How To Live Frugally

-Make Your Grocery List Ahead of Time

It always helps to go in with a plan. If you have a list set out before you, you don't end up buying extra things you don't need (especially when you go in hungry!).

-Find Which Stores Have The Best Deals

Check the sales bills or explore some of the stores you haven't been to. Different stores have regular low prices on different items. Sometimes it's worth your while to get a few things at one place and everything else at another.

-Plan Each Week's Menu

This way you know what to put on your grocery list, you know what you are making, everything's organized. You can get help on this in the Menus On A Dime e-book within the package referenced below.

-Garden Your Own Vegetables

This is a great way to save money on groceries, and it's also been said to be
therapeutic! You never know, it may become a new hobby!

-Stop Drinking Soda

GASP! Seriously though, if you get one of those water filters that attaches to your faucet and switch to tap water your family will save tons of money! A family of four switching to tap water will save $500 a year!!!

-Switch To Store Brands

There's really no difference.

-Casseroles make great leftovers!

There's plenty of recipes out there, and you can either freeze the leftovers or bring them to work! Check Plan Ahead Leftovers e-book for more tips.

-Shop Less

Go on once a week, planned trips to the grocery store. Those quick unexpected trips always end up with surprise purchases in the cart!

-Bring Lunches To Work/School

-Communicate

Communicate with the rest of your family, and especially with your partner. Everyone needs to be on the same page about how to live frugally. Make sure you and your partner are in full agreement before you dive into major life changes. For instance, it's not going to work if you are making your husband's lunches to save money, while he's throwing them away and eating out each day.

-Sacrifice

It's the small things that really add up. Maybe someone in your family gets Starbucks every morning. Lets say a Cappuccino costs $5. By the end of the year you've paid $1820 for designer coffee! Switching to regular coffee at home will save you $1560 a year! Imagine how much money could be saved if everyone in your family would give up just one luxury.

-Consignment Shops

I'm not just talking about buying from them. Each season, take your family's previously worn clothing to consignment shops for resale. Some of them pay up to 50% of the final sale! If you do this each season, you can use the money you make and put it toward the next season's clothing purchases. There are also a lot of used CD and DVD stores out there where you can sell the music and movies your family is just bored with anyway!

-Magazines and Newspapers

Don't subscribe to magazines and newspapers that you can read online for free.

-Drive That Car To DEATH!

Even if you are paying for a few repairs here and there, it's much better than going into more debt. A new car loses value the moment it leaves the lot anyway, and do you really need that car payment? Besides, most loan companies require you to carry full coverage on the vehicle until it's paid off- hence, more money out of your pocket.

-Just live within your means, and let other families accumulate as much debt as they want! I know it's hard when your neighbor pulls in the driveway with a sparkly new car, but you never know- they may be on the verge of foreclosure, or bankruptcy. Everyone's personal situation is different, so try to just focus on your own. Make quality memories with your family, that's worth more than gold.

-Ditch the credit cards!

Seriously, pay them off and quit using them. They are only out there so that credit card companies can make money from you. And while you are in the process of paying them off, DO NOT use one of those companies that offers to do it for you and get XX amount of dollars shaved off. These are scams. They will advise you to stop making payments for X amount of months while they negotiate a settlement. It's not advisable to stop making payments, but if you are that desperate this is something you could do on your own without paying an outside company. (This is a topic I could go into greater detail about, but I'll save it for another lens.)

-Surround yourself with like-minded people. It's hard to practice frugal living when you are always hanging around with frivolous spenders! In times like these, there are plenty of families learning how to live frugally. It won't be hard to find them.