Money, debt, budgeting, and finances can be overwhelming and stressful. But they truly don’t have to be! As you better understand these topics, the less stressful they become. Then, you can begin making small lifestyle changes that will help you meet your financial goals and live a more worry-free life through frugal living.
In this ultimate guide, you will learn everything there is to know about frugal living, how to get started, and how easy it truly can be. Let’s dive in!
This post may contain affiliate links where, at no additional cost to you, I may receive a commission if you use them. I only recommend products I use, trust, and adore. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.
What is “Frugal Living”?
Let’s get a few misconceptions out of the way. Frugal living is NOT being stingy or “cheap.” Instead, it is smart, resourceful, and educated money management practices and decisions that help you use your money to its fullest.
Benefits of Frugal Living
Money is such an interesting concept. When we have limited amounts of it, stress and anxiety can often arise. But when we have excess amounts of money, we can often be placed in a better position to meet our financial goals, such as purchasing a safe home, ensuring reliable transportation, and finally taking that vacation we always wanted.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that money can buy you happiness. However, I do believe that money can help you live more comfortably, safely, and stress-free. Frugal living is a way to help you get one step closer to whatever this looks like for you.
Pin this post to reference later
Frugal Living: A Quick Start Guide
Alright, so now that you know what frugal living is and its benefits, what are the actual steps you can take to begin living a more frugal life? In my opinion, frugal living involves the following concepts, all of which will be covered below:
- Creating and sticking to a budget
- Implementing simple money management routines
- Incorporating frugal habits into your daily life
- Decreasing your expenses through money-saving tips
- Boosting your income when possible
- Continuing your financial education
With this in mind, let’s take a deeper look at each of these topics.
Money Management 101: Budgeting
Creating and sticking to a budget is, in my opinion, the core of frugal living. When you have a solid budget, you’re telling your money where to go, and not the other way around. This is an incredibly important difference and will allow you to make important financial decisions to help you live life on your own terms.
What is a Budget?
A personal budget is a financial plan that involves a list if categorized expenses and income sources that occur within a given time period. For example, I use a monthly budget where I can anticipate my total expenses and income for each month. This helps me understand how much I have to spend on each category (such as food, rent, spending, travel, savings, etc.). It also helps me plan for the future, telling me how much I need to save each month to take that 2-week vacation next year.
How to Create a Budget
Creating a budget is actually a lot easier than you might think. I’ve created an incredibly detailed step-by-step budgeting guide to walk you through the entire process. I highly recommend you check it out. It is perfect for both budgeting beginners and people looking to fine-tune their current budget system.
As an overview, there are ten easy steps to create a budget. These include:
- Decide on budget time-frame
- Evaluate income
- Create expense categories
- Incorporate debt and savings
- Assign spending limits
- Calculate totals
- Balance the budget
- Develop a tracking system
- Create a routine
- Financial reviews
Again, I highly encourage you to check out my Ultimate Guide to Budgeting Your Money, it walks you through each of these steps and will help you create an incredible budgeting system that works for you. It will also answer any questions you might have about budgeting.
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Creating and Sticking to a Budget
Monthly Budget Freebie
To help you get started with your own budget, here is a great freebie you can print at home!
Money Management Routines
Starting a budget and other smart financial practices is one thing, but truly sticking to them is where the magic happens. This can be done by creating your own unique and reliable money management routine that is simple and effective.
What do these routines look like? Well, to be honest, only you can decide that. Everyone has a different financial situation so my money management routine might look completely different than yours. However, to give you an idea of what works for ME, here are the tasks I complete throughout the year related to my finances:
- Fill out spending tracker and note how much money I have left in each category (Weekly)
- Evaluate budget by totaling expenses, income, and balance (End of each month)
- Create a new monthly budget (Beginning of each month)
- Check-in with financial goals and saving progress (Monthly)
- Pay all bills that are not on autopay (When necessary, usually monthly)
- Evaluate debt repayment plan to ensure still on track (Monthly)
- Print all tax-related receipts and information (Quarterly)
- Research investment opportunities (Quarterly)
- Read a new book related to personal finance (Quarterly)
- Evaluate current subscriptions, cancel any that are not being used (Quarterly)
- Complete an entire yearly budget review (End of the year, more details in this post)
- Organize and file taxes (Yearly)
- Re-evaluate current insurance and retirement plans (Yearly, during open enrollment period)
Learn more about my money routines related to budgets in my Ultimate Guide to Budgeting (steps 9 and 10).
Related: The Ultimate Monthly Budget Review Checklist
Frugal Living Habits
In addition to creating useful money routines, incorporating frugal living habits into your daily and weekly life can be incredibly game-changing! Here are some of my favorites:
- Clip and use coupons from the Sunday newspaper – especially for groceries (Krazy Coupon Lady is a great resource!)
- Search for online coupons before bigger purchases – especially for gifts, clothes, and electronics (RetailMeNot is great for this!)
- Before spending money, ask yourself “do I really need this?” to help avoid needless or wasteful spending
- Boost your income by starting a side-hustle (see below)
- Consider selling used items instead of tossing them
- Prioritize debt repayment to cut as much interest build-up as possible
- Cut other expenses by practicing money-saving tips (see below)
- Continuously improve your financial education (see below)
Money Saving Tips
Next, let’s take a look at some amazing money-saving tips that I swear by. Keep in mind that this is just a sampling of my favorite tips, be sure to check out my list of 57 Money-Saving Tips that Actually Work to learn about many others!
- When possible, enroll in autopay to avoid accidental late fees
- Never waste food – this is arguably the number one grocery saver!
- Speaking of groceries, always meal plan to help you tighten your grocery list
- If you aren’t a homeowner, make this a financial goal of yours… better to be putting that rent money into your own pocket
- Use a water-saving showerhead
- Understand your utility bill
- Check for and fix all water leaks
- Use wool balls to cut your clothes drying time
- Stay up-to-date on your car maintenance schedule
- Consider free community events
- Snag a digital antenna to score free cable
Related: 57 Money-Saving Tips that Actually Work
Income Boosting Strategies
In addition to saving money, you can also boost your income to easily meet your financial goals and continue your frugal living journey. There are a few great ways to do this including:
- Ask for a raise at your current job
- Apply for a promotion
- Find a new job with higher pay and/or better benefits
- Pickup a second job
- Start a side-hustle
Aside from furthering a career, my favorite income boosting strategy is to start a side-hustle. I’ve created a complete list of side-hustles that actually bring in some major cash (with details on how to start each one) HERE. But, to give you an idea, here is a list of my favorites:
- Start a blog (Setup your own money-making blog in just five days with this free course)
- Open an Etsy shop (Start with 40 free listings here!)
- Become an online tutor
- Try Pet-Sitting or Dog Walking
- Become a driver
Skyrocket your income by creating your very own money-making blog. Start yours today with this FREE 5-Day Crash Course!
Frugal Living Education
As I’ve mentioned before, continuing your financial education is an important part to living a frugal lifestyle. Knowledge is power! I am by no means an expert in frugal living, so here are some of my top money-related books to help you out.
The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
This bestselling productivity book is a great way to get started in researching how to really optimize your money by working less! In his book , Ferriss outlines how he successfully doubled his own income in half the effort by efficiency and smart decisions. Be sure to check it out!
Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days by Chris Guillebeau
This book is a great hobby-to-business starter book. In it, Guillebeau creates a 27 day plan for you to truly turn your hobby to a profitable business! He also has another bestselling book called The $100 Startup which is REALLY GOOD!
Optimize Your BNB by Daniel Vroman Rusteen
This is a great book that will help you really turn your AirBNB into a successful business by helping you continuously book out your listing! A must-read to all AirBNB pursuits!
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
Finally, this list would not be complete without the classic and continuously famous Total Money Makeover . This is a book that really helps you change your mindset about money and teaches you techniques on getting out of debt fast. A must read.
Related: 21 Life-Changing Books You Must Read This Year!
Next Actions: Get Started Now!
Now that you’re brain is filled with financial-information, what’s next? Here are some quick steps to add to your current to-do list to get you moving in the right direction.
- Create a realistic budget by grabbing your free budget planner and following my Step-by-Step Guide to Budgeting
- Outline a simple money-management routine to follow
- Choose 1 frugal living habit to test out
- Pick 2-3 money-saving hacks to put to the test
- Brainstorm 1 strategy to boost your income
- Pick out 1 new financial book to begin reading, even just one page a day is better than nothing!
- Pin this post to reference later
Further Reading
Interested in more financial content? Check out these great related blog posts:
- 57 Clever Money-Saving Hacks to Skyrocket Your Savings
- Budgeting 101: How to Create and Stick to a Realistic Budget
- How to Set Up a Successful Budget for the Holidays
- 21 Legit Ways to Make Extra Money
- The Ultimate Monthly Budget Review Checklist
- Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with this Easy Meal Planning System
And… that’s a wrap! Wow, I know I just threw a TON of information at you. Take it slow and one step at a time. Frugal living is not an overnight transition, it is a slow and steady journey. But, it is completely worth it. Good luck with your new lifestyle, I know you can do it. Happy budgeting!
Check out these great financial worksheets to make your money-management system that much easier!
Comments are closed.