5 Tips For Living Below Your Means

What Is Frugal Living?

To live frugally means to spend on all the necessities within a fixed budget. A frugal spender will search for the best deals at the best prices for day to day essentials. It also means maintaining a low level of debt. Only buy what you need to buy. Spending your money with intent makes you spend less which is a key factor of living frugally. Below are 5 tips for living below your means.

Many people believe you only live once. It is a great excuse to accumulate debt for the sake of temporary satisfaction or false impressions. Today the common trend is that in order to survive, debt is a necessity. We entrap our own selves by over extending our budget.

Frugal living is long-term investment planning. Anything you buy has a lifespan that comes with it. You want to maximize its lifespan as much as possible. Therefore when you buy a big name item, like furniture, appliances, etc. shop around before giving in to the first thing you see. Look for sales and best quality products that will last a long time.

As a result some will spend like there is no tomorrow. When the day arrives and it is time to pay, only a minimum payment is made and shortly after, interest begins. This is when problems arise, especially when we cannot make full payments.

There are so many ways that living within your means will save you from unforeseen future struggles.

What Are 5 Tips For Living Below Your Means?

Transportation
Beans and Rice
No Memberships
A Partner in Support of Handling Debt
Multi-Purpose Furniture

1. Transportation

There are a few options with transportation. If you have a car, drive one that is old or fully paid off and it functions well. Having a nice new fancy car and making monthly payments takes up your funds. If there are two cars or more in the house, sell one and share the other. You can save money on the purchase of one car, the insurance, gas and yearly maintenance.

Give yourself a time frame and cut down your spending as far as transportation. If you take public transit, buy the longest term pass so that you can save the most money. This way if the prices go up, your pass is still good up to its expiry date and you do not have to pay the extra amount. If you are paying for transportation regularly look for the best bulk prices. 

With public transportation though you need to factor in time. It takes at least double or more the amount of time using public transportation to reach your destination than it does via driving. Weigh out your options and what suits your budget best. 

2. Beans And Rice

My Authentic Homemade Vegetarian Cookbook is available on Amazon to purchase. It includes low-cost effective, healthy, high quality vegetarian meals, including recipes on how to make beans and rice. This book is a long-term investment and will help you in times of need. Thank you for your support.

Eat light, simple and eat a little less unhealthy foods. You will save a lot of money. People rarely take note of how much money they spend on one meal alone, even if it is food bought from the grocery store.

Today it costs an average of $20.00 for a take-out lunch. Meanwhile, your dollars can go a long way with food as long as you choose wisely. Otherwise what you spend accumulates over time and is a lot of money.

Give yourself a time frame to eat simple and low cost foods. For example six months to a year, eating basic, low cost simple foods. It is easier than you think. Spices and good flavours help with simple dishes. 

3. No Memberships

Cut off all your memberships for clubs, gyms, activities and games such as sports. If you have a stationary bike or a bike that you can ride, turn that into a workout sport without a membership.

This is an easy way to get locked an trapped in a situation that does not need to be so. I had memberships where the company tried to lock me for a year even though I was planning on moving.

It was very difficult for me to cut off paying monthly fees. Since that time contracts with gyms are even more binding, taking out automatic payments from your account. If you are on a budget the last thing you need is monthly payments coming out of your personal finances.

We can all go for a walk outside without spending money on going inside another building to work out. Additionally, cut out going to sports games, unless it is $20.00, once every month or two and you are at the very back seats, not spending it on food and drinks. Tickets are not this low in price anymore. 

Even if you sit at the very back, the cost of food and drinks are at least another $20.00. This is not including the cost of outside parking. At the time I write this message the Beijing Olympics are on the internet and it is exciting. Watch something like this instead of going to the event when your budget is tight.

Overall, gym memberships and sports games, events, they all get costly. For working out, all we really need to do is raise our heart rates up a little bit and that does not take long. Just walk up and down the stairs in your condo building and you will be huffing and puffing in no time. 🙂 

Joining the running club, or any club requiring a fee is something you can put off for now. Other little costs come up along the way that are not taken into consideration. For example driving to the fitness club, socializing with other members, making connections and possibly afterwards going out with friends. The costs all add up.

4. A Partner Who Supports Tackling Debt Efficiently

If you are saving and budgeting and have a partner in debt who supports debt, you are in trouble. If you love your other half, consider whether you will invest in him/her to teach them about building wealth.

There are a lot of people who are happy working 40 hour work weeks making a steady income for years and being in debt for life. They know what pay they are coming home with and will not build from that position. Little to nothing is saved, but a lot of money is spent.

If you as a couple are not on the same page, your results for success will not be successful. Talking about money matters must be discussed if you want to see any progress in your finances. If someone is addicted to shopping, gambling, socializing and hosting parties or going out all the time, the money spent doing those things is going along with it.

Someone with the mentality of spending like there is no tomorrow will not value money. They will not help you get out of debt. Maxing out credit cards and taking 10 years to pay off student loans, mounting bills on top of bills is unwise. You want to lower this financial stress as much as possible.

If you or the person you are with needs to be entertained by the outside world in order to feel happy, it will bring in a lot of debt in your life. Be wise with the person you are with and try to get on the same page with your money. Otherwise, this mishap alone make you to lose everything, wasting your future paying others off.

5. Multi-Purpose Furniture

When purchasing items for your home, choose items that have more than one function. This way you can use what you buy for a few purposes and not just one reason. For example, when you buy a long bench, look for something like an ottomon. An ottoman can be sat on, but also has storage to put things inside.

Instead of having a TV stand, have one with drawers so that you can put items in there to clear clutter.

Some couches have the option of turning into beds. Otherwise you can just buy a nice large couch that is good enough to sleep on in case you have someone come over.

If the furniture you buy has one function for some years and then can be used for something else down the line, make use of it. For example our old dining table turned into my writing desk in 2020. Afterwards it became the sewing table. The table is in perfect condition and does not need to be thrown away even though it is more than ten years old.

Ikea is one of the first cost efficient stores I purchased furniture from. The pieces we bought were all original solid wood. Although the prices in the last decade are up significantly, it is still a good place to buy some items. 

Living below your means is just one way you can become successful financially. 

For some of us, earning money is very easy while holding it seems next to impossible.

For others earning money feels like climbing up Mt. Everest. However, somehow you are able to make it up there because you took what you earned and turned it into a solid foundation. It is not how much you make, but how you spend what you earn that makes all the difference.

Side Note: The cost to climb a mountain like Everest is also not a cheap sport. You will spend between $28,000 to $85,000 for a standard supported climb range. This price varies with the cost of inflation. 

It can go more than $115,000 for a custom climb. For those who do it on their own, they can pay under $20,000, although this is a riskier option. Nevertheless, it is still costly.

Am I Living Within My Means?

Do you spend more money than you earn? If so it is time to stop and figure out why. Overspending catches up to us all. Therefore, catch it before the situation gets out of hand.

In short, everything has a price to it. Living within your means will help you enjoy life without stress.

Make good investments. Start by purchasing my Authentic Homemade Vegetarian Cookbook available on Amazon. This book has the basic foundation to cook meals from scratch that are healthy and low in cost.

Thank you for your support

February 7, 2022