Being frugal is about living life smarter, meanwhile being cheap is totally another story. If you are frugal you will not give up on things you love to do, but you will find cheaper alternatives and better results.
Being cheap, instead, is giving up on things you really need and want, because you don’t want to put in the efforts to find cheaper and more efficient solutions.
The spring water on top of a mountain does not cost anything but is a better water! But the mountain is difficult to climb! Minimalist Boy
I really love being frugal, and I think that frugal living and minimalism are very similar. You can not be a good minimalist if you are not frugal and you cannot be frugal if you are not a living a life as a minimalist.
Being frugal and live life grasping any opportunity and ways to waste no time and money on stuff you don’t need will have serious benefits.
If you are interested in being smarter about your money and why being frugal is awesome, continue to read and share this article to help more people.
Why Frugal Living
According to me, there is no point to live a life where you need to spend money on things you don’t need or that you can do yourself.
You should live a more frugal life because doing so, like Mr. Money Moustache said, you can retire earlier and travel the world for instance. You can read an interesting article from him pressing the button below.
There is no way that I am going to pay for a haircut or to do some minor fixing on my car or house. Also, Something I think is important is to buy second-hand stuff when you can, and find good deals.
Objects lose their value very fast, there is no point in buying things that in 2 years will cost 50 times less.
Never buy things if they still work and do their job.
You can read my other article here on my possessions list and in this list something that someone else would have replaced I didn’t.
My computers are quite old, and even if I use them a lot, they still do their job pretty well. I have upgraded them with a cheap and awesome RAM from crucial.com and I take good care of them.
10 Frugal Principles I Use All The Time
- No Credit Cards: There is no need of having a credit card! If you have no money today what would you have more money in the future? You should always aim to spend the money that you have so that you can avoid retarded interests fees that you would have to pay. If you want to become a credit cardless person, you can do it. You should avoid any kind of debt unless you are very skilled with profitable investments where you have no money for it.
- Consume Things: I love to see my shoes and clothes full of holes and completely consumed. Until my clothes are not completely destroyed I don’t buy more. I keep good clothes only for when I need to have no holes on me. And then I wear the same stuff when I have no problems in hiding holes. I also consume my car, computers and anything I have until is completely wasted and not fixable anymore.
- Fix Things: learn how to fix things. It is really easy to fix mobile phones, cars, and motorcycles, paint your house, fix furniture, mow the grass, sew etc. You can find tutorials on the internet and you can become an expert at it. Do not waste cash in buying new stuff, try to fix it first!
- Cut Your Hair: I don’t remember the last time I went to a barbershop. Cutting your own hair is very simple, and you can do it without wasting time going to a barbershop. You can decide to cut your hair at midnight, save money, and actually cut the style that you wish.
- Replace Entertainment: people are so interested in entertainment. They like to go see movies, the arcade, the amusement parks, the zoo, eating out, drinking beer. It is such a waste of life and time according to me! You could invest that time for long walks, hiking, going on an adventure, road trips, eating food in the forest, picnic at the beach, drinking water from the spring, cooking meat around a bonfire, you name it. Why the fuck you wanna watch a movie? It costs money and it’s lame. Learn all you can from the internet and stop wasting time with regular entertainment.
- Use Classifieds: classifieds websites are awesome. I have got my computer for free, it was broken I have fixed it and I have a MacBook Pro now. I always try to buy furniture, cars, or anything I really need on second-hand stores. Facebook Marketplace also is very great, people posts stuff in it and you can contact these people real time and see where they are. Objects lose value very quickly! Do not spend money on something that costs $500 today as new and will costs probably $20 in a few years. Especially with electronics, you can get an iPhone 4S now for free.
- Change IP: Changing IP and clearing your browser cookies. This can make a big difference when buying online. The easiest way to see real-time results is trying to buy a plane ticket from the United States to Europe or Asia. If you are using an American IP address it will cost you usually $200-$300 more compared if you are using a Cambodian IP address for instance. You can try immediately, try to book a flight from Los Angeles to Paris with your American or European IP address. Then try to use a 3rd world country IP address and always clean your cookies for that airline company or website you are using and you will see the results. You can get a VPN with Surfshark, or if you want to go free just install the chrome extension holaVPN. You need to clear cache and cookies as well for the websites you are looking for. I use Google flights, Skyscanner, and airlines websites after those. This applies to a lot of online purchasing websites, always change IP and clear cookies to get the lowest prices.
- Cook and Drink at Home: eating at home have several advantages. The first one is that is healthier and you will look more beautiful. Of course, you need to study diets, fitness and learn what’s good to feed to your body. But if you always go out you will end up wasting a lot of money and health. Try to cook and drink at home all the time. Even if you are going to a party, and you are one of these guys who like to drink. Prepare a nice bottle of something heavy at home. When I was younger I liked a lot rum and coke. With $10 I could drink the same as spending $150 if I were to buy all these drinks in a bar.
- Minimalism: Apply minimalism and frugal living to your life. Surround yourself only with things you really need and that you don’t have to take care of. Reconnect with your survivals and live a simple life of freedom.
- Read My Blog: Stay tuned to my blog. I will write cool stuff like the holotropic breathwork and how to live a simple but fulfilled life. You can subscribe to my newsletters from the box at the bottom of any page on my blog. I will send you notifications of new posts. Share this blog with your friends as well, it will mean a lot to me.
A Cool Infographic From MintNotion
I really like this infographic, I think that thinking long term, planting seeds now and enjoy to the max later is an awesome concept.
I agree 100% than spending money on lotto and gambling is probably the worst way to spend your money.
No one will give you anything for free! And if they do it is something that is not sustainable or just random. You need to work, constantly learn and be smart to make cash, there are no ways around.
Something I am not good at and I don’t agree is using coupons. Most of the time when you get a coupon you will buy stuff that you don’t really need just to use the coupon.
If you stumble upon a coupon about something you really need to buy ok. But spending too much time looking around and finding coupons I think is retarded.
Cool Internet Resources Talking About Frugality
- SubReddit.
- BudgetsAreSexy.
- TheBalanceEveryDay.
- GetRichSlowly.
- FrugalWoods Blog.
- FrugalVillage Forum
- TotallyFrugal Forum.
Conclusions
Being frugal must be one of the multiple goals you need to set in your life. There is no point wasting cash in boredom, unusefulness, replacements and missing out opportunities to learn new skills.
LEARN HOW TO MAKE A SUCCESSFUL BLOG
Being frugal can have enormous advantages like being able to save a fortune by the age of 40!
You could also retire earlier so that you can just spend the rest of your life living in different countries or with your family.
Learning how to invest and how to smell good bargains and deals will increase your skills portfolio and potentially will make you a millionaire or at least a happy person.
Frustration, and more things, around are strictly related and only decluttering yourself from stuff you don’t need will make you a better person.
Being frugal is all about being smart about your decisions! Finding more efficient ways and solutions to replace things you usually do and buy with more exciting and cheaper stuff.
Like, No movie! Yes, hiking!
If you are looking forward to more content, Bookmark this blog. Share it with your friends and spread some rumors about it. Also, make a comment, I’m curious to know what you think about this.
Further Readings:
You should start a blog or a website too. If you want to know why and how! Read my tutorial that will guide you on how to have a successful blog step by step:
How To Start A Successful Blog Step By Step
If it happens that you need to have a bank, here is the best bank you can have as a minimalist:
Open A Free And Minimalist Bank Account Now
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