For my entire life I have been financially taken care of by my family. I haven’t had to worry about bills, expenses, etc. Now that I’m finally living alone in my late 20s, I am realizing I am an overspender who doesn’t truly understand money in the way I need to understand it. I want to make disciplined decisions. I want to feel good about my bank account. I want to enjoy my life. But my bad spending habits from over the years have truly accumulated and im lost. I feel uncomfortable when I decide to purchase a more affordable option compared to something more expensive and ‘luxurious.’ I know this mindset isn’t really taking me anywhere considering even if I were to be wealthy in the future overspending can take me back to square one.
Anyone have any tips for a beginner struggling to enter the frugal journey?
Any beginner advice for someone who has decided to go frugal?
byu/Rtazztarot inFrugal
Posted by Rtazztarot
21 Comments
Take it step by step. Frugality isn’t something you do once and are done, but rather a mindset you kinda adopt and live by
1. Store brand food is pretty much the same as name brand.
2. When shopping, if you see something you want, take a few days before making the final decision.
3. Small things really add up. Things like making your own coffee at home instead of buying it, turning off lights when you leave a room, learning to cook etc.
4. Sit down and write down everything you pay for monthly. Categorize them by importance. See what you need to trim down on.
5. Always research and compare options when buying something expensive. Calculate how much you’ll be using it vs the cost. So like something I use every day like shoes, I’m buying a more expensive option. But something I’m only using once a week, I’ll get the cheaper option.
6. You have to retrain your mindset. It’ll take time but you’ll get there.
It might be helpful to write out a budget: what is your monthly salary, what are your monthly expenses (what is necessary: rent, what is a luxury: buying coffee everyday). That’ll help you visualize where your money is going and where you can trim.
Also, interrogate that feeling of discomfort, why do you prefer the more expensive, do you think it’s better? You don’t want to be judged for using the inexpensive version? Etc
I would say a big part of it is delayed gratification, especially if you’re currently used to splurging.
Don’t buy “wants” until you’re sure you want them (I.e. wait a couple months).
And count every dollar. $30 for lunch didn’t seem that crazy to me until I realized that making a bomb lunch at home costs $4.
The very first step – THE VERY FIRST – you should write out your budget, how much you’re spending on different categories, how much you’re earning, how much you’re saving. Group the categories however makes sense to you and in as much detail as you’ll stick with (so, to start, not a whole lot), and whichever category looks like the biggest outlier, start your frugal journey there.
If you eat out a lot consider buying frozen or otherwise prepared meals from the grocery. You will still save money without the culture shock of jumping right into labor intensive things like cooking every meal from scratch.
Good luck!
Track 100% of your spending and figure out where you’re leaking money at.
That’s always the first step. And yes, track everything. If you buy a pack of gum, track it.
The first choice is to determine need versus want. If you NEED to eat, then it needs to be nutritous food, and you need to create a meal plan every week, and shop to cook. Learn to cook if you dont know how. STay away from Ultra Processed Food – limit UPF to 20% of less of your diet. That will pay off later when you get older. If you WANT something, like Chinese once in a while, then that’s a want, and you can spend a little bit of money as a treat. It’s not a need. Everybody deserves treats. I like to be frugal on a daily basis, but when i want Chinese or Indian, as long as it’s not Doordash (I will go and pick it up), and not every week (maybe once a month for takeout), then I will spend the money. Otherwise, I cook.
You can continue with need versus want all the way. I need a car to get around, but I want an Audi. And then you have to make a choice – reliable clunker, or status symbol?
Whenever I want something, a toaster, a washing machine, a new fridge, I look to see if I can buy it used or scratch and dent. If I buy used (it has to be late model or exactly what I want), then I am only willing to spend 30 to 50% of the new price. Scratch and dent have full warranties. I always look to see if I can buy it used first. Obviously, small items are not worth the hassle of driving to pick something up. I can get really nice things on Marketplace that I would never have been able to afford new.
I go to thrift stores and always have a list of things that It would be nice to have, and see if something will show up (often does). For example, I am always collecting picture frames and then do my own reframing at home.
Good luck!
Your new default thought is “I don’t need anything” and work backwards from there. Anything you are about to buy, you do not need. It doesn’t matter how much you think you need it, your brain is wrong and needs to be rewired
A few thoughts:
1. Don’t confuse being frugal with being cheap. It’s ok to buy the better version of something when it will last significantly longer than the cheap version. Just don’t pay for brand names when there’s no different in quality.
2. Avoid expensive grocery stores like Whole Foods. Almost every grocery store chain carries organic these days if you care about that, and it’s not worth breaking the bank.
3. Learn to cook well. It’s as easy as googling for recipes and following instructions. Cooking also doesn’t have to be lonely – invite friends over and practice on them, which leads to my next suggestion.
4. Host game nights or movie nights or video game nights or whatever you’re into. Invite friends to your home and lean into the fact that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to spend quality time with friends
start with having a budget then.
always remember price is what you pay, value is what you get. convenience always will cost you more.
Open up an Excel spreadsheet get your bank statements for the last three months and write down everything that you normally spend money on. Try to remember the Cash purchases which is virtually impossible. You might be surprised what you find in there that you could cut. Overlapping subscriptions, etc good luck. And make coffee at home if you’re a coffee person.
Make a budget and refine it over time. Knowing how much you can comfortably afford to spend on various things will make it a lot easier to decide when to go frugal and when to treat yourself. Building up an emergency fund and getting a month or two ahead on your bills can also have a big impact, both financially and psychologically.
I would start with appreciation for what you likely already have. If you have been an overspender then you probably have plenty of stuff.
This weekend take some time to go round each room. See what you’ve got, make a small pile of stuff to sell/donate/repair. Organise to make available other items, I.e. hobbies – gym equipment/electronics/kitchen items.
Then spend some time over the next few months enjoying what you already have. This is one of the keys to frugality
I highly recommend budgeting and sticking to it! I used to be all over the place when I would try to budget on an excel sheet so I personally use a budgeting app and it has helped so much. I feel so much less stressed about my finances and I am able to see exactly what I can spend in each bucket
My wife got her first job at 15 but her parents never taught her anything and 100% of her paychecks were money to waste. She developed all the bad habits. In her late 20s reality caught up to her and she had to start learning frugal way. It took a lot of work but she’s good with money now.
Sudden huge changes could work, but it’ll be hard. Instead I’d suggest setting little goals and make adjustments as you go. Small steps will lead to big changes.
Identity where your money is going and what you want to change.
Are you a clothes shopping addict? Do you spend $15 at Starbucks every morning? Do you play MtG? Spend big money on an app game? Sports gambling apps?
Do you know how to cook? Are all of your meals from restaurants? Do you use DoorDash or UberEats?
What bills do you have to pay? How much money do you make?
Once you have an outline of your money flow you can start deciding what you want to change.
The easiest starting step would be deleting food apps, gambling apps, and any game app you spend money in. Then do things like cut Starbucks from daily to weekly. Pick up food instead of paying for delivery.
The first thing to do is change how you derive joy – derive joy from finding a deal and living on less.
It sounds really basic but just buy less stuff. Less clothing, less shoes and bags, less homewares and decor, less takeaways and meals out, less hobby and sports gear less alcohol, less hair and beauty etc etc etc.
Stop treating shopping as a leisure activity and avoid the shops unless you need a specific item that you’ve researched.
Pay yourself first. With this I mean, set aside a percentage of your income after bills into savings. You do not touch these savings unless there is an emergency. Leftover money is for all your needs. Because you have less money in your checkings account now you’ll keep a closer watch to how much there is left and how you will spend this. You’re essentially forcing yourself to live below your means. Whatever is left at the end of the month can go into a separate savings account, with which you can splurge on wants as a reward to yourself.
DO NOT use credit cards or klarna until you have your spending under control and are confident that you can pay them back.
A more hardcore thing I do is stopped ordering things online (food as well as packages) and try to buy most of the things I need second hand. This makes me second guess if I really want to put in the effort to buy something or not. Added bonus is it’s also generally better for the planet which is my main motivation.
Budget and don’t spend money lol.
Plan out purchases. Think long term
I’ve never assigned every dollar a job. I have always budgeted once per week in an excel sheet by writing down and categorizing my expenses as (bills, gas, food, fun/other, health, etc.) the act of writing it all down and categorizing it makes you super aware of your spending habits and where you can tighten up. Don’t overthink it, just write down your spending in a google sheet and step back and look at it and you’ll see how to improve.
The end result is you have more money left over and I’ve always just saved as much as humanly possible. I am now no longer poor and I spend more freely but still track spending the same way.