Learning to be frugal helps us save money and also gives us financial freedom.
A user asked the forum, “What are your unique frugal tips?” Here are the top responses.
ORGANIZE YOUR STUFF
“Organize your stuff like all your stuff, including long-term storage. If you are anything like me, you collect and never get rid of anything that still has a use or might be useful in the future, and that can truly save you a lot of money, but only if you know you have it and can find it when you need it.
The same is true for your pantry, medicine cabinet, etc. Suppose you don’t know where everything you own is (or at least pretty close). In that case, the odds of you thinking, ‘I need to buy that’ when you don’t, or worse, looking forever, giving up and thinking you must have gotten rid of ‘it,’ buying a new one and then stumbling across the old one shortly after that.
Take it from the woman with three air compressors and only two cars.”
SWITCH TO GROCERY DELIVERY
“I switched to grocery delivery during the pandemic, and even though there’s a monthly/yearly fee, I’ve kept it because it cuts my impulse purchases to near zero and saves us money. Spending less and eating less junk.”
THE CHEAPEST OPTION MAY NOT ALWAYS BE THE FRUGAL OPTION
“The power of doing your homework before making purchases. The cheapest option may not always be the frugal option if your purchase doesn’t have longevity compared to other reasonably priced options.”
MEAL PREPARATION
“When you make dinner at home before you serve yourself, put some servings into plastic containers for meal prep. It helps with portion control, and now you have a couple of days of lunch to bring to work instead of buying.”
FREEZE LEFTOVER SOUPS
“I don’t know how unique it is, but ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ soup, which is just throwing a bunch of things together to make a soup to get rid of stuff that’s about to go bad or otherwise needs to be used up. You can put so much stuff into soups and freeze leftover soup, too. Helps to prevent food waste.”
SELL ANYTHING YOU DON’T USE
“Sell anything you don’t use on eBay. Make some extra money and declutter your space. For example, I bought a television and didn’t use the stand legs because I mounted it on the wall. I sold the stand legs on eBay for $30! Also, someone is using it, and it doesn’t have to go into a landfill. Win-win!”
DON’T CHECK OUT RIGHT AWAY
“If you’re thinking about or tempted to buy something, add it to your cart but don’t check out right away; come back to it a few days later after you’ve had some time and see if you still want it. Consider if it’s worth it for you if you’ll use it and benefit from it, etc.
90% of the time I do this, I’ll realize it was just an impulse and delete the item from my cart.”
ADD PLANTS TO YOUR SPACE
“Add plants to your space. It lifts mood, improves the air you breathe, makes it easy to grow more through propagation, reduces the urge to buy stuff to fill empty spaces, and gives a sense of care for yourself and your environment. All good and uplifting that prevents buying out of stress or loneliness.”
REGISTER FOR YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
“Register for your local/state library’s online card. Check out audio and electronic books for free; there might be a waiting list, so choose another one while you wait. It’s saved me so much money!”
MIX DAWN DISH LIQUID WITH WATER
“I mix Dawn’s dish liquid with water in a spray bottle to clean my dishes. Just spray what I need, which cuts down on the amount of Dawn I use/waste.”
KEEP TRACK OF FOOD IN THE REFRIGERATOR
“Keep track of food in the refrigerator and freeze whatever you will not use in a few days to reduce food waste.”
SAVE BREAD BAGS
“I save bread bags for all kinds of things, especially transporting shoes (perfect size) and cleaning the cat box. Tortilla bags are also a resilient ziplock.”
MAKE STOCK
“Stock. You peel all those bits of vegetables from carrots, onions, and whatever into a pot and make stock. Freeze it as you collect it. It’s the same with bones.
Whenever you have a ziploc bag full, throw it into the slow cooker on low for a day. Boom stock. Needless to say (maybe not because some people are dumb) to say, but wash the vegetables before peeling or trimming.”
LEARN TO MAKE HOMEMADE GIFTS
“Learn how to make something. It can be anything: woodworking, stained glass, quilting, drawing, etc. Not only will it keep your mind sharp and give you something constructive to do, but this is now also your go-to gift. White elephant? Make something. Is your niece turning five? Make something. Wedding? Make something.
The stuff you make is often cheaper than anything of the same quality you can buy, and it will mean much more to people. Soon enough, your friends and family will fight each other for one of your homemade gifts.”
IVY DETERGENT
“Ivy detergent. I’m in the United Kingdom, so we have English Ivy everywhere. You chop up 60 leaves, boil them in 4.5 cups of water, leave them overnight to cool, and strain them the next day, and they are done!
The liquid should be enough for six lots of laundry, but it can also be used for your dishwasher, cleaning floors, and whatever else you need to clean!”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.