It used to be that people on fixed incomes, retirees, the "working poor" and born penny-pinchers were the only people who put much ongoing effort into living frugally. Now things have changed and everyone, regardless of assets or income, should be thinking about saving money, wasting less, making every penny go farther and generally "wising up" about how to control living costs.
The Internet is full of websites and subscription e-newsletters to help you save money, but if you are getting too much information you are less likely to use any of it. Get yourself hooked up with the money-saver sites (meaning two, perhaps three at the max) that best reflect your lifestyle, regional living needs and other personal characteristics.
Then make sure to read the info you get on a regular basis, at least a few times a week if not daily. Make computerized or handwritten notes of the ideas that you can integrate into your household plan - then take action. Remember, it takes from 20 to 30 days to establish a new habit, so do this deliberately until it becomes second nature.
Starting out
For starters, here are some good general and customizable approaches you can take to reducing your living expenses. Again, the details may work out differently for you, depending on where you live, how you live, what is important to you and what you can give up (if necessary). Nothing here is carved in stone, and the suggestions are in no particular order.
It may help to save tips and ideas in the following categories, although you can organize them any way that works best for you. Review your tips regularly and always be on the lookout, and keep your ears open as well, for new ways to save, stretch and buy more with your money.
Food tips
- Don't buy convenience foods, but try to make all meals from scratch.
- Try to buy bulk items on sale, and plan meals around them.
- When you cook a chicken or turkey, use everything. Boil the carcass afterwards for soup after carving off all the remaining meat for "a la king" meals and poultry salads.
- Add cooked macaroni to your chicken or turkey salad to "stretch" it.
- Stock up on dried beans, which are quite economical, healthy and delicious, too.
- Learn some basic baking skills, for homemade cookies, pies, cakes and breads.
General buying tips
- Get coupons from newspapers, or online at various coupon-clipping sites (such as thecouponclippers.com) and start a file for the ones you will really use.
- Always, always do comparison-shopping before buying anything. If you buy from the Internet, remember to add tax and shipping every time to keep the actual out of pocket cost clear and measurable.
- Watch out for every special offer, money-saving coupon, discount code and other deal, all the time, on TV, in print publications and on the Internet. Resist the desire to stock up on savings offers you will not use.
Technology tips
- Consider dropping your cable TV service if you don't really use it much. For TV fans, it won't be long before you can get most everything you want over the Internet. Hulu.com and other similar sites offer free TV shows, even new ones, while low-cost Netflix accounts get you DVDs in the mail and online movies, too.
- Cancel your newspaper subscription and read your news online.
- Unless you are doing state-of-the-art digital video or audio production, you probably do not need the latest, greatest computer. If all you want to do is write letters, do word processing, use e-mail services and surf the Internet, a used 0 computer can do that for you.
- If you don't really need a cellphone, don't have one. If you can get a good enough cell plan, on the other hand, you may not need your landline. Check the offers carefully when you are making this decision.
Household and personal tips
- Have the steadiest hands in the house do the haircutting. It is not that hard, especially if you take a little time to study and have an agreeable guinea pig.
- Take your old cotton underwear, socks and t-shirts and cut them up for use in place of paper towels, even napkins. You can make hankies out of t-shirt sleeves to use instead of tissues, as well.
- You can easily get the formulas for making your own cleaning products. Vinegar, ammonia and a few other basics, added to hot water, go a long way. Steam cleaners will disinfect and clean with no added chemicals of any kind.
- If someone in the house simply must have soda pop, learn how to carbonate your own water and make your own flavors. It's easy, and it's cheap.
- Arrange to run errands on the same day, and in "geographic order" so you can save fuel. If you are doing this in a gas guzzler, trade it in for a four-cylinder sedan, as long as you don't have kids to cart around.
- Keep the winter thermostat at 65 degrees in the day and 55 at night. Use a down comforter and, before bedtime, wear sweats and warm socks.
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