The best frugal living tips for 2021
The best frugal living tips for 2021. Tips & tricks to start living a more frugal lifestyle this year. Learn to save money and live well – within your means
Here are the best frugal living tips to help you reign in your finances and start scaling back.
With the new year just beginning many people (including myself) are looking for ways to scale back their expenses, reduce debt and ultimately save some extra cash or continue to pad their savings account.
Frugal living in this house is simple: we look for ways to live better by spending and consuming less. .
There really isn’t a one size fits all approach to frugal living folks and it is absolutely not all or nothing.
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The Best Frugal Living Tips For 2021
#1 best frugal living tipS: Be Honest About Your Financial Situation
Before committing to living a more frugal lifestyle and getting your finances in order it’s vital to sit down and analyze what’s coming in and what’s going out.
Before making any changes to your budget or spending it’s imperative to sit down and analyze exactly what you’re spending on, what you owe and how much you truly make from month to month.
Honesty – is the cornerstone of making a significant change to your financial lifestyle folks.
More reading you might find helpful
- How to manage your money when you don’t have any
- The total money makeover- a proven plan for financial fitness
- 3 Easy Ways To Manage Spousal Debt
#2 best frugal living tipS: Identify Your Financial Goals
Whether you’re living more frugally to reduce your debt load, save for retirement or save for some other reason that is important to you and/or your family it’s vital that you have a financial goal in mind.
Identify that goal and keep it in mind as you work towards incorporating frugal living into your lifestyle.
#3 best frugal living tipS: Create A Realistic Budget
Realistic is the key word here folks. It’s certainly easy to aspire to set aside 1500$ monthly in savings for example but without a realistic budget it’s impossible to maintain these lofty goals over the long term.
There are a number of really great budgeting tools out there that can help you manage your spending, track your expenses and help you gain control over your budget (YNAB for example or Mvelopes if you’re more of an envelop system kinda person).
It would be unrealistic for me to suggest the 50/20/30 split (50% Essentials, 20% savings, 30% personal) because unfortunately depending on each of our unique situations abiding by these numbers can be impossible.
The moral of the story is come up with a budget that is a realistic reflection of your income and expenses and stick to it!
#4 best frugal living tipS: Trim Your Budget Where You Can
After having a very honest look at your expenses you should probably have a clear idea of where you are overspending.
Whether you’re overspending on clothing, food or dining out try and find an area where you can scale back even a little.
It’s not so much about completely overthrowing your current lifestyle but finding creative ways to spend a little less while maintaining your same quality of life.
More best frugal living tips:
- How to keep your home warm and heating costs low this winter
- 5 grocery shopping tips that will help save you money
- Why we’ll never buy a new car and neither should you
- 10 things you can do right now to save money
- 99 Crazy Easy Genius Ways To Save Money
- 12 Realistic Expenses You Need To Cut Out Of Your Budget
- 5 Effective Strategies To Overcome Overspending Problems
#5 best frugal living tipS: Cook Your Own Food
Our biggest scale back came from cutting out restaurant meals.
We spent so much (so much money!) on eating out and until we sat down and analyzed where our money was going we had really no idea exactly how much we were spending on eating out. It was actually quite (okay, very) alarming.
If you’re eating out twice a week or more perhaps look at cooking more meals for yourself. Eating out costs a fortune and the money you save can help pad your savings account or pay down debt.
If you enjoy eating out from time to time that’s great! But, if the you’re budget is suffering from eating out it might be time to scale back and make some changes.
More best frugal living tips:
- Reducing food waste in This Tiny Blue House
- A weeks worth of frugal meals via A Thyme and Season
- 165 easy delicious 5 ingredient dinners
- 42 cheap, delicious and easy fall & winter soups
- 20 cheap & healthy snack options
- 200+ Easy And Cheap Casserole Recipes
- 100+ Best Easy Instant Pot Meals
- Must Have Kitchen Essentials For Every Frugal Kitchen
- 10 Delicious and Easy Crusty Bread Recipes
#6 best frugal living tipS: Buy Used Whenever Possible
When it comes to buying clothes, household items and basically anything we need in our household we always look to buying used first.
Not only is it a wonderful way to save a heap of money but it’s great for the environment too.
Have a look at your local thrift shop next time you’re in the market to buy something. You’d be surprised how many wonderful treasures you can find with a little patience.
More best frugal living tips:
- Why buying used isn’t gross
- 10 ways you can start living a more frugal lifestyle right now
- why we’ll never buy a new car and neither should you
#7 best frugal living tipS: Create A Stockpile
Saving money can sometimes mean you need to spend a little money up front. In the long run stockpiling principles will help you save money.
I refuse to pay full price for household essentials like laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper products and cleaning supplies. I actively keep track of sales and make it a point to take advantage of the savings when our favorite products go on sale.
More best frugal living tips:
- How to build a stockpile and save thousands in the process
- How to save big on groceries with Check Out 51
#8 best frugal living tipS: Start A Side Hustle
When money is tight there are always options to help you alleviate financial overwhelm. If you don’t already have a side hustle going you might be interested in starting a small side-job that will help increase your income.
There are tons of viable and legitimate options out there and with a small amount of creativity you can find a stable way to supplement your income and relieve some financial stress.
More reading you might find helpful
- How to incorporate bartering into your life to save you money
- 50 side jobs that will pay off your debt
- 35 legitimate ways to make money online
- The ultimate beginners guide for starting a PROFITABLE blog
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- If you’re looking for clever work from home jobs have a look at these 5 easy ways to supplement your income from home. These are all legitimate work from home opportunities that can earn you up to 22$ per hour.
- If you’re looking to scale back and trim your monthly spending here are 100 ways to save every month. We use most of these ourselves and save hundreds of dollars every year.
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- Save loads of money when you travel by using Booking Buddy. Use Booking Buddy to find and book cheap flights, hotels, vacations, cruises and car rentals.
Just what I need to read. I have failed with the envelope system after several attempts so perhaps I can try the 50-20-30 rule. Thank you for sharing these tips.
It’s all about figuring out a system that works for you! 🙂
Love these tips!
Thanks for reading Kate!
I’m a stay at home mom and being frugal is what I have to do because we live off of one income. No matter what we do to try to pinch pennies it just seems it’s never enough. Our local library is hosting a workshop on frugal living that I am anxious to go to as I am always looking for other ideas of what I could be doing to save money. I write a blog but am by no means experienced and haven’t even hit 40 followers. I’d love to take my passion for writing and turn it into something more but I am clueless on where to begin. Thank you for the little tid bit of information you shared on this.
Thanks for reading! Frugal living really isn’t a one size fits all lifestyle. It’s more a question of making small changes to your own personal way of life.
Fab advice. Cooking for ones self does cut the budget spending back a bit. Tried it out in the beginning of 2017 saw a difference. Caved the last three months of the year.
-Honey
Cooking is one of the biggest ways to save money! I’m sure you’ll get right back on track!
You’ve written a good read! I have been using a lot of tips but you never realize how much you can save by doing some of these. Saving to travel
Awesome! Traveling is such a wonderful reason to save!
Call me crazy, but I’m really enjoying the frugal living life style. It feels great to know I can make do with everything I have and to see my retirement savings grow. Love your posts!
Thanks for reading Chrissie! So glad to hear that you enjoy frugal living! <3
Great Tips! Sticking to a realistic budget can definitely improve your finances!
Yup! It absolutely needs to be realistic to work!
Another tip is to pick up hobbies that are relatively low cost. We enjoy reading, watching movies and shows from the library/Netflix, cross stitching, playing board and strategy games as a family, spending time at parks, etc.
This is a GREAT suggestion and so very true! Thanks for sharing!
Having a realistic budget is SO important. My husband and I always “failed” at budgeting because we were not using a budget based around our actual life. Once we created our own budgeting system we paid off our debt and started saving. It’s the perfect first step to recommend to your readers. Thanks for the great post!
It really is. We failed and failed and failed when we tried to stick to a budget years ago for the simple reason that we set far too lofty goals. Once a budget is realistic it’s far easier to stay on track!
Really great. Thanks for the sharing!
Thanks for reading John!
Great tips, Jenny! It’s all about being intentional. Mapping out a plan and sticking to it! I’ve lived the frugal life my whole life and have never felt deprived. Quite the opposite! There’s something to be said about living at or below your means. It’s so much easier to sleep at night. :). Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely Kimberly! I was nodding my head while reading your comment. Frugality does not by consequence involve deprivation. It’s a wonderful lifestyle choice!
This is really a great and helpful tips to cut your expenses, live below your means and budgeting your finance in a flexible manner according to your income to become financially free. I have a post jus like this
https://rawlingsunday.wordpress.com/2018/02/11/case-study-two-on-budgeting-strategy-70-3010-10-10/