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Let’s face it: saving money is hard!

After all your expenses, you still want to enjoy a bit, and then at the end of the month, you are left with nothing.

In this post we suggest how to be frugal and 15 tips and tricks to save money and live a frugal life – with least possible effort.

You may have heard of plenty of money saving tricks that might have left you baffled on whether frugality is for you. We collected the 15 most effective ways to save money that will grow your piggy bank and won’t leave you feeling like a cheapskate.  

Frugal living does not imply you are stingy.

What it really means is that you are aware of where your money is going.

The best way for creating this awareness is through adopting small habits into your daily routine. It’s important to know the science behind habits and how to implement new habits in your life, we therefore recommend you read our Change My Life Using Habits post. It includes a step-by-step guide on how to start implementing new habits today. 

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Saving money is hard! After paying all your bills you still want to enjoy a bit, but at the end of the month, you're left with nothing. No more! We share our best 15 tips how to be frugal and how to save money tips to live a frugal life effortlessly. You may've heard of plenty of money saving tricks that have left you baffled on whether frugal living is for you. Here are the 15 most effective ways to save money that will grow your wallet without leaving you feel like a cheapskate.

Why should you pursue frugal living?

Leading a frugal life can help you to save a lot of extra money each month. If you are currently not living a frugal life, and are spending your money easily, the money saving tricks we share in this post will have a tremendous effect on your bank account. 

The best thing about becoming more frugal is that you basically add more money to your savings account without actually working more for it. There is no need to get a second job or even start a side hustle to increase your savings. It simply requires cutting costs and keeping more of what you already earn. 

We always like to compare personal finance to business finance. Every successful business creates monthly and quartile budgets. Going over budget is usually a big deal, and depending on the size of the organisation, might require many approvals and raise many questions. So, if businesses are so aware of the impact their spending can have on their bottom line, why aren’t you? 

How to be frugal using habits

Below we provide 15 money saving tips and tricks to help you live a frugal life. Some of these frugal tips will require you to make changes in your daily routine. 

For instance, you may have the habit of eating lunch out every day. Changing that habit to eating packed lunch every day will call for preparing that lunch in advance and making sure you do it regularly every day as part of your routine. Therefore being aware of how to create powerful and lasting habits is of essence for these tips and tricks to be effective in your life. 

Making changes to your lifestyle and routine requires taking small steps every day and sticking to them until they become second nature. Habits are things we do without thinking much about them. To truly live a frugal life, you will need to focus your attention on creating frugal and money saving habits. 

Being frugal is finding contentment

To be frugal one needs to find contentment with what they have. It’s of course good to have ambitions and goals to have a higher standard of living and better lifestyle. However, it is also essential to learn to appreciate what you have and be grateful for that. 

In our free financial independence guide, the first step is to write a happy list. It involves writing down all the things in your life that bring you joy and happiness. We have done this exercise with dozens of people during workshops we ran, and the reaction is always the same. 

When people think consciously of what really makes them happy, they come up with a real list of things to be content about. The surprising factor is often that they spend their time and money on other things that are not even on the list.

We recommend you go through the 5-steps to financial independence guide and do the gap analysis to learn if you are spending your money on things that make you content and happy. 

How to be frugal – 15 money saving tricks and tips

Frugal Tip 1 – Make a budget and stick to it

This is probably the most important money saving trick in this list. As we explained before, successful businesses use budget and stick to them to make sure they turn a profit every month. They know that their bottom line is impacted if they go over budget. 

Well, your bottom line is also impacted when you go over budget. Or even worse, your bottom line remains 0 when you have no budget. 

We are not saying that you need to monitor every cent that leaves your bank account. Nonetheless, we do recommend that you create a monthly budget, with your fixed costs and an estimate of your other expenses. You only need to do this once, and maybe update it once in a while if things change.

Make sure to budget for things like going out for dinner and drinks. This way, it will already be planned into your budget, and you won’t have to doubt whether you can spend money on going out tonight or not. It will also remove the guilt feeling of spending too much on going out. 

The most important thing with your budget is that you have something left over at the end of each month. If your spendings outweigh your income, then this is a great opportunity to review your spending and eliminate certain things. Remember that happy list we discussed above? 

Frugal Tip 2 – Set money saving goals

This one is related to frugal tip 1, so we’ll keep it brief. After creating your budget, you will hopefully see that there is some money left over that you can add to your savings account. Set that as your primary goal. 

Having a goal in place allows you to grow your ambitions. Let’s say you have $100 left over at the end of the month according to your current budget. Make that your first goal, and set a goal to increase that by, say, 10% in 3 months. This gives you direction and time to work towards growing your monthly saving. 

You would be amazed how creative you can get once you set yourself a money saving target. You might even be motivated to explore some side hustles to earn some extra cash. 

Frugal Tip 3 – Don’t raise your standards

Although we mentioned above that it’s good to have ambitions to raise your standards of living, it should be done mindfully. Think again about what really makes you happy and what would bring more joy to your life. 

The reason we mention this tip is because raising your standards, if your budget allows, can seem like a simple monetary decision. Yet, the thing is that once you raise your standards, it’s really tough to go back.

For instance, you might be tired of cleaning your house yourself, and say I can include a cleaning service in my budget, which will save me from this task I don’t like. Once you have your house cleaned by someone else for a few weeks, cleaning it yourself will seem unthinkable. You will quickly get used to this luxury and won’t be able to go back. 

Therefore, whenever you raise your standards of living, always ask yourself the question of how much you will really benefit from it. And keep in mind, that going back will not be easy. 

Frugal Tip 4 – Eat from home more often

It’s no secret that eating out is pricier than eating at home. So if we are trying to save more money and pay off our debts, why do we keep eating out so often? We are not saying you should give it up all together, but make it something special rather than your usual routine. 

Creating a meal plan for the week and then making a trip to the cheaper grocery store or market to get all ingredients can save you 20%-40% on your food expenditure. This is an easy habit you can implement, since you need to do it only once a week. 

You pick one day a week to plan your meals, write down all ingredients you need and go and get them. Sounds a bit like what your parents used to do, right? Well, they managed to run their household without going broke every month, so their wisdom must be worth something. 

A bonus saving tip is that you get to keep leftovers from a home cooked meal. We normally cook for 4, which is much more economical. That way we always have enough leftovers for lunch or dinner another day in the week. You would be amazed by how much you can save by having more home cooked meals. 

Frugal Tip 5 – Pack your lunch

We know how it is. You started working, you spend most of your time at your workplace. Who even has time to think about packing a lunch every day… 

Well, it can save you a lot of money to pack your own lunch. Think about it, when you eat lunch out every day, you pay a premium on a meal without even really enjoying the experience. 

If you adopt frugal tip 4, then you will usually have leftovers you can take with you for lunch. We’ve done it for years, and believe us, our colleagues were usually jealous of what we had compared to them. Besides that, your home cooked food is likely to be much healthier than anything that your canteen might offer.

There are two basic ways you can adopt this money saving tip. Both of them involve implementing a habit in your daily routine. You can either prepare your packed lunch in the evening the day before. Or you an prepare it in the morning before leaving. It really depends on what works for you. 

If you are not a morning person, and don’t have much time to spare after waking up, do it the evening before. Take the easy way. These are changes you are implanting in your life. Make them as easy as possible to adopt. 

Frugal Tip 6 – Don’t waste food

Yes, we know, a lot of tips about food. Well, guess what, that’s probably your number one expense category besides your rent. When we say don’t waste food, we don’t only mean keep leftovers for another meal. 

We mean that you should keep a good overview of the food you have in your house. How often have things gone bad or expired without you noticing? Think about how many things you throw away every month. Making sure you use all the produce you buy before it goes bad can save you a lot of money.

Frugal Tip 7 – Drink more water

We all need to stay hydrated. Do you have an idea of how much water you drink versus other beverages? Purchasing all kinds of bottled beverages can weigh a lot on your monthly budget. Moreover, most beverages contain unhealthy ingredients as well. So, you won’t only be doing your budget a favour, but your body too. 

Water is usually the cheapest bottled beverage you can buy at grocery stores. Yet, if you live somewhere where tap water is fine to drink. Well, then drinking water is practically free.  

Frugal Tip 8 – Avoid impulsive purchases

This one might seem pretty obvious, but we all do it. We have a trick to combat this impulsive need where you spend money on things you don’t really need. 

Whenever we think of buying something, we usually pause for a  moment and think to ourselves: do we really want this? If the answer is yes, we put this purchase on hold for 3-5 days. If after 5 days we still feel the same way and really want to buy it, then it’s probably worth buying. 

Another thing you should avoid is going into the grocery store hungry. This is probably one of the worst things you can do to your budget. This is just asking for impulsive purchase decision of so much food that will likely go bad and wasted. Make sure to have a good meal before entering the grocery store and it will save you money. 

Frugal Tip 9 – Recycle shopping bags

In most countries we visited shopping bags are charged for. Some countries banned the sale of plastic bags all together, so you must buy good quality shopping bags that are nice to recycle. 

Recycling shopping bags will not only save you money, but it’s also much better for the environment. Adopting this one saving tip is like hitting two birds with one shot. 

Frugal Tip 10 – Check your utility providers regularly

The utility sector is quite competitive. Therefore utility providers often offer nice sign up deals to win you over. Their strategy is that they can offer you a very nice contract for the first year or two, knowing that the majority of people then remain and pay the normal contract prices later. 

With this knowledge, you can chase the best deals every time your contracts are finishing. Avoid getting automatic renewals that end up raising your utility bills by 30%. Moreover, some utility providers might even offer to pay the penalty of breaking your current contract so that you move to them. 

This is how desperate they are! Take advantage of that. 

Frugal Tip 11 – Check your monthly subscriptions

Besides the utility bills, many of us have various monthly subscriptions we signed up for way back. Or that free trial you started that ended up automatically renewing and you didn’t do anything about. Most people are too lazy to cancel their subscriptions. 

Research done in the U.K. found that Brits are wasting over 250 Pounds a year on average on unused subscriptions. This means there is plenty of room to save money by canceling subscriptions. 

Take a look at your bank statement or credit card bills and see what you are really being charged. Even $5 a month amounts to a lot over time. Make sure that you are really using your subscriptions and not being too lazy to go through the sometime strenuous procedures to cancel your subscription. 

Frugal Tip 12 – Adopt free hobbies

Many think that a hobby by definition requires you to sign up to some classes and buy a bunch of equipment. You would be surprised how many things you can do for free without spending all that money. 

There are so many free Youtube channels these days that can teach you any new hobby you want to purse. Do you want to practice yoga daily? There is a variety of teachers available on Youtube, all you need to do is pick one that you like. 

Another tip related to hobbies is to try them out before investing so much into them. We all have those moments that we think, we are going to take golfing seriously. To be serious about this hobby, we first need to buy everything that Tiger Woods owns. Only once we have all the equipment the professionals have, can we start taking the hobby seriously. 

The other approach is to start practicing the hobby, see if you really like it as much as you thought you would, and if you are willing to commit more time to it. As you are progressing, you will naturally notice what you really need and get only the important things you need for that hobby.  

Frugal Tip 13 – Use public transport or bicycle 

If you live in a flat and bicycle friendly country like we do in The Netherlands, using your bike to get to places is probably the best choice. Biking to commute to places doesn’t cost anything and is also a healthy exercise at the same time. If biking is not really an option where you live, consider taking public transport instead of owning your own car. 

Public transport is much more environmentally friendly and also allows you to do other things while you commute. In some cities where the traffic is so heavy, public transport might even be faster to get to places. 

Additionally, many car sharing services are available nowadays in most major cities. Using a car sharing service can be significantly cheaper than owning your own car. 

Frugal Tip 14 – Travel during shoulder seasons

If you don’t have kids in school, you are pretty flexible to go on holiday whenever it suits you. Travelling off-peak season can reduce your vacation costs by up to 70%! Yes, this is how much cheaper flights and hotels can be if you avoid the peak seasons. 

For hotels and airlines, the peak season is when they make their money. During the shoulder seasons, they are just happy with whatever they get. 

Not only is it much cheaper to travel in off-peak seasons, it is also a much more pleasant experience as travel destinations are not full of tourists. Beaches offer real serenity and ski slopes are actually fun to go down. 

Frugal Tip 15 – Hang out less with big spender friends

We all have friends that just like to spend money all the time. It’s hard to tell where they get all that money from, but they seem to always be able to spend. It’s an activity on it’s own, just go out of the house and spend money. 

Hanging out with those big spender friends puts you directly in the position to spend too. Try to avoid spending too much time with them to avoid getting sucked into the spending habits. Instead spend more time with your frugal friends. You will probably find many free things you can do while hanging out and have just as much fun. 

Frugality is a way of life

Being frugal is not just tricks that you do once in a while. It involves adopting habits that change your lifestyle and approach towards money. 

Frugal living means understanding what is important to you and spending your money accordingly. While at the same time, avoiding unnecessary spending that don’t really make you much happier.

Which tips will you implement in your day-to-day?

Which of the tips are you already doing? Which new habits do you want to start? Let us know in the comments section below!