5 More Frugal Habits That Don't Hurt

5 More Easy Frugal Habits That Don’t feel Like Sacrifices. Tip number 5 is so important. 

 Disclaimer: You all know I hate the word frugal. It’s been highjacked to me as cheap as possible. Our community here has a different definition of the word. Frugal doesn’t mean cheap. Frugal means smart. Frugal means knowing what matters to you and spending accordingly. It means cutting back on what doesn’t serve you so you can have more of what does.   

Frugal living doesn’t have to mean giving up everything you love. Things that bring you joy. You don’t have to eat rice and beans every night unless you want. I’m Brazilian so I eat rice and black bean regularly. It’s a dish called feijoada. It is delicious.  

Let’s go over 5 frugal habits that help you spend less, save more and still enjoy life.  

Hi, it’s your friend Eva. I’m in debt. No savings, no retirement and absolutely no business giving financial advice. But here we are. If you're ready stop being shamed, to tackle your debt alongside someone who's there, with no judgment, no extreme crazy advice, just real, practical money strategies, then hit like, subscribe, and sign up for my weekly newsletter!     

But before we start, I’m not a financial advisor. When it comes to financial advice or any advice you find on the internet, do your own research.   

Tip 1: Use cash whenever possible. We want to do this for a few reasons. It’s easier to budget cash. When the money is gone, it’s gone. You budget a certain amount of cash for groceries, see how quickly you’re comparing prices and searching for coupons on the app.  

Using cash is a bit painful. You know what you needed to do to get that cash. How hard you worked. How you needed to put up with some a**hole customer that week. Right, we’ve all been there. 

When you’ve budgeted for certain cash expenditures like your coffee or movie night or take out, you can do so guiltfree. You didn’t overspend. Sometimes life gets in the way, and you don’t spend all the cash. You can decide to roll it over or bank it. 

Tip 2: Master the art of substitution. Next time you run out of something, instead of running to the store and maybe having to pay full price, can you substitute. If you love flavored creamer in your coffee but it was one of those weeks at work, can you use milk a dash of vanilla. I’m very particular about my coffee. We have never run out of half and half, sugar, or coffee. Never. I even keep cans of evaporated milk in the pantry, just in case the half and half is bad. 

Tip 3: Meal plan. Plan 3-4 easy meals a week. Check your pantry before you go to the store so you don’t overbuy what you already have. There are some really great resources out there. I like Low Dough Family and freezer meals 101. I cook 3 meals a week. Each meal has leftovers. We eat out for 1 meal. That’s what works for my family. If yours doesn’t like leftovers, then you obviously need to find a new family or better yet, have them meal plan, buy the groceries and cook it. 

Tip 4: Declutter. Sell what you don’t use. Maybe trade it with a friend or just give it to them because we know our friends are so important to the quality of our lives. I recently got a new Keurig. It’s the small one. I had a water pitcher that I used to fill the tank of the old one. Since I now have a one cup one, I don’t need the big pitcher. The fridge has a water filter. My friend redid her kitchen with red accents. My water pitcher was red. I gave it to her with the 3 filters. 

Tip 5: Make fun free. This one is really important. I’ll explain in a minute. Summer is one of the best times for free events. I’m just outside of NYC and I’m in the city 3 days a week, there are free movies, free concerts, free museum night, my friend just showed me a site called Do More NYC. This is not sponsored by them. It has free tickets all over NYC. It costs $7 a month. I just signed up for it. Check out your local library for events. FYI, the ones near me also get free passes for different events.  

Libraries and arts are so important to a society. I’ve said it a million times. I recently saw the documentary on the band Simple Minds. Love them, even flew to London to see them because they don’t tour enough in the US. In the documentary they talk about their working-class upbringing in Glasgow. They talked about how their parents would always bring them to the library and encourage them to read. The city had a big art scene and they would take advantage of that. Art is not only for the rich. 

Not every kid is into sports. The arts are important. They reflect what’s going on in the society. If you don’t like what the art is showing, then you need to change the society and not destroy the art.  

So those are 5 more easy frugal habits. Please let me know some of your frugal habits. I’m now going to see what free events are going on this week.