have children look for restaurants in your area where kids eat free there are a ton of restaurants it's usually a specific day a week or a specific time of day check them out look for opportunities to save money like that if they don't eat free maybe get an adult sized meal for your children and split it or split an entree with your spouse if you are older look for places that offer senior citizens discounts if you're a veteran look for places that offer veterans discounts just hop on the computer Google is your best friend there's a ton of places that offer a lot of different discounts you just have to check it out another way you can get gift cards for free is by using credit card points so if you use a credit card and I'm not necessarily advocating for you to use a credit card but if you do use a credit card hang on to those points most credit cards offer a ton of different gift card options that you can catch your points in for gift cards and beyond that a lot of them like my chase card that I use they actually have gift cards on sale every single month so they'll rotate a couple different stores each month where you can them for like ten or even twenty percent off that's another way that we've saved up for different home improvements or to buy a large gift that we maybe didn't want to spend the money on because you're already using your credit card so now you're getting the point then you're cashing the points in for the gift card plus if it's on sale you can get a hundred dollar gift card for only $80 worth of points then if you happen to go to the store and have a store coupon or get an item on sale at the store now you're just really stacking your savings and saving a ton of money in the process the next tip you've heard it everywhere cut your cable now I have a confession to make this is one we actually don't follow but when we first started paying off debt and trying to figure out our finances we did cut cable we were very very over budget and we just couldn't afford pretty much anything at that time and we cut cable we cut it for two years and you know what we really didn't miss it and the only reason we signed back up for cable was because my husband really wanted some of the channels that were on there and we ended up getting a really really great deal in the mail and we kind of signed a two-year contract as like our family Christmas present I could go without cable he likes having it we're debt-free now so I told him we would sign one more contract and try that and see how it went and if we weren't really feeling it at the end we will probably just get rid of cable again altogether we use Netflix we used Hulu we have an Amazon Prime account and you get free TV and movies and Amazon Prime so there's so many options out there as you already know because this is a very popular tip amongst personal finance bloggers and youtubers but you know just another reminder it can be done and there's actually more and more and more services every year that are making it easier for you to leave cable especially in the sports fans I know sports were always a huge drawback for people to cut cable but options now like Hulu Live and sling TV actually offers sports packages as well and you still don't need to pay for cable speaking of some of those subscription services like Netflix and Amazon Prime go ahead and get together with some of your family members or friends and share your and actually we use my sister's Netflix account and then they use our Amazon Prime account so we pay for the Amazon Prime and they pay for the Netflix each year and it kind of evens out go ahead and see who's already paying for what see if you guys can share your login credentials and actually just share the services another tip is to swap services get together with some friends who might also be trying to save money and babysit each other's kids for free if one of them is a hairdresser they can do your hair for free and you can offer them a service that you provide for free just swap things back and forth instead of always exchanging money and having to tip just make sure it's a fair swap so nobody feels like they're getting the short end of the stick and that's a great way to really save money and also get some things taken care of that you might need done or a date night the next tip is we cut back majorly on buying shoes and clothing for our kids what I was noticing not so much when they were little because we picked out their clothing and I made sure to cycle through everything they have so everything gets good use but now that they dress themselves pick their own clothing out I don't know about you but my kids want to wear the same things all the time and it drives me crazy but it's just not worth the fight I try to pick my battles so I really sat down and took a good look through their closet got rid of a whole bunch of crap and really tried to kind of see what are they wearing what are they not wearing what's going to waste what's not even being worn like ever and what I decided was we are gonna cut down majorly on their clothing and their shoes we used to make sure they had you know this dress shoes and athletic shoes and flip-flops and you know fancy boots and casual boots and nicer sneakers and casual sneakers and it was crazy their feet grow so fast they would literally get to wear a pair of shoes one time and the next time I'd have them put it on months later especially for dressier clothes clothing and shoes that's it they were out of it and it was a complete waste of money sure you can sell them but you're never going to get this price that you paid so we cut way back they have pretty much one pair of sneakers that are nice one pair of sneakers that are crappy for when it's muddy and nasty outside so they don't ruin their nice sneakers and then they basically have like one pair of dress shoes that are really neutral maybe a pair of boots for the winter that's pretty much oh and one pair of like casual shoes so maybe about an au pair of flip-flops so maybe about five pairs of shoes each and what I found is they're getting so much more wear out of them and I'm not complaining to them all the time that they're wasting the money and wasting the shoes and the clothing and the same thing with the clothes we're cutting way back they still have a bunch of stuff in their closet but it's because it still fits them so as they are growing out I am cutting way back on what we're purchasing for them and I'm also telling them I know so many of you are gonna judge me for this but my kids are old enough to understand they're ten and almost 14 at this point and I started telling them when they asked for something if it's really trendy and they push that they want if they want it I let them know they can have that item but if they do not wear it and they waste my money and it gets completely tossed to the side and not use that they are going to have to reimburse me for that item and I'll tell you what it has made them rethink things that they've wanted so much lately and I'm really proud of them I don't mind purchasing things for them but I'm not going to purchase them for them to basically toss them aside and not touch them we work way too hard for our money and they need to learn the value of money and that when you spend money on something you need to make sure you're using it and getting your money's worth so that's been a really helpful tip for us I barely buy clothing for them anymore I really have cut back to only when necessary and it's made a big difference for us another thing I do is I've been bundling my errands so not just the gas but even the time it takes to run errands I really try to bundle everything I try to kind of stick everything on one day make a list keep everything going so that I can kind of go out get dressed get myself together once a week and get out there and complete everything I need to do I notice it also keeps me on task a little bit better keeps me moving you do bring your kids along make sure you pack snacks pack a lunch so that they don't get hangry and have a meltdown have a breakdown and cut your day short but I've definitely found that it's helping me go longer in between having to fill up with gas because I'm not running out every single day another tip is wash your own car I forgot to mention that earlier we wash our own cars I absolutely love getting my car wash professionally but it's just not worth the money plus if you have kids they have so much fun doing it we also have dogs and I let the dogs come in my car and it's a mess there's dog hair everywhere so periodically I really have to take the time and clean it out and vacuum it out and I might as well just wash the car while I'm at it next tip be sure to sign up for a free library card at your local library but actually use the library use their resources they usually have movies free audiobooks now you can check out magazines or your papers or whatever you want to do you could probably find at the library somewhere you can use printers you can use computers if you don't have internet or you can't afford an Internet if you have children there's always activities at your local library and another thing they do is they now have apps that you can use and get free audiobooks or free digital books on these apps but you need a library card so my favorite is hoopla I know there's another one called Libby and one called overdrive and they're all free but you have to have a library card to sign up for the account so check them out it has saved me hundreds of dollars on ebooks over the past few years another tip is to get a programmable thermostat and I work from home it's not as big of a deal for us because I'm always here and I can just go change the temperature anytime I want to when I do leave for the day I am sure to adjust the temperature before I leave so if you're really struggling with higher utility bills try to get yourself acclimated to a little bit more extreme temperatures okay maybe extreme isn't the best word but get your body acclimated to keeping your air off a little bit longer in the warm months to setting your thermostat a little bit higher than you normally would to keep that air from kicking on as quickly conversely in the winter how'd you get used to being a little bit more cold this is where I fail majorly I hate being cold I'm called all the time and actually we have been keeping our house even warmer this winter so my utility bills have gone up but it doesn't have to be that way for you so I know there are so many people that will sit there and just wear really warm clothes in the winter until they can't handle it anymore and then they'll start using their heat for the season but it definitely makes a difference in your monthly bills for sure also in regards to utility bills do a little bit of research with your utility company and whatever plan you have and a lot of them will have lower rates at different times of the day so take advantage of those times and run your dishwasher then run your washer and dryer at those lower times and you'll definitely see some savings on your monthly bills also with the warmer months coming or depending on what climate you live in you can hang your watch out to dry I know that might feel a bit antiquated it's a really nice way to cut way back on your dryer usage and it's really cheap to just string the line outside where you can hang your clothes and grab a couple clothespins and you're good next thing you can do is make your own cleaning products this is something that I've just started to be interested in I'm going to do my own research and not only does it save you a lot of money but it's so much better for your house especially if you have children or pets to really cut down on the amount of chemicals that you're using in your home the next tip is to carpool start a group chat with some of your friends in your area and see who might be available to carpool back and forth to different sports school or activities that will definitely save you gas and time now let's talk about entertainment my first tip is to try entertaining at home if you're somebody that loves to out to eat loves to get together with friends and have drinks or just hang out try doing it at somebody's house instead of at a restaurant so number one you'll cut down on the need for babysitters and you'll save money there plus you can buy an entire bottle of booze for the cost of like two drinks at a restaurant go ahead and have a potluck style ask everybody to bring appetizer and you'll have so much more fun hanging out being relaxed at somebody's house and you're gonna save so much money also get online and look for other ways for free entertainment entertainment can be really pricey so finding lots of community events that are free or just getting outside in nature with your family maybe just going to visit a friend going for a walk so many different things that you can do to find free entertainment especially with the summer coming up the next thing is if you absolutely are intending going out try different discount sites like Groupon or LivingSocial and see what they offer in your area there's always restaurants offering different gift cards or discounted services for new fun places that have opened in your area keep an eye out and a lot of times you can purchase these in advance so you'll be able to plan accordingly but you can definitely find some fun stuff to do on Groupon and save some money in the process another tip is to just say no something frugal people do a lot is they learn how to say no and this was hard for me for a long time as they were covering people-pleaser I have a really difficult time saying no I never want to hurt somebody's feelings or upset somebody in our situation my husband has a weird work schedule so we we've just had to say no a lot over the years so it's gotten easier for me but especially if people want to do things that you know just isn't in your budget it can be really difficult or sometimes even feel embarrassing to tell them that you don't want to spend the money but something I've learned is that no is a complete sentence you do not have to always offer an explanation or an excuse as to why you can't do something you don't owe anybody an explanation you can just learn how to say no and forego people just seem to be home more I think frugal people really learn how to enjoy their home and spending time together with their family and don't always feel like we have to be doing something or be going somewhere to enjoy ourselves the next tip is to buy in bulk now all the big discount warehouse stores like Sam's Club or Costco you have to be careful it can be a slippery slope not only do they offer your grocery items and your toiletry items and your paper goods in bulk but they have a lot of other items to out really great prices like clothing or patio furniture or home decor be careful be intentional with your spending and really plan out what you need and save the amount of money that you need to purchase those items take your cash envelope and go in and just buy what you need but you need to look at is the cost per unit so when you're comparing let's say paper plates look at the paper plates from your normal grocery store and see the cost per unit so if the plates are 2 dollars for a pack of 50 you're going to divide 2 dollars by 50 and see how much each plate costs then you're gonna do the same thing at your warehouse store and you will almost always see that it's cheaper I went through before and compared our prices from Aldi to Sam's Club since that's what's in our area and I didn't think that Sam's could beat Aldi but it still did every single time so just be sure to do your homework take a little bit of extra time and kind of figure out the cost per unit on the items that you use the most and then budget accordingly and be sure to plan your trip to only get what you need another thing is buy generic guys I was such a generic hater when I was younger I was convinced that it tasted different well I'm still to this day convinced pop-tarts tastes different I have never ever ever found in generic pop-tart that tastes as good as the real thing but I digress so in so many cases believe it or not the generic goods are actually made in the same factory as the brand names I know this because I went on tour of a bread factory that was by my house years and years ago and they showed us the actual bread that came off the line it was the same bread and they showed us that all they did was put it in different packages and I was amazed and ever since then no lie my mind became more open to trying generics and I'll tell you what over the years there's really only been a full of items that we didn't care for that we honest and truly thought tasted different from the real brand-name so give it a shot I know it's like a weird change and it's a weird transition for a lot of people to make but try and I swear to you once you start shopping mostly generic for your food you are going to be so amazed by how much money you save that you're not gonna switch back to brands another tip to save money when grocery shopping is to shop online or do like an online grocery pick up you just did a grocery haul video a couple weeks ago on my big Walmart haul from Walmart online grocery pick up there is instacart they're shipped there's a whole bunch of services out there that you can now have your groceries delivered right to your door again I suggest you doing a little bit of like investigative shopping just to see what your difference is going to be Walmart as free as long as you spend I think 35 dollars and you can also earn ten dollars for free when you share your referral code with people and they shop at Walmart I'll put my code down below you can check it out and get ten dollars for free when you try it I absolutely love it it's my favorite and the best thing about it is as you're shopping online you see right in front of your face if you're going over a budget and you can very easily remove things from your cart cut back delete items until you get to meet your budget or eliminating the impulse buys at the checkout counter you're eliminating the hunger buys when you're walking down the aisles and you're starving so you're just throwing things in your cart because you want to eat them now some services do cost you money so that's why I'm saying try them out most of the services you can try out with a discount the first time try them out really look at the prices compare the fees and see if it's worth your money you know if you have health issues and you can't get out easily it's probably going to be worth your money to spend an extra ten dollars a week to get your food delivered if you are mom with a brand new baby and it's the middle of winter and you're in Connecticut it's probably gonna be worth an extra 10 dollars a week for you to get your groceries delivered so check it out and be careful when you buy just be diligent set your budget know what you want to spend and be sure that no matter what you're not going to go over a budget another tip is you can also buy items that aren't even groceries when you do this with Walmart and shift and some of the other services you can put toiletries paper products I've gotten plates and bowls all different types of things as long as they let you add it to your cart and check-out you're good they will come and deliver it for free the next tip is to meal prep so not only are you going to meal plan and save a ton of money but you're going to meal prep and when you meal prep you absolutely cut down on the temptation to stop by the drive-through after work to go out for dinner at the end of a long night to stop by the diner when you're leaving practice because you know you already have food completely prepped and sitting in your fridge or your crock-pot waiting for you to come home and eat when I don't have food prepped in our fridge all I hear is there's nothing to eat there's nothing to eat there's nothing to eat it drives me crazy so take some time it can be one day a week where you have a huge meal prepping session all day as a family it can be a little by little throughout the week that's how I usually do it but be sure to prep some food you can just do minimal prepping so that when you get home you finish it up and cook the meal but it's not taking there as much time or you can fully prep and cook meals and have them just waiting to be reheated in the fridge when it's time to eat the next tip is to drive a used car for the first time in our life my husband and I are driving paid off cars and guys it's a game changer we always thought we were gonna have a car payment we thought it wasn't possible to go your whole life without having car payments and it was just something that was normal and everybody did but that's not true you do not have to have a car payment purchase a used car pay in cash or pay off the car you already have and take really good care of it so that's the next tip if you're going to purchase a used car and drive those vehicles until the wheels fall off you really want to take good care of it get regular maintenance whether you're taking it to a mechanic or you're doing it yourself we already talked about say on top of things make sure you're operating it efficiently taking really good care of it is going to make it last longer which leads me to the next tip which is taking good care of any of your possessions is going to make them last longer so frugal people don't necessarily mind spending a little bit more money on a quality item because they know they're going to get their money's worth and they're going to take care of it and make it last as long as possible guys I have a pair of Uggs that I bought so long ago I had to order them from Australia and I still have them this is literally like going on over 14 years now and trust me they look like hell they're beat up but they're so comfortable when I'm just going to Walmart or I'm just you know running to the gas station or going to my mom's to work I will not get rid of them I mean talk about getting your money's worth taking care of your possessions is going to make them last longer which means you're going to save a lot of money in the long run because you're not going to have to be repurchasing those items over and over the next thing I want to talk about is upcycling over the years I used to be so quick to just get rid of things that I didn't think I wanted or needed and now I take the time to look around my house and see if there could be another use for this item how could I repurpose it if you follow me on Instagram then you probably saw my laundry room saga a couple months ago and we actually had to pull our cabinetry and countertops out of the laundry room so instead of getting rid of those or selling them I was able to repurpose them by putting them downstairs in the basement and it's extra storage for us downstairs it's nice and organized it's not more bins laying around it's a nice countertop where we can put things and it saved us from going out and buying a whole other shelving unit to put in our basement so look for ways you can upcycle things I use all of my old condiment jars spaghetti jars to use when I make my homemade chicken stock just pull the labels off take the labels off your old candles and store your q-tips or cotton balls our makeup brushes in it there's so many things you can do will keep you from having to purchase another item and it's so better for the environment because you're just cutting down on the waste and the amount that you throw out and since you know budgeting is my jam my last couple of tips have to do with how you manage your finances so number one is track your expenses frugal people are aware of what they spend they're more intentional with their money we pay more attention and really taking the time to track your expenses you could just hang a piece of paper up on the fridge and write down exactly what you spend where you spend and what it was spent on and taking the time to track your expenses and then look at them and find trends and look at the data and see where you're spending your money is going to give you so many other opportunities to find ways to cut costs or reduce your expenses in certain areas the next tip is to purchase things early for a discount for example every year our pool membership opens with an early-bird option so when we purchase our membership for the summer in that window we're able to save a substantial amount of money along with that look for ways to pay bills in a bigger time period because it's going to cut back on fees if you pay your car insurance yearly instead of monthly most people don't know that they actually attached an installment fee when you break a bigger bill down in smaller payment most places will add an installment fee you're paying extra just to pay that bill on a monthly basis so instead you could save that money all year round in the sinking fund and when the bill comes you can pay the bill for the entire year and actually save money so most times you'll get a discount for paying for a longer turn my last tip is to ask for a cash discount when you're going places when you're purchasing a vehicle and cash when you're purchasing furniture when you're having work done a lot of places will often give you a lower price if you're paying them in cash but you have to ask and that's the trick it can be really nerve-wracking to ask I don't do it as often as I should but don't be afraid to ask for a discount or even ask for a lower price if they say no that's okay you'll live I promise so that's it guys those are my over fifty tips for living a more frugal life being more intentional with your money and saving a crap ton of money share your best tips down below I'd love to hear them because I know there are a ton more I might even come back and do a second video at some point but I know you guys have great tips yourself so please please share them down below I'd love to hear that thanks so much for watching I hope you like this video please give it a thumbs up please subscribe and I hope you have a great day bye [Music]

Channel: Kristin Stones, Cents and Purpose

Views: 543,006

Keywords: frugal living, living frugally, living frugally to save money, frugal lifestyle, frugal living ideas, frugal living tips, frugal tips, saving money tips, saving money tips and tricks, save money, how to save money, frugal living tips with a big impact, frugal living tips 2019, frugal living tips that actually work, how to live frugally, how to be frugal, money saving hacks, money saving ideas, living frugal, frugal, frugal family, frugal habits, kristin stones

Id: 3uedqlV0cqU

Length: 42min 32sec (2552 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019