8 Simple Ways I'm Saving Money | Frugal Living

Over the years of practicing frugal habits that I've learned from experimenting and even other people here on YouTube, I've been able to save a huge part of my monthly income even after my expenses were paid. And even if you don't think it's possible for you, I just wanted to mention that I worked at a grocery store for a relatively low wage up until only about three years ago and well into the first couple of years of this channel. I really had no choice but to make some changes if I wanted to save as much as possible. So today in this video, I'm going to share some of the things I learned before, during, and after that period of time. Here are some frugal living tips as a minimalist. But first, if you're new to my channel, thank you for stopping by. Here we talk about minimalism, frugal living, tech, and things of that nature. So if that sounds good to you and you end up liking the video, be sure to like and please put a blue ringed octopus in the subscribe button's Let's get started. Save for things that lower expenses. This might sound a little contradictory, but in theory it makes a lot of sense. It can literally mean buying a reusable water bottle so you don't have to buy bottled water again, or something a little more advantageous like saving a lump sum of money to pay off a credit card. The simple idea here is that spending once to ultimately lower recurring monthly payments has been worth it for me. I guess the most practical way to apply this would be saving to pay off debts earlier or to buy reusable things over disposable things. I'd recommend considering your own monthly bills and expenses and see if there's any path to paying those off or replacing them entirely. Take small purchases out of routine. I actually talked about this years ago in a video in regards to cutting out bad habits or even addictions to save a little bit of money. And actually saying that out loud, it sounds a little silly like it's a super easy thing to do. Part of my routine before work used to be stopping at the corner store for a few snacks and a drink. Yes, that's very bad, I know. It was expensive and embarrassingly enough, I would do this even if I wasn't that hungry. I was conditioned like a German shepherd to salivate every time I saw the corner store. I remember as soon as I made the decision to cut out these purchases, I would actually go days sometimes without swiping my card and ultimately was a little shocked to see how much I was collectively spending on these small things throughout the week or the month. Because even if you stop to buy one $3 thing every single day, that can literally almost be $100 a month. And maybe it is worth it, but that's for you to evaluate. I definitely recommend seeing if there are any areas of small but frequent purchases in your routine that you can cut out. Eat meals instead of snacking. And admittedly, I've only recently come to realize how much this is actually helping me save because for the duration of my entire life, I've always just like snacked and grazed in addition to whatever I was doing. I changed my diet not too long ago to almost completely cut out sugar and junk food entirely, which by the way is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. This diet has me preparing meals much more intentionally rather than just reaching for the chips and salsa because I'm bored or it pairs well with a TV show I'm watching. The point of me saying all of this is that I've actually noticed I'm buying groceries less frequently, I'm more or less hungry less often, and saving money. And I'm not even saying a complete overhaul of your diet is necessary, but at the very least make an assessment of the meals you eat throughout the day and how much of food you're eating out of boredom or routine. Allocate where income is going. And this is something that can apply to any income no matter how big or small. When my monthly income to expense ratio was much thinner than it is now, I made it a point to save whatever I could even if that was just $50 per paycheck, which at my tightest budget is about what I was able to save. I noticed that the more unorganized I was when I got paid, the more carelessly it got spent and easier it was to lose track of. Once I committed to setting aside exactly what I needed to cover my bills, I evaluated what was left over and looked to see what could be taken from there to save, which was usually as much as possible. Having money allocated before it comes in helped me keep everything paid and allowed me to save that little bit of extra. Prioritize debts first. I feel like a question often asked is should saving or paying off debt be prioritized? And I don't know if there's technically a correct answer to this, but what I can say is that once my debts were completely paid off, my savings grew exponentially faster than they were before. Much faster than when I was trying to do both simultaneously. There was a time a few years ago where I was growing frustrated because it seemed my savings account was at a standstill and my car loan was not even a little bit closer to being satisfied. And I remember thinking to myself, I wasn't going to put a dollar more into my savings until my car was completely paid off. Everything that was going to my savings per paycheck was now being allocated into an envelope dedicated to paying off my car in full on top of whatever my monthly payment was. And this eventually compiled until I was able to pay off my car. My point is that having debt, even if it's not a tremendous amount, was halting any progress being made and addressing that debt as soon and as aggressive as possible may be worth trying. And I didn't even mention the fact that it helps save on interest, which anyone who's ever had debt knows those monthly payments predominantly go towards interest before principal. Share subscriptions. Probably against most terms of service or at the very least frowned upon, sharing subscriptions has been something I've beneficial from time to time. I'm definitely not going to go into specifics about some subscriptions I've shared with friends and family during the premiere of certain shows and splitting that cost among us, which brought the price down to a couple of dollars a month. I know other services have really cracked down on account sharing because God forbid Netflix doesn't make another $33 billion this year, but the opportunity still remains with other services, even outside of streaming. I suppose I can see both sides of this, but for me, it's very difficult to feel sorry for a multi-billion dollar company losing a little bit of profit. Repair don't replace. Unfortunately and embarrassingly enough, I was very quick to replace things before repairing them in the past. Aside from being mindful and obviously extending the lifespan of the things that I own, to me, it's just cool to see the natural wear and tear on the things that I use daily. It's really, to me, the epitome of getting my money's worth and a way to appreciate the beauty and the degradation of things. This means that I've actually made an effort to patch holes in jeans and replace the handle of my water bottle when it snapped and generally repair things that are easy enough to do myself. A long time ago in a video, I talked about the concept of wabi-sabi, but basically it's a Japanese philosophy that embraces transience and imperfection. And ever since learning about it, I've come to really appreciate and actually really like when the things that I own start to show their age. Try bartering or trading. And I don't necessarily mean barter with the next cashier you deal with, but if you're looking to buy something used or even know somebody you may want to trade favors with, this is definitely worth trying out. About 10 years ago, I actually did some photography for a dentist's office in exchange for some dental work and it benefited both of us. I did know the dentist personally, so that of course helped. So I probably wouldn't recommend going to a dentist's office and trying that, but I think the idea still stands. Even on OfferUp, when people are messaging me about things I have for sale, oftentimes they're offering me a trade and of course a lower price. This is really just something to do when you're searching to buy something used or trade something that isn't necessarily money. Because once you try this for yourself, you'll come to find people are willing to take a lot lower than they're asking. These are just some of the things that I've put into practice over the years to save a little bit of extra money. I could make an entire another video with tips on how to save better, but for now I'll just leave it at that. Anyways, I hope you got some value from this video and I appreciate the time you spent here watching. If you did like this video and you like this type of content, be sure to like and consider subscribing to my channel and I'll see you next time.