50 Frugal living tips with a big impact: simple living

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Are you look to find new frugal living tips with a big impact? Well, you are in the right place. Learn the top tips on how to save money and the habits of frugal people.

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Are you ready to start saving money?

Frugal living tips with a big impact: Overview

• What does frugal mean?
• What is frugal living?
• Food – Baking, Grow your own foods, Cook from scratch, Meal prep, Preserve your food, Stick to your list
• Barter
• Do your own home repairs
• Research fun free activities
• Cash – Pay in cash, Get cashback, save when you can
• Clothes – Shop at thrift stores, sell clothes
• Work out at home
• Ride your bike to work
• Make money – Use survey site, turn hobbies into a side hustle, use Amazon Trade-in, Rent your room, Declutter and sell it
• Eliminate unnecessary subscriptions
• Track what you spend
• Don’t buy to Impress
• Be happy with what you have
• Monthly bills – Go on a family phone plan, get a free energy home audit
• Change your habits – plan a staycation, reuse gift bags
• Sign up for birthday freebies

What does frugal mean?

‘Frugal’ does not mean cheap. It means spending less or prioritising your spending. If an item or object is ‘frugal’ then it will be something simple that costs very little.

What is frugal living?

Therefore, ‘frugal living’ is where you live your life by prioritising what you spend your money on and working on maximising your income with little actions.

You will be spending less on the things that don’t matter. meaning you will have more disposable income to save or to pay off debt.

Some say that living a frugal lifestyle is a minimalist lifestyle.

Frugal Living tips:

There are multiple tips of this. You don’t have to do all of them to see a change or results. Just try and pick up a few and turn them into habits.

Food

Food is a necessity. But it is also where you can make some of the biggest savings. It is one of the things where you can spend the most money and not even realsie.

Baking

1. Baking is a great way to save some cash. it is also super fun! Make your own bread. Everyone knows how much better home baked bread is compared to store bought bread.

You can bake any sweet deserts instead of buying them.

Grow your own foods

2. Even if you don’t have enough garden space, you can grow things on your window sill. I have seen multiple people grow a new lettece on their window sill so if you haven/t tried that one before, give it a go.

Grow your own vegetables

A packet of seeds will normally cost the same amount as the vegetable itself. But hte packet will provide you with lots more of the vegetable.

Not only will you save money but it will give you something productive to do and you could even turn it into a hobby.

Cook from scratch

3. If you weren’t taught to cook at school then why not teach yourself.

Learn to cook

In this day in age, there are so many ways you can learn new recipes and skills. Visit youtube and enter a simple recipe and watch a step by step video. Find a cooking book in the library and follow it. I use an app called Tasty that has lots of wonderful recipes on it.

You will be surprised at how easy you can find great simple recipes that you will grow to love.

This way, you will be learning a new skill and you won’t need to order or go out for food as often. Use takeaways and going out for a meal as a nice treat if you feel like it.

It also means that if you are having less takeaways and more home cooked meals then you will most likely be eating healthier.

Meal plan and prep

4. By meal planning, you will be able to see the exact foods and products you need to buy. This should mean that you won’t have to waste any of it. Make sure you do your research and you know how much of something comes in a packet.

Just start with what you have at home, see what meals you can make, and then buy whatever else you need.

5. Meal prep your food for the week. Include vegetables, meat and sauces. This way, if you are only cooking for one person, you won’t be wasting any food. There are so many great youtube videos that can teach you the best way to meal prep.

Not only will you be eating more healthy foods but you will be saving time as well.

Preserve your food

6. When you are meal prepping, remember you can freeze some food. Make more food than needed and freeze the rest. It is such a simple thing to do that can save you money and save your time as well.

Stick to your list

7. Buy less meat. Only buy it when it is on sale. Meat can be one of the most expensive things on your shopping list. So a good idea is to buy the meat when it is reduced, when it is nearly going out of date, and just freeze it till you need to use it.

8. Maybe even try to go vegetarian. This means you won’t need to buy any expensive meats.

9. Check the price per unit. Sometimes people say buying in bulk makes things cheaper. But that is only the case if the price per unit is cheaper. Supermarkets could be making it look like buying in bulk is cheaper so that you spend more money.

Make packed lunches

10. When you go to work, take some food with you. Make a sandwich or some pasta or whatever you fancy. This way you won’t have to splash out some cash on the expensive cafe at work.

11. If you have children then create a packed lunch for them too instead of paying for school meals.

12. Again, if you are travelling on a plane or on a road trip. Then take a packed lunch. You won’t have to pay silly prices at the service stations or at the airport.

Barter

13. Bartering is something that was used a long time ago. It is where people would exchange a good or service for another. For example, you can babysit your next door neighbours child and in exchange you can use their lawnmower when you need it. Exchanging services is a great way to save money on things you won’t use that often.

14. Ask friends if you can borrow things. If you need a carpet cleaner but don’t want to spend lot’s of money on something you will only use a couple of times, then borrow one.

Do your own home repairs

15. Do your own home repairs. Get on YouTube and find out how to repaint your doors properly. Make it your last resort to have to pay someone to help you. Maybe you have friends or family who are good in the area you need help in. Maybe they can offer you help for free.

16. Make your own things if it is possible. For example, we needed some extra storage space, so my dad built a shed. This way he didn’t have to pay anyone to do it he only had to pay for the materials himself. This way he could find the cheapest materials.

17. Use free sites such as The Freecycle network. Whoever created this site was a genius. You can find free things in your area such as beds, wardrobes, speaker, anything people don’t want anymore. All you have to do is collect it.

18. Buy second-hand furniture. A great place to look is eBay and Gumtree. You can buy something that is pretty much new for so much cheaper just because it is second hand. if need be you could also spice it up and paint it yourself or change something on it.

Research fun free activities

19. There are so many fun activities that are free to do! All you need to do is find a website that shows what you can do in your area. I know that my city has a newsletter that I am subscribed to and it lets me know what activities are going on within the city.

Cash

Pay in cash

20. Take out your credit card less. If you only have cash on you, then it’s impossible that you can spend any more money than what you wanted to spend.

Having a credit card that is contactless makes it so much easier to buy something in the moment when you don’t really need it. It also means you can’t see how much money you are spending because the money is all on a card so your not really handing any money over.

Get cashback

21. Use cashback sites. This is a great way to make a bit of your money back. Topcashback is a website that often pays the best rate. I have yet to try out a cashback site but I have known them to be very successful.

I have know people to make massive savings

Save when you can

22. Make sure then when you do have any spare money, put it into your savings. This way you won’t get the chance to spend it on something you don’t need.

Use the Chrome extension Honey

23. Instead of having to google for codes to get good deals, Honey can do this for you. When you get to the checkout it will scan the web to find any codes you can use to make a saving.

Clothes

24. A great thing you can do to save money on your bills is to dry your clothes on a rack instead of using the washing machine or the tumble dryer. If is a nice day outside then hang them up on a line and let them dry.

Shop at thrift stores

25. Buy your clothes at thrift/ charity stores. On my trip to America last year, I took some time to go around their thrift stores and they have the most amazing things in them. You can find such bargains in there. I was able to get some Adidas and Nike sports shorts for super cheap. I also love getting oversized hoodies and T-shirts from thirst stores.

The charity shops in the UK can be just as good. You can find some proper hidden gems in there so it is always worth a go.

Sell clothes

26. Sell your clothes on Depop. I have sold a couple of things on Depop before. You can also use eBay to sell your things but I have found that clothes sell quicker on Depop.

You can check out my Depop here.

Work out at home

27. Get rid of your gym membership and do your workouts at home. Think how much money you could be saving a month. I believe it would even be cheaper over the years if you bought your own equipment. Some gym memberships can be so overpriced for the number of times you actually use it.

Ride your bike/carpool to work

28. Ride your bike to work. This is a great way to get some exercise ( so you don’t need that gym membership). You can get some exercise into your day f you have an office job. It also means you won’t be spending money on petrol.

29. Carpool to work. By this I mean share a car to go to work in. If another staff member lives near you then what is the point of taking two cars to work when the trip is exactly the same. You may as well share lift and save money on the petrol.

Drive safe

30. Don’t get any speeding fines. Don’t be silly when driving and end up getting a fine. it is not worth the waste of money.

Be careful on the road

Frugal tips to make money

Use survey sites

31. Use survey sites. I have a previous blog post all about how I made £300 by sitting at home and doing nothing and I included a survey website that gives me an amazing payout.

Turn hobbies into a side hustle

32. Turn your hobby into a side hustle. If you are creative and love painting or drawing then why not try and sell them. Start up a shop on Etsy and promote it on your social meida.

I know a couple people who love baking and have started up their own baking business.

Use Amazon Trade-in

33. Use Amazon trade in.

Rent your room

34. Rent out your room on Airbnb. If you have a spare room then rent it out and get some money. You could be making around £100 a week by doing nothing!

Declutter and sell it

35. As I spoke about early selling your clothes. I bet you have so many items in your house that you don’t use anymore. So get them on eBay.

Eliminate unnecessary subscriptions

36. This is something I recently sorted out. I was paying monthly for a Spotify subscription but I realised I just wasn’t using it enough so I got rid of it. Check if you are subscribed to any magazines or email subscriptions.

Track what you spend

37. Set up a budget. If you have a set income and you want to save some of it then give yourself a weekly allowance. Include everything you have to pay out such as bills and see how much you have left to budget with.

38. Track what you spend. I make sure I write down every time I make a payment so I can see exactly where all my money is going no matter how small the payment is. Everything adds up.

Don’t buy to Impress

39. Don’t buy to impress. Don’t impulse buy because you think people would think you are cool because you have a certain bag or a certain pair of trainers. only buy something for your own sake.

Be happy with what you have

40. Be happy with what you have. You need to learn to be grateful for everything you do have and remember that owning expensive things does not always bring happiness.

Make your own gifts

41. Do a bit of DIY. DIY is such a fun thing to do. I have a DIY gift guide that you can follow if you need some inspiration.

Use gift/ loyalty cards cards

42. If you shop somewhere frequently then get a loyalty card that you can scan each time if they offer one. This is such a great way to rack up points and use them to get money off or a freebie at the end. I know my mum has shopped at Tesco’s forever and she had earnt so many club card vouchers. We even had enough to go on a weekend away once.

Monthly bills

Go on a family phone plan

43. go on a family phone bill. You can get family packages that will normally end up being cheaper then buying it singularly for each member of the family.

Get rid of bundles

44. Get rid of bundles. A lot of the time services will come as bundles and it looks like you are getting more for your money. But you are also getting a service you don’t really use. So just get rid o fit and only pay for what you need.

Share services

45. Share streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus. Disney Plus can have up to four screens so me and 4 other friends split the Disney Plus payment and instead of paying £60 for the year, we only pay between £7 and £15 each. It is so much cheaper.

Get a free home energy audit

46. Get a free home energy audit.

47. Get double pane windows

48. Get LED lights. LED lights are a great way to save some power and money.

Change your habits

49. Reuse gift bags. This is such a simple thing to do. I reuse gift bags and I also reuse the packages that parcels come in so that when I send a parcel I have something to wrap it in.

50. Share clothes with friends means that you can have multiple outfits and not have to pay for them. You can mix and match everything.

51. Shop at yard sales/ car boot sales. These sales can have such massive bargains. If you stay till the end sometimes they put on massive deals just to get rid of all of there stuff. You can also bargain and try an get the price down.

52. Plan a staycation and save money. Going elsewhere can cost a lot of money sp why not switch it up and become a tourist in your own city. I have a post all about how you can plan a staycation if you need some inspiration.

Sign up for birthday freebies

53. Sign up for birthday freebies. When it was my boyfriends birthday we went on a little trip and collected all the freebies. We managed to get a Greg’s cake, a Subway cookie, an Eds Diner milkshake and a Krispy Creme doughnut. There are also so many deals in pubs and restaurants when it is your birthday and sometimes you can get a free meal.

Conclusion: Frugal living tips with a big impact

Let me know the ways you try to be more frugal in the comments!

About the Author

Thank you for reading my post on frugal living tips with a big impact. If you want to find out more check out my about me page. My name is Amber Page and I run The Unpredicted Page. You can find me over on:

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