Frugal habits for 2024 to save you money

if you are worried about the cost of living and let's face it with inflation going the way that it is most of us are I have got some very simple Frugal habits that you can adopt right now that will make a fundamental difference to your financial situation without you having to give up on the stuff that you really love look when you hear the FW you may immediately think boring all that it means the death of all fun it does not frugality is for everyone no matter how big or small your income is no matter what your expense are these are the simple Frugal habits that have helped transform my financial situation and balance my budget and I think they will make a difference for you too first of all a money mindset reality check I always thought that frugality would mean like this very dull pointless gray drab existence just horrible basically but I've learned it's actually about embracing the real joys in your life and giving yourself freedom freedom from debt freedom to make choices about the type of life that you want and the freedom that comes from the Peace of Mind of knowing that I can cover all of my bills and I think it was also important for me when I was very anti- frugal to finally come to the realization that there is no one siiz fits-all version of frugality what is Frugal for one person doesn't necessarily work for another person so I have two children my version of frugality is going to look very very different to a single person living say in the capital in London the type of things that they might be considering priorities are going to be very different to May so being fral isn't about ditching everything that you love and just living on beans and toast and past a pesto every single night it's about being more intentional with your spending so that your money works for you to create a life that you love and that's rather than allowing spending habits to dictate the type of life that you get to live frugality is about prioritizing where your precious money goes so start by thinking about where you want your life to be how you want it to look like in one five 10 years time frugal people are intentional and make a plan after crunching the numbers they have their own why at the center of everything that's their focus so that they don't spend mindlessly when you know what your why is then you can make room in the budget for the things that you really genuinely love as well as making room there for the savings that you need to put aside every single month once your why is clear in your mind making smart budget changes become so much easier because you're motivated so your first Habit to adopt is that mindset that frugality does not mean zero fun it's about taking a good clinical look at your finances doing the numbers considering your financial priorities the stuff that really matters to you and making a plan that's realistic that you're going to stick to the next habit is to stop being wasteful this applies to food buying new stuff and energy usage to be honest you can apply it to pretty much anything in your life that is costing you money with food you need to make a plan to use up every little thing this is why people whenever they talk about frugality meal planning is right at the top there because once you've made that plan you're not going to waste the ingredients that you've bought so say for example I buy a bag of roast potatoes now what used to happen is that I would always have a bag of moldy sprouting potatoes at the bottom of a drawer now what I do is when I buy potatoes for a roast I cook the whole lot and then I put the leftovers in the fridge and then the next day I cut those potatoes up and fry them and have them with leftovers and if I've got enough I can also get a lunch out of it by sticking some in an omelette my point is I make a plan for using up everything for energy usage it's about switching off stuff that we're not using vampire devices like your TV that if you leave on standby that's going to be draining power or lights in rooms that you're not actually in it's about switching devices so for example a tumble dryer is going to be much more expensive to use than a dehumidifier or you can always line dry your clothes outside which will cost you nothing at all and then in terms of stuff it's about seeking out stuff that you actually need stuff that is actually enriching your life not stuff that you just want because it's been sold to do you next can you get it cheaper or even better free make it a habit to seek out simple ways to save money on the stuff that you buy all the time so you're not necessarily having to sacrifice these things but you are still cutting back your costs and you're getting best value for money wherever you can so for example I have recently switched from getting my hair colored at the hairdresses for which the costs just seem to be going up and up and up every single time that I went and I'm now back to doing at home hair color and this is saving me hundreds of pounds a year I may pop for a trim at some stage but in the meantime I can actually trim it myself at home you could also try haggling and researching cheaper alternatives for your utilities and your subscriptions so for example with Sky TV I once saved us 40% on our regular bill just by ringing them up and saying look I don't think this is good value for money for me anymore I thinking about leaving all of these companies have customer retention teams that want to keep you they want to keep your regular business so it's well worth trying do do repairs around the house yourself wherever possible I mean around here like just a call out to get a plumber to come to the house is like £80 there's normally a YouTube video for pretty much any household job that you can think of and then find ways to cut costs on the things that you really love so this is a really really cool hack that I have only recently stumbled upon but I absolutely love it so you can get half price cinema tickets two for one cinema tickets by just spending a pound and that offer then will last you for an entire year how do you do this all you need to do is go on to the compare the market site and take out A1 pound travel insurance policy now you're not actually going to go anywhere just select a travel insurance policy that's just for one day within the UK the cheapest one you'll get is1 and that unlocks their mircat Cinema two for one cinema tickets deal absolute bargain if you're someone who goes to the cinema regular you love going to the movies this is a way to Har that cost if you like going with a partner it's going to give you two for one on cinema tickets such a bargain frugal people practice mindful spending they understand the difference between wants the stuff that you really like the look of but you don't actually need such as the new pair of trainers when you already have 10 pairs and needs the stuff that you really need to live food a roof over your head essential clothing so stop and wait before any purchase always have a cooling off period before you actually buy it can really help to create a wish list of the things that you think you want and then you can go back and review that and see well what of this do I actually need plan your purchases so that you avoid impulse buys this has helped me so much with my impulse spending it saved me hundreds of pounds a year and all of that ties in nicely with this next free habit which is to embrace minimalism now that doesn't mean that you live in a half empty house with really Barren Tiny Furniture and everything is just painted white that's just the image I get in my head whenever I see the word minimalism what I mean is that I found that there was a fundamental shift in my spending mindset when I started to embrace living with less cut back the subscriptions that you don't really use I recently got rid of Paramount and now we've still got Netflix and Prime it's not that we don't have a whole load of TV to watch we've learned some new recipes so that we can do our favorite takeaways from home it's like less than a quarter of the price of getting it sent to us from a restaurant or a takeaway reuse stuff rather than throw it away unsubscribe from brands that give you a heavy sale that really really tempt you to get more stuff that you don't really need spend less time on social media so that you're not tempted to fill your house with stuff the message that we get from social media is very much this will make your life better this will give your life meaning and really it's all just empty kind of worthless material stuff that isn't actually going to make a fundamental difference to your life and probably if you wrote yourself a list of the things that are truly important to you are those things going to be on the list probably not and actually that list is largely going to contain the names of the people in your life that you really love so what do I spend my money on the thing where that gives me zero guilt when I buy it is brand new books for me or brand new books for the kids now I'll only buy something new once I finished what I was already reading I think reading just has so many benefits for all ages that it's just something that I just have zero guilt with buying new books at all the other things I am happy to spend my money on are experience for my kids I'm also happy to spend more money on food so that we're eating healthy fresh food so getting fresh fruit for my kids and also fresh ingredients so that I can cook nice healthy meals that they enjoy another Frugal habit that I have adopted is to take the emotion out of buying and instead practice mindful spending this just means you're more conscious of every single purchase you don't have to meditate over every single purchase whenever I hear like see the word mindfulness I always think of meditation for some reason this doesn't mean you're meditating over every single purchase what it means is You're Breaking the Habit of buying to reward yourself to give yourself a boost to give yourself a treat reward yourself at the end of the difficult week or buying when you're bored that was one of my biggest triggers was online shopping when I was really bored and fed up when you remove that emotion from buying from shopping you're far less susceptible to impulse purchases so if spending is fulfilling some kind of like emotional need for you or there's an emotional trigger take a step back and try and identify that habit and see if there's something else can do instead of shopping so that your purchases are being made in a considered way rather than like in a snap like I just had a really bad day I really really like deserve to buy myself that new coat do a regular stock check do you ever buy something and then you bring it home and then you look in the drawer or you look in the wardrobe and you're like I have got at least two of these that are pretty much exactly the same and it's actually just useful to go through your home every now and then and look at all the toys all the clothes all the gadgets all the stuff in the kitchen the food and just take a stock check and just see what you have and some of the stuff that you don't need can be sold for cash and it lets you know what you have so you don't double up it's all about simplifying your home so one thing that I used to always do is buy new storage to cope with the stuff and then that would get filled and so then you'd have more stuff and then you'd have to buy another piece of furniture to store it all and actually what I needed to do was get a handle on the chaos rather than trying to contain the chaos with more chaos much better to take it down to the basics of the stuff that you really need that your kids actually play with that you actually wear the stuff that really adds value to your life so have a really good declutter and put things into different piles have a keep pile a store pile A donate pile and a cell pile so a simpler life is not any less Rich it's actually more joyful because you're really clear on your priorities and you embrace the things that you love instead of the chaos of stuff and my final Frugal habit is to be in it for the long haul it is a marathon not a Sprint changing habits that are really like embedded in your day-to-day life is really hard I have found it so so hard to do and I still have little setbacks the thing is if you look at it and take a really long view of what it is that you're trying to achieve as well as make a plan for how you're actually going to do it you're far more likely to succeed and the habits kind of fall into place with that and just really remember that whatever your version of cutting back and frugality is it's going to be your version it's going to be what works for you what are your spending priorities like maybe for you it is all about travel and that is where you want the focus of your spare income to be after you've paid for your needs such as your house your food your bills someone else's priority be might be that they want to upgrade to a bigger house or go to a house in a different area it's just all about making a plan that works well for you please give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and sub subscribe for more from me

Channel: Vicky Smith

Views: 156,752

Keywords: frugal habits, frugal living tips, frugality, how to live frugally, extreme frugality, how to save money, frugal money saving tips, financial minimalism, minimalist, minimalism, how to be frugal, cheap vs frugal, money saving

Id: EI-NFiBtJok

Length: 12min 0sec (720 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024