“Unlock the Secrets of Thrift: 66 Frugal Habits That Will Transform Your Savings!”
I buy my produce from a nonprofit rescues food before it heads to a landfill.
It’s $2 for about 15 lbs of food, and I live in a VHCOL city. My food budget is maybe $100 / month, when I’d previously not bat an eye spending that on a single dinner.
I used to be trigger happy with my debit card, but now I take out money for expenses for the week.
The first month was the hardest because you’re breaking old habits. That and I had to get ahead of the curve with the bills.
There are a lot of frugal things I do, but the ones that have the biggest impact are tracking every penny I spend and sticking to a budget. It surprises me how many people DON’T do these. I know people who have never reconciled their accounts (checking, credit card, etc)! I use a free program called GnuCash to do these (and more… keep track of investments, net worth, etc).
The most frugal thing that I’ve been the most successful with and consistent with is doing my own car repairs/maintenance. Ironically my whole family and myself drive Honda/Toyota so they barely have issues but I’ve saved myself thousands over the years by now doing it myself and I transferred those skills to help my friends and family which makes me feel better knowing I can help them out financially by doing expensive work for a lot cheaper for them.
I know it’s pretty common now but I am driving the same car I had when I was 22 as a mom now with 2 kids. There’s nothing like a paid off car.
