Frugal Minimalism: 6 Easy Ways Simple Living Can Save You Money (2024)

Frugal Minimalism: 6 Powerful Ways Simple Living Can Save You Money

Simple living can save you money!

It seems simple enough but as you can imagine, living frugally can be a challenge while living well above our means can be very easy if we don’t pay attention to our spending.

Simple living isn’t about cutting out fun stuff in life to save a buck, it’s about living a fulfilling life and avoiding excess and wastefulness.

Being content with less is a term you’ll hear a lot with minimalism and simple living.Frugal minimalism can be a powerful way to save money and avoid bad money habits.

Living Frugally and simply can help you save tons in the long run and help you build an abundant financial future.

Being smart with money has been a challenge for me because I’m a natural spender and am prone to impulse buying on command.

I understand exactly what it’s like to really have no financial plan or have any sort of sense when it comes to what I should and shouldn’t be doing with my money.

I’ve since learned a good amount about beingsmarter with moneyand living a lifestyle that promotes saving and frugality where possible.

In this post, we’ll cover how living frugally and simply can save you money and help you reach your financial goals by cutting out necessary spending.

About Me: My name is Miguel and I’m a simple living and budget spreadsheet advocate! I’ve been decluttering my life since 2018 and love everything simple living related. I aim to help you learn how to live a simple life, become intentional with your spending, and manage your money right!

Disclosure:This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read thefull disclosurefor more information.

Related Posts:

• Minimalist Lifestyle Tips: 13 Financial Mistakes To Avoid For A Minimalist Lifestyle
• Minimalist Finance: 9 Ways to Improve Your Personal Finances
• Living on a Budget Tips: 9 Ways to Improve Your Spending Habits
• 5 Best Minimalist Books For Your Personal Finances

Minimalism vs Frugality

Now don’t get these two confused.

Minimalism doesn’t exactly mean frugal. However, someone who is a minimalist can certainly be a frugal person.

And the same goes for someone frugal. This doesn’t necessarily make them minimalist!

However, when these two practices are put together, it can be a practical way to save and create a solid financial foundation allowing you to save more than you spend.

Is Living Frugally and Simply Worth It?

Although living frugally can be a serious challenge, it can be worth it big time in the long run if you’re saving money while your friends are spending to keep up appearances.

You’ll be ready for retirement and have cash for other fun experiences, while they will need to work into old age and potentially have very little saved for retirement.

How Can You Combine Minimalism And Frugality To Save Money?

Minimalism and frugal living can be powerful tools to help you live a simple lifestyle that saves you money!

You can combine minimalist living and frugality by:

• Embracing a simple lifestyle by getting comfortable living with less
• Living with less means less spending
• Frugality can be a by-product of minimalist living once you’re mentally committed

Using the mentality of“content with less”combined with smart money habits to reach your savings and long-term financial goals!

Ultimately, you’ll want to use minimalism and frugality to cut out the unnecessary spending that dries up your money each month and instead save this money or invest it into experiences or future large expenses.

Frugal Minimalism: 6 Powerful Ways Simple Living Can Save You Money

1. Make Your Own Food

Making your own food is one of the best ways that simple living can save you money.

Dining out can be fun. However, repeated trips to restaurants and various orders on DoorDash can add up quickly. (Trust me I know)

There’s nothing wrong with eating out and ordering delivery occasionally, maybe a few times a month, but once you start doing this type of thing regularly, say a few times a week, you’ll almost be able to hear the money leaving your wallets.

But even if you struggle with this as I do, you’ll need to make a plan to commit to making your own food.

First steps:

• Delete any food-ordering app from your phone
• Think of foods you enjoy
• Learn tomeal prep

Next steps:

• Usehelpful appliancesthat serve multiple functions and cook efficiently
• Research different recipes andeasy mealsthat you can make consistently
• Plan specific days or times during the month to go to the grocery store (Sundays after church, or every Thursday after work, something like that)
• Make anactionable planto consistently make food and prep your meals
• Pick a specific day for your meal prep and how many days you want it to last

My go-to for meal prepping is simple broccoli and rice and occasionallyadding tofuwith it. This is something I can make easily and consistently.

This is not only healthy but easy toreplicate week in and week out.

Tip:Use helpful tools like anInstant Potto cook meals easily and fast!

I’ve used this along with avegetarian recipe book(page 97 is a personal favorite) to make tasty meals that were very simple to prepare.

I’m not a pro cook so this definitely helps me to make meals even when I’m feeling lazy or tired from work.

But I’m not too picky, so this may not necessarily work for someone who needs different meals daily.

The other problem is the fact that our cravings can get the best of us at times.

For me, this happens when I haven’t prepped my meals and I feel super hungry after or during work.

This at times leads me to order food even if I’ve deleted my app.

Yikes

So just beware, you’ll still have cravings and potentially want to eat out or order food at times if this is what you struggle with.

However, if you know your budget and still want to eat out sometime during the month then by all means go ahead!

This simple living tip is all about saving money when you can and that’s by avoiding the unnecessary and overspending on restaurants and food delivery when you should be going to the grocery store.

This is one of those minimalist habits that are not only healthier in the long run, but also very cost-effective!

2. Limit Your Clothes Shopping

One of the best benefits of simple living is the fact that it promotes having a smaller wardrobe!

This smaller minimalist wardrobe has a multitude of benefits:

• Less time getting dressed in the morning
• Easier + faster laundry
• Less money spent on clothes
• Year-roundcapsule wardrobefor any occasion
• Easier packing for travel
• Fewer clothes = less clutter
• Reduceddecision fatigue when getting dressed

However, the best benefit of a simple wardrobe from the list above is the fact that it can save you tons of money in the long run and save you tons of space from all of the unnecessary clothes you don’t wear!

I would encourage anyone interested to give asimple wardrobelike this a try and see what type ofbenefitsyou gain from it.

You don’t need to be a minimalist or even someone who lives a simple lifestyle to give this a try!

One thing I recommend if you don’t want to minimize your entire wardrobe into one “year-round wardrobe”, is to create aseasonal capsule wardrobe.

This type of minimalist wardrobe involves creating different mini wardrobes of clothing pieces that all mix and match for each season.

But whichever way you decide to limit your clothes shopping, my goal is that any of these simple living practices will save you money from impulse buys and unnecessary clothing pieces that will collect dust in your overblown closet.

3. Limit Impulse Spending

Impulse purchases and succumbing to our urges when shopping is something we’ve all faced and dealt with.

Sometimes we’re able to hold off and wait ornot even buy the product at all.

However, a lot of the time, especially with online shopping, we find that impulse buying is almost like a drug and can consume us almost daily.

Not to mention the fact that Amazon Prime offers 2-day shipping! (which I’ve abused over the years).

With all of these different factors like accessibility to products without leaving your home and speedy delivery times, online shopping and more importantlyimpulse spending is no doubt easier than ever!

But do not worry my friends!

There are ways to combat these negative shopping habits. I’m a natural spender, but I’ve managed to drastically cut back on the money I’ve wasted over unnecessary Amazon purchases.

I’ll give you some of my tips that have helped me to avoid impulsive shopping and the dreaded “shopping because I’m bored” habit.

Some of my favoriteminimalist shopping tipsinclude:

• Only buy items you absolutely need OR something that will bring youjoy or value
• Save items in your cart or choose“save for later”on Amazon
• Waitat least a weekbefore making a purchase
• Buy something immediately if it’s something youactually need
• Delete any shopping apps if you think it’s practical and will help

These tips can really help if you have a bad habit of online shopping too frequently and spending way over your monthly budget.

Putting a stop to your shopping habits can be a serious challenge if it’s something you really enjoy, however, if you’re interested in simple living and saving money, you will benefit greatly from adding some more discipline.

The point here is to save more money and overall you’ll benefit from saving those purchases you may want for a later time.

4. Find Cheaper Alternatives For Fun

Now we all know that dates and other fun activities do have a price tag most of the time.

However, if we can be smart about our fun activities and look for cost-effective things, we can save a lot of money without sacrificing fun.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spend money on activities or dates, it just means you can save money by choosing some free or cheap alternatives every now and then, so that way you aren’t overspending every month.

Here are some options for different types of activities and occasions that are cost-effective:

Family Ideas

• Camping
• New Years Party
• Game night
• Bike ride
• Kids play in the park
• Watch sporting event

Friend Hangout Ideas

• Video games
• Game night
• Sports
• Tailgate
• Hiking
• Costume party
• Sporting event party
• Beach Day

Date Ideas

• Cook together
• Game night
• Movie night
• Window shopping
• Picnic
• Walking in a park
• Hike together
• Spa day

These types of activities may not be as sexy or fun as other things you pay for but they can be meaningful and special for all involved.

Overall, don’t be afraid to treat your friends, family, or significant other to special events or meals you pay for, just be smart and strategic with the way you plan and spend your money.

5. Get Rid of Your Unused Gym Membership

For a lot of people, this is a big one!

Many people have gym memberships in the hope that their habits will change, but unfortunately, they barely use them and even worse never go at all.

Money just going down the drain…tisk tisk

Disclaimer:If you’re an avid gymgoer and love using the gym, 100% use your gym and gain all of the benefits of going to the gym.

This advice is more for those who want to stay fit but also want to be able to do so by avoiding gym memberships.

You certainly can live a simple lifestyle and have a gym membership no doubt, but I recommend people find a way to create a home exercise plan and use that as a way to keep their expenses low without sacrificing a healthy fit lifestyle.

First Steps:

• Identify your fitness goals and what type of exercises/workouts will get you to your goal
• Create a workout plan and save it on your phone or use an app
• Decide how many days a week you want to exercise and how many rest days you want

Popular Workouts:

Depending on one’s fitness goals and level of experience, your workout plan may vary drastically.

Someone looking to gain endurance and build up cardio exclusively would want to opt for cardio-specific workouts like running on the treadmill or stationary bike (or actual bike).

However, if someone is looking to burn a lot of fat while building muscle, they would need to do weight training workouts to reach this goal.

Here are some popular workouts that anyone can do even at home:

• HIIT Workouts– Burns a lot of calories + tons of at-home HIIT workouts on the web
• Weight Training – Best done in a gym but with somehome equipment, it can be done
• Cardio – Easily done at home with atreadmill,at apark, or in your neighborhood
• Bodyweight – The ultimate free workout that can be mixed with HIIT workouts

Popular Workout Schedules:

• Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – Rest Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
• Workout 5 days a week: M-F – Rest Saturday and Sunday
• Workout Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday – Rest Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday

Whichever workout plan or schedule you choose, just make sure it’s something you can stick to and something you’ll enjoy!

This will save you a ton of money in gym membership monthly fees and can be extremely beneficial for your health.

Your body and bank account will be happy! 🙂

6. Limit Your Subscription Services

Nowadays we’ve all got lots of subscriptions to a variety of different services.

We’ve got:

• Food delivery subscriptions
• Magazine subscriptions
• Beauty subscriptions
• Amazon (Duh)

But most importantly we’ve gotentertainment streaming subscriptions…

Now these subscription services aren’t all bad and I have a few myself, but the problems arise when we have so many services andhardly ever use them!

Now is the time to use simple living to save money and I recommend taking a look at all of your subscription services and removing any that you don’t use consistently.

These monthly fees are low, but these canadd up over time!

Even if you have the increasingly popular annual plans and are “saving money”, it does you no good if the service is going unused.

Try your best to use whichever services you currently have, but 100% get rid of any subscriptions that you never use andsave that extra money!

Simple Living Can Help You Save More For Retirement

The extra savings from less monthly spending can add up and help fund your retirement faster.

This means more money can be put away for your employer’s retirement plan (hopefully theyoffer a 401k match) and any personal retirement accounts you may have.

In addition, building your finances for the future is always smarter than only thinking about the short term.

More Saving = Closer to Financial Freedom

So why should you want to save more in the first place? (Aside from the inherent thought that its something that we should do)

There are many reasons to save more over the years, however, one of the best reasons to save more now while you can is to hopefully allow yourself the privilege to gainfinancial freedom!

Financial freedom basically allows you the freedom of time and can be the ultimate goal ofretiring earlyandliving the life you want!

This is possible by saving early for retirement, making smart investments, and possiblygenerating income on the sidethat can sustain you.

Whatever your goals may be, live simply and save often! 🙂

Final Thoughts | Frugal Minimalism: 6 Powerful Ways Simple Living Can Save You Money

Were there any tips that we may have missed? Let us know in the comments!

And also add any questions you may have as well!

About Me: My name is Miguel and I’m a simple living and budget spreadsheet advocate! I’ve been decluttering my life since 2018 and love everything simple living related. I aim to help you learn how to live a simple life, become intentional with your spending, and manage your money right!