Discover How Easy
Frugal Living Can Be

Frugal living is easier then you may think. Just by taking some important steps you will soon discover that you to can live a frugal lifestyle.

8 Steps To Saving Money

Some little steps you take to begin:

1. Start using your local library for your weekend entertainment. There you can receive new release movies, magazine subscriptions, and wonderful novels for absoulutely no cost to you or your family. We have made it a habit of getting about 4 or 5 really great movies each week and then on weekends we can curl up with our popcorn and blankets and enjoy a movie at no cost to us.This is what frugal living is all about! The magazines we get our ones that we would normally subscribe to such as Harrowsmith, Vegan Cooking, and Healthy Living. So we are saving lots of money monthly there. A tip on the snacks for movie watching for frugal living is to buy the kernals and invest twenty dollars in a hot air popcorn machine and pop your own popcorn for pennies a bowl. This is truly the cheapest snack we have found to have.

2. Plan your meals around what is on sale at your local grocery store. This can help you when beginning your frugal living journey. It's really that simple. If chicken is on sale and jarred pasta sauce. Then make a chicken pasta dish that week. Or if yams are on sale and grapes and oranges. Make sweet pototoe fries and a fruit dish for dessert. Using coupons is another awesome way to save a few bucks off your grocery bill each week. Try buying in bulk such things as rice in large bags and meat in large quanities. Just take the time when you arrive home to bag and seperate your items.

3. Plan a large vegetable garden. Growing your own veggies is a wonderful way to begin living frugal. We also save our seeds from each year, this illiminates purchasing seeds each year to plant. We preserve and freeze excess vegetables during the growing season to use in the winter months when vegetables are more expensive to purchase. Also look at farmers markets for produce that is even less expensive then the stores and cut and freeze such things as tomatoes, and peppers to use in soups, pasta dishes, stews and stirfry's all year long.

4.Make your own cleaning supplies. It's much less expensive to do this then to purchase them at the store. And alot healthier as well. When doing laundry use cold water to that cuts down on your hydro bill and of course using your cloths line is a free way to dry your clothes and they smell fresh and wonderful to. You can see how to prepare your own cleaning supplies at www.chemical-free-living.com/chemicalfreehome.

5. Phone your satelitte, internet and telephone company monthly. They are constantly adding new promotions each month and won't tell you about them unless you inquire. It's worth the call it can save you tons and tons of money.

6. Compost all your vegetable and fruit peels. And don't forget your coffee grinds as well. Composting allows you to have less garbage and also makes wonderful soil that you can use to make your own hanging flower baskets in the summer with and to grow your veggie in your garden.

7. Keep a close watch on your hyrdo consumption. At our cottage we are soley on solar so therefore you become very aware when people leave unnecessary lights on. Having solar makes frugal living even that much easier to do. Going around and turning switches off in your rooms will save you loads of money each year.

8. Make your next Christmas a frugal one. Our family has been having a second hand and handmade Christmas for the past three years. It's wonderful. We have a rule that you have to either make it or purchase it at a yardsale, second hand store or flea or antique market. This process makes gift giving and gift finding fun and exciting. And also allows us to really splurge on our family members as we get so much for so less.

Whatever your decision is to start living frugal today. I can tell you it's alot more fun to shop and live when you are challenged by making frugal decisions along the way. Going out for that bargain find is exciting and you tend to see it as an adventure rather then a bother. We stock up on all kinds of sale items. And can spend hours and hours in our local Salvation Army store getting a whole new wardrobe for under 10 dollars. Or finding that perfect birthday or Christmas gift for that special someone on your list.

Get the whole family involved and living frugal can actually become very addictive at times. You are always looking out for bargains and sale items and find yourself getting excited on Saturday mornings in the summer when it's time to visit your local yardsales again.

So get out there become activitly involved, and start on your way to a more frugal lifestyle!

Backyard Gardens
Discover how much fun backyard gardens can be. And the bonus to this hobby of yours is all the nutrious, delicous food you will yield each day and season.

Return to the top of Frugal Living

Return to Chemical Free Living homepage.