Fru­gal liv­ing is a very reward­ing way to live. Not only do you save money, you get to learn a lot of skills that many would con­sider long-dead. When liv­ing a fru­gal lifestyle you are sel­dom bored because there is always some­thing you can be doing to save money. Here is a list of the top tips for get­ting started in fru­gal liv­ing. You will notice that this is not a “top 10? list – but rather just a “top list†– I would like every­one to con­tribute their own items and a small descrip­tion in the com­ments and I will place them in the main list. Let’s see if we can make this the best on-line list of tips for Fru­gal Living.

10. Bud­get

This is essen­tial for all lifestyles – not just fru­gal liv­ing. Make a bud­get (be com­pletely hon­est with your­self) and put a spe­cial sec­tion aside to keep track of how much money you spend. Each week, try to spend a lit­tle less than the week before. This can be a lot of fun as you start com­pet­ing with your­self. You will be amazed how much lower you can go week by week.

9. Can­cel Unneeded Services

Can­cel cable TV and any mag­a­zine sub­scrip­tions you have. If you are like me, the chances are that you don’t read the major­ity of your sub­scrip­tions. I have a sub­scrip­tion to the New Yorker and on the rare occa­sion that I do open the lat­est copy, I nor­mally just look at the car­toons! Most of the mag­a­zines that are avail­able have web­sites with many of their print arti­cles on-line. Use those instead.

8. Sell Sell Sell

Spend a week­end to go through every room in your house, pick­ing out all of the things that you don’t use or need. Once you have fin­ished round­ing up all your unneeded goods, sell them on ebay. Not only will you sim­plify your life by de-cluttering, you will make some money which you can put in the bank for an occa­sional treat.

7. Talk to other fru­gal people

There are thou­sands of bril­liant resources on the inter­net for peo­ple who are inter­ested in Fru­gal liv­ing. In addi­tion to web­sites I strongly rec­om­mend the news­group misc.consumers.frugal-living which has thou­sands of sub­scribers and a non-stop flow of use­ful tips and advice for fru­gal living.

6. Save on Bills

Run your wash­ing machine on cold, and make sure you turn out any lights that are not in use. Another great way to save money here is to turn down the ther­mo­stat on your hot water boiler. Most elec­tric and gas com­pa­nies have brochures that tell you how to save money – take advan­tage of these. You can save a lot of money by wrap­ping up warm on the sofa with a good book and leav­ing the heat­ing turned off.

Just pay­ing the bills…

5. Free­bies

There are lots of free­bies avail­able that can save you a great deal of money. A google search for free goods can bring up a lot of use­ful items that you would nor­mally have to pay for. You can also try writ­ing to some of your favorite com­pa­nies and ask for sam­ples. If you have to stay in a hotel for any rea­son, be sure to pack up any left over soaps or shower items – you are pay­ing for them as part of your hotel room bill, so you might as well get some use out of them.

4. Clean­ers

This may sound hor­ri­fy­ing com­pli­cated, but it is very easy to make all of your own house­hold clean­ers. Not only is it easy, it is fun. One bar of soap can make enough wash­ing deter­gent to last months! Here are some excel­lent recipes for home-made wash­ing deter­gent. For other clean­ing needs you can often use vine­gar in place of the expen­sive items you are used to buy­ing. Don’t bother buy­ing dryer sheets – they are totally unnec­es­sary and cost a lot of money.

3. Use Coupons

Check your local stores reg­u­larly for coupons or spe­cial deals. You should be care­ful though – don’t buy some­thing that is not essen­tial just because it is on dis­count. Keep the coupons handy in case you need one at a later date.

2. Cloth­ing

Don’t buy new clothes unless you absolutely must. It also goes with­out say­ing that you should not buy big label brand cloth­ing as it is much more expen­sive than reg­u­lar clothes. This is also a good oppor­tu­nity to develop some good old fash­ioned skills like sewing – if you have clothes that are in need of repair, don’t throw them away – repair them. It is not dif­fi­cult to learn how to use a nee­dle and thread.

1. Eat Well

I say eat well because if you fol­low this tip, you will eat bet­ter than you have before. First off you need to stop buy­ing any pre-packaged meals. Start mak­ing your own meals – all three of them. As you get bet­ter at being fru­gal, you can set aside time on the week­end to bake bread and other goods – it is much cheaper to make your own bread than it is to buy bread from the shop. In addi­tion, it tastes much bet­ter. You can also dis­pense with things like milk and use milk pow­der. Remem­ber to buy your flour and milk pow­der in bulk. At some point in the future I will write a list of top 10 fru­gal recipes.