Small Frugal Tips That Add Up
A lot of small frugal things we do around here don’t seem to make a lot of difference at first. I often hear (and read) people comment “So What… you saved 10 cents, big deal”. But you know what, when you implement all these various small frugal tips and make them habits that you stick to week in and week out, they really add up.
Let’s say you start cooking your own beans instead of buying canned ones. And let’s low ball it and say you save on average 20 cents per can that you don’t buy on sale and use your own cooked beans instead. Let’s also assume that you use 3 cans of beans a week. That’s a $0.60 saving a week or $31.20 per year. Still not a huge amount of money, right?
But then you start to implement some more frugal living tips (I’ll share some of my favorites below). Some will save you a dollar a week, others like changing the type of meat you cook or replacing some meat dishes with things like beans and rice will easily translate into savings of a dollar a day.
Here’s a little made up example, just to show you how quickly all these little savings can add up.
Frugal Habit 1 – Saves $0.10 per day
Frugal Habit 2 – Saves $1.00 per day
Frugal Habit 3 – Saves $0.50 per day
Frugal Habit 4 – Saves $0.05 per day
Frugal Habit 5 – Saves $0.25 per day
Frugal Habit 6 – Saves $0.10 per day
Total Savings Per Day = $2.00
Total Savings Per Year = $730
Now things are really starting to add up and these are just minor things. Let’s look at a few frugal tips you can start implementing right away.
Tip # 1 – Skip The Convenience Foods
This one made a huge difference in our food budget. Once I got it and started cooking more from scratch instead of relying on pre-made and frozen meals, mixes and such, our grocery budget shrank by about $60 per week. That’s a $2 per day saving right there.
If you are working outside your home and usually go out for lunch, this can add up to some pretty big savings. I’m doing the math for you in that post. Take a look.
Here’s one of those tips that won’t add up to a lot of savings, but it’s so simple to implement, I encourage you to do it anyway. Plus as a bonus you’ll find some more simple little common-sense tips at the beginning of that post. They are always a great reminder for me.
These tips were originally part of the Frugal Challenge Monday I post on my blog every week. I would like to encourage you to stop by the blog each week to read the challenge and start implementing as many of them as you can into your own frugal lifestyle.
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