Living a frugal life can be challenging, especially if living frugally is new to you. It can feel overwhelming, difficult, and restraining. What do you do to start living frugally? Here are some basic ideas that are painless to get you started on living frugally.
- Line Dry Your Clothes – You don't even have to line dry every single load all year round. But take advantage of hot summer days and hang every other load. This is not only a great way to cut costs on your electric bill, but it's a good excuse to get outside too.
- Start a Vegetable Garden – growing your own veggies is a great way to get started on saving money on food. It's fun, not too complicated and another great excuse to get outside. Here is a good article on getting started on building a square foot garden
- Shop at a Farmer's Market – if you're not up for growing your own food, you can still save by shopping at your local farmer's market or roadside produce stand.
- Consume Less - This doesn't just mean buy less stuff, though obviously that helps. Drive less, walk more. Turn off the lights when you're not in a room. Adjust your thermostat a degree or two – you won't notice the difference and it adds up fast.
These are just a few frugal living ideas. What are some ideas you have for getting started on saving money in your life? I'd love to hear about them over in the Blissfully Domestic Forums! Come on by and share them!
Emily blogs at Remodeling This Life about living frugally, simply and fabulously.
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The first thing I did was just stop and recognize that if I want to live frugally, I can't live like everyone else. This means sacrifice – so I canceled a number of indulgent things I had (XM radio, tanning salon membership, etc…).
Now my approach is scanning all weekly sales ads, clipping coupons and reducing the amount of grocery store trips.
My next challenge is to start shopping at yard sales searching for bargain items.
Starting a vegetable garden was a decision we made just this year, and WOW. I don't think we'll ever buy a tomato again. There are some fruits and veggies that grow so fast and with such abundance you will wonder how they can charge so much at the supermarket!
Thanks for the great tips
A few tips I've picked up along the way….
1. Eat leftovers…when cooking, prepare extra portions for lunch
2. Stop going to Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts…home brewed coffee is just as tasty
3. Manage your cell phone plan very carefully…pay attention to the minutes you prepay for, especially if the members of your family plan text more than they talk. Text message minutes are much cheaper than "talk" minutes
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It takes discipline and common sense.
Good post. Started putting our clothes on the line this week. Must be saving over $150 a month in dry cleaning. (we a re a family of 5!)