Are you looking to start living more frugally, or perhaps you’re returning to your frugal roots? No matter the reason for wanting to save a little cash, here are 5 little things you can do to get started on your journey:
1. Grow something.
You don’t need a garden, special tools or a lot of time to start producing food for your family. Start small, try growing a salad. All you need to get started is some kind of container (look around the house for one, I use an old styrofoam cooler), soil (I use potting soil from the dollar store), a light source (a sunny window), and seeds (I find that mesclun mix is easiest to grow inside). Another easy thing to grow is sweet potatoes.
2. Save something.
Is there a little spaghetti sauce leftover from dinner? How about those end pieces of bread that no one eats? Save them in the freezer. The sauce can be added to a freezer soup container and the bread slices can become croutons to top a salad or soup. Plan for leftovers and rest easy knowing you have a meal waiting for you.
3. Plan something.
Meal planning is my #1 tool for frugal living. I plan three meals and two snacks every day. If you’re new to meal planning try planning dinner for one week, you won’t believe the relief you feel when you don’t have to think about what to make for dinner!
4. Budget something.
One of our biggest expenditures is buying groceries between our big shop days. I don’t have an issue with spending this money but I realized that I need to budget for it, otherwise our grocery spending goes unchecked. I now have 3 food envelopes in our budget; we spend ½ of our food budget on the first 20 days of the month, ¼ on the last 10 days and ¼ on in-betweens. Not ready to budget yet? Keep a spending journal for a few days, it’ll help out a lot when it comes to making that budget.
5. Give something.
As you walk this journey you’ll probably find that you want and need so much less than you thought you did, and you’ll be ready to let go of the excess. Give freely, willingly and with love, even when you don’t want to. I promise you’ll never regret it.
