I was born to frugal (and Asian, double whammy) parents so I've been doing stuff like this my entire life, therefore I did not even realize that some of the things I do are considered frugal. More importantly, I don't feel like I work too hard at being frugal since these are all habits of mine. Hopefully some of these are helpful to someone else/someone else can start working on their habits so that being frugal comes easier. I hopefully left out the oft-repeated things (pay down debt, pack lunch, save for retirement early, etc). I'm going to separate them based on how easy it is for anyone to pick up. As with all frugal things, these may not apply depending on your personal priorities.
Anyone can start doing these today:
- Combine car trips. If you need to run out to the store/run an errand, combine that with another errand that you need to run. Hold off on non-essential errands until you can do so, map out your route. Once you know the cost per mile for operating your vehicle, you'll find that it's likely you could save a couple of bucks each and every time you do this vs running out to the store for one thing.
- Drink water. Don't just drink water in addition to whatever else you're drinking to meet a quota, but replace beverages with water. I limit myself to one non-water beverage a day, and that one beverage I almost always make at home vs. buying at a shop. I've witnessed coworkers drink a Starbucks in the morning, a bottled beverage with their takeout lunch, and then an energy drink over the course of the 8 hour day. That's $10 right there! Add in the beer after work and that's a whole lot of money and calories spent on non-essential items.
- Set aside money every time you resist a purchase. I have the Bank of America app where you can set up "goals". Every time I get tempted to buy something and resist, I put whatever amount it would have cost me toward that goal. Makes it easy to resist temptation when I see that money pile up. I very satisfyingly transfer that total to my high yield savings account at the end of the month.
- Bring your own bag, or no bag, and buy only what you can carry. If I go shopping somewhere like a mall or market for non-essentials, I bring a bag and I only let myself buy what I can carry in that bag. Or I bring no bag at all and I'm limited to buying only what I can carry. Granted I know that expensive things can be small, but this helps me be more mindful. If I do this at a grocery store, it helps me cut down on buying snacks since I need the space for actual groceries.
- Try out the non-Goodwill thrift stores in your area. I hope this isn't an obvious one, but I find that the smaller non-chain stores tend to have better prices, are less crowded, and often better finds because they're not as picked over.
- Refill/repurpose instead of buying new. I either have those 64 oz refill jugs for soaps or I go to my local refill store. You'd be surprised at what you can refill. I swap throw pillow covers to keep up with decor trends rather than buying whole new pillows.
- Hike/walk/yoga. These are all free or very cheap compared to other activities. There's also great adaptive yoga/exercise videos on YouTube if you can't walk.
- Wash your clothes less frequently. You can finds all sorts of articles on why you don't need to wash your jeans/jackets with every use, plus fewer microplastics in our water. Also, this is probably more cultural, but you don't need to shower or wash your hair every day either if you're not active that particular day...
- Don't buy it unless you love it. I don't care if I just like it, I need to love it. It's remarkable how many things I put back on the shelf/rack when I really think about if I feel strongly about it.
These require certain circumstances/effort:
- No alcohol. Alcohol is wildly expensive and does not bring any positives to my life and health. I never have to pay for Ubers either.
- Reevaluate everything you own every six months/year/couple of years. Timeline/scope may vary, but if I haven't used or thought about an item for the past 6 months/1 year and it's not sentimental, it gets sold, donated, recycled, or trashed. It's a great reminder to think hard before any purchase, and de-clutters your life and mind. Apparently I've been Marie Kondo-ing my entire life.
- Figure out what brands your local consignment clothing store likes. I've found that my local store seems to buy ANYTHING Brandy Melville, Urban Outfitters, Madewell, even if they're in worse condition than the items that I bring in that aren't those brands. I look for these brands when I thrift to wear for a bit and then resell, and/or those are the brands that I buy new knowing I'll recoup some money.
- Take the plunge with your side hustle/start today! If you aren't already deep into your side hustle, go for it! I have an Etsy store and I see posts in that sub all the time of people getting their shop perfect and ready for MONTHS before launching, having a large product line/inventory, building a social media following, etc etc. People are afraid of putting themselves out there and I get it! But I just read up on taxes and listings, created a shop with three items: one sold after a week and it all snowballed after that. I could have wasted months of sales dilly-dallying. I won't pretend that I probably had some luck there as well, but sometimes you just have to dive in.
April 17, 2019 at 06:18PM
