How to Live Frugally for Beginners
(Updated 12/2021)
You may be asking yourself how to live frugally, especially if you are new to frugal living. If you are trying to be more accountable with your money, frugal living is certainly the way to go.
Frugality is a means to living a better life. You see, by living below your means, you can begin to pay off debt, build an emergency fund, and also build your savings and retirement accounts.
Yet, if you are currently spending more than you make, you will want to track spending and determine your deficit. Once you have this number and list of spending splurges, it will be easy to find areas of your budget you can cut.
In this post, I will cover my top frugal living tips for beginners. Even if you are new to frugal living, this post is sure to help you find practical ways to save more money.
Why Live Frugally?
There are many reasons to live a frugal life; however, saving money would be at the top of my list. I do not believe in paying full price unless I absolutely have to. This way of living has helped my husband and I pay off our student loans, our car, and we are on track to paying off our mortgage too. We are also able to live a comfortable life and take a few vacations per year because we are willing to do the work it takes to live frugally. Reasons to live frugally:
- pay down debt
- save up for an emergency fund
- save up for a vacation
- less money stress
- save for retirement
- financial security
- retire early
Choose Frugal Over Cheap:
Many times frugal living is often confused with being cheap. yet frugality in 2022 is different than back in the great depression. In fact, it’s fun to save money and you can really do it without anyone noticing.
You can still buy people gifts and go out to eat, if you learn to do it the frugal way.
Nonetheless, frugal living means being intentional with your money and finding the best deals. Hence, not paying full price for items you can get at a discount or creating spending categories so you can budget better.
Frugality also means buying quality over quantity and using savings tips and tricks to get a good deal for items you use.
I love living my life the “frugal” way even though I could spend more money if I needed to because I have learned to save and always have a surplus of money. There is not much money stress in my life because I choose to live frugally.