Frugal Living Tips – Ways To Live Cheaper
Learn to save some of your hard earned cash with these frugal living tips. You do not have to use them all but picking even one will save you some money!
Bills- Do we need everything we pay for?
Do we need every movie channel that our cable or satellite company provides? Do we pay for five movies at a time from Netflix when we only watch three? Are we getting the best deal on auto or home insurance that we can? Do we really need such a large home or three cars?
It is important to evaluate every bill you pay and make sure you really need it. Can you cut your cable bill in half? Call around and get estimates on auto and home insurance to see if you could save some cash. If only two of you drive in the household do you really need three cars? Can you get by on one?
Ask yourself these questions and more to figure out what you really need and not what just makes you feel better.
Buy used and sell used
Don’t throw away that lamp you don’t like. Try and sell it on ebay or craigslist, and if that doesn’t work then donate it to a charitable organization like the Salvation Army or Goodwill or your local church.
Instead of running to the showroom floor when you need new furniture or home decor scour the flea markets and garage sales instead. Not only may you find an expensive sofa for half the price of new and only six months old but you are also saving an item from ending up in a landfill!
Pay it off!
Plan a budget and stick to it. You will feel better than you can ever imagine when you have no credit card debt. And when you pay off that credit card debt you can move on to bigger things. What if you have not auto debt or home debt anymore? How much stress would that reduce in your life?
Pay off the smallest bills first then use that money to pay off larger debt and so on (while making your minimum monthly payments) and see how fast you can pay off what you owe!
The best feeling in the world comes from buying a big ticket item for cash and knowing you will not have to pay anyone interest.
Go meatless!
Another of the easiest frugal living tips is to cut meat out of your diet for at least one meal a week. While this may sound like it is not that fun, especially for the meat and potato group, you may be surprised at the meatless meals you can come up with!
Some excellent meal ideas for eating meatless are beans and cornbread, baked potato dinner, cheese quesadillas, or vegetable soup. Think about the meals your family enjoys and you may be surprised to find more than one meatless meal in your recipe file already!
Remember, as Benjamin Franklin said, “A penny saved is a penny earned!”
About the Author: M. Kaye Hash, Co-owner and photographer of the nature photography and Eco-friendly gifts and family living articles website https://www.naturesthumbprint.com She is a contributing editor and co-webmaster at https://www.mccallsfloormart.com Melissa has a degree in Art History from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has been writing and taking pictures since she was young. Melissa is also an avid animal lover and she raises four dogs of her own while being creative in as many ways as possible.