Are you looking for the best frugal living tips to help you save money? I’ve got you covered.
Post updated to 100 Frugal Living Tips (5/31/2022)
What Is Frugal Living?
Frugal living is often thought of as being synonymous with the word cheap! However, there are some HUGE differences between being cheap and being frugal.
In fact, you don’t need to be an extreme cheapskate to live a frugal life.
According to Google Dictionary frugal by definition means: “sparing or economical with regards to money or food.” But to many people, frugal living means much more.
Learn to travel on a budget but still have a blast!
How to travel on a budget
On my bucket list… Travel the world.
One thing my husband and I have in common is that we both love to travel. We took our first trip together after five months of dating and we had a rockin’ time in Vegas.
Then it was off to Cabo San Lucas (where we got engaged), Chicago, and even a babymoon to Europe. Not in that order and I don’t recommend taking your first trip to Europe pregnant.
Even after we had baby number one, we continued to travel with him. A frequent joke in our house is how our baby looked on his passport and how neither one of us had been to Mexico until our 30s and our son had been three times!
So with this travel bug, we have learned to use our frugal ways to get by on very little while traveling and how to save on the cost of travel such as hotels, flights, and transportation so we can see more of the world.
In today’s post, I’m going to highlight these savings tips for you and teach you how to save money not only when booking a trip, but when you arrive at your destination too.
My husband should be writing this because he is the one that plans most of our trips – thank you, my love – but I will transport his ideas over to you. His job is to plan and my job is to pack but he has taught me a thing or two! Furthermore, travel is best when you work as a team.
How many times has five o’clock rolled around and there is nothing on your table for dinner? You frantically start searching for something to eat, but nothing sounds good. You wish you had a cheap meal plan for two but you didn’t take the time to plan anything out this week.
So what do you do? You get out your flyers and call for takeout spending $20-$30 on one meal because well, it’s easy.
This is commonplace in many households and ordering take out and going out to eat could literally be killing your budget as I write this.
If you are doing this just few times a week, you are adding $20-60 to your budget.
What if you could find a way to cut your food bill and keep some of that money in your pocket?
Have you considered using meal planning? Meal planning is a great way to cut money from your budget.
Often we find ourselves over-spending and wind up in debt. However, if you are trying to get yourself back on track or avoid going into debt altogether, meal planning can save you so much on your food bill.
One way people go overboard on their food budget is by frequently going out to eat. If this is a favorite of yours, I’m not saying to cut it out completely. However, maybe cut back your restaurant trips to once every two weeks and eat at home for every other meal.
Start tracking your food spending. I bet at the end of the month, you will have saved at least $50, if not more.
Reasons to Try My Cheap Meal Plan for Two Under $30:
There are many reasons to start meal planning, but my favorite is to save money! However, meal planning can also save your time and your sanity! It takes the stress out of dinner time by carefully planning your meals, shopping for your ingredients, and having things on-hand so you are not making extra trips to the store where you will be tempted to spend more.
Best Reasons to Meal Plan:
Time – You will save time NOT making last-minute trips to the store and searching your cupboards when everyone is hungry.
Money – You will save money because you will not go out to eat or order takeout on a whim. Cooking at home is much cheaper.
Stress – You will not be stressed out when dinner time rolls around and you can’t find anything to make or need to run back to the store for an ingredient.
I’ve used meal planning for most of my adult life and what I found: It is not hard, you just need to make a plan and stick to it! Finding cheap meals that will feed your family is possible and you CAN save more on your grocery bill.
Are you trying this “blog thing” as a side hustle? Many of us mammas are doing our best to blog and be the best stay-at-home mommies we can be! Yet, one of the most difficult parts of starting a blog is finding time as a mommy blogger! – Seriously, can we add one more hour in the day??
I’m a mother of two boys, ages three and five! I’ve blogged for about a year and a half now and one MAJOR issue is finding time to learn about blogging while trying to maintain posting once a week – my posting schedule. This is a HUGE time suck when you first begin, but once you get the hang of it, you are ready to focus on your content and write, write, write!
The question is, how do mommy bloggers do it? Many of us have a hard time just getting ourselves out of bed in the morning! Yep, hit that snooze again today!
So I’m here today to offer some suggestions and quick tips to make blogging as a stay-at-home or work-at-home mom easier!
First things first, if you are thinking of starting a blogging side hustle, here is a free tutorial to get you started! I use Bluehost for hosting. Their plans are totally affordable (less than $4 per month) for new bloggers and their basic plan is really all you need! So go ahead and get your blog up and running, but check out my tips below if you are super worried you will not have time to blog as a mommy! There are SO many mammas out there killing it as bloggers and you can do it too!
On a side note, blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes a lot of hard work and patience, but over time you can make blogging into your side hustle and start making money from home.
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! And I’m here to tell you, it can be done!
What Should I Spend Money In If I Want to Splurge?
When you create a budget, there is always the BIG question: “To splurge or not to splurge?” I mean, what should you spend money on?
Maybe it is a new shirt or night out on the town and let’s face it, budgeting can at times make you feel confined and limited! If we are being honest, budgeting can be a tad depressing!
It all comes down to the numbers and I’m happy to report, you ARE allowed to spend money on a splurge every once in a while.
If we don’t treat ourselves now and then life would get mundane. Living your best life would feel out of reach. If you are always confined to a budget it is more likely that you will give up and drive yourself further into debt.
Yet, what I’m asking here is to splurge with care. If “planned splurging” is a thing, then that is exactly what you will do!
But wait…Instead of going out and charging yourself into a whirlwind of debt, proceed with caution. Proceed with EXTRA caution.
It would be SO easy to take your plastic piece of fun – a.k.a your credit card – and do some damage. However, this may have been what got you into debt in the first place.
Now that you are on a budget track, keep it up! But you can add a splurge to your budget once in a while using the tips listed below.
