Different Tips for Living a Frugal Life

There are two ways to have more money: Increasing income and decreasing expenses. They are not exclusive ways; on the contrary, you can expand your sources of income while reducing those unnecessary expenses. Therefore, in this article I want to talk about the second, that is, live a Frugal Living.

So, here are some tips for living in frugality:

Spend and invest is not the same

A huge mistake that may be delaying your financial progress is ignoring the difference between an expense and an investment.

An investment is an outlay of money to get an asset, for example a place you rent or shares in a company. And an expense is a disbursement of money to get something that will depreciate a large part of its value and will not have long-term benefits, for example certain costume jewellery or garments.

With this I do not mean that you always have to invest and never spend, because spending is part of life. What you do have to know-in case you want to live frugally-be the difference between spending and investing, so that you are truly aware of where your money is going and what financial decisions you are making.

Save money on cable TV

After internet evolution many of our work has been shifted from offline to online and the same way. Now most of our entertainment has also been moved to internet including watching movies and TV series. Here you can both download and steam movie online and there are many websites who provide varieties of new and old entertainment sources. I had started watching movies on putlocker.ch but recently I also found there are many alternatives for putlocker.ch. This also has immense source of entertainment.

Many people wouldn’t like to do this but this is also one of the frugal living lifestyle which would help you to save money.

Control your finances

There is a well-known phrase in the world of administration that says: What is not measured cannot be controlled, and what is not controlled cannot be improved.

So, if you want to improve your finances, you must control them first. How to start? It’s simple; keep track of all your income and all your expenses, so you know where you’re going and where each ticket goes. You must know this information, because it is the basis for you to make your budgets and you can save.

Live below your means

This point will only be possible if you made the previous one. The moment you know your money and your movements, it is there where you will know how far you can afford certain expenses, that is, as far as your current financial possibilities go. But the ideal is that spending is never equal to income, because then there would never be surpluses to save or invest, so try to live below them without that means your quality of life deteriorates.

Avoid consumer debt

The interest that they charge you for your consumer debts is the tax that is charged to people who try to live above their means. Of course, a credit card – among other types of consumer debt generators – can be a life saver or a powerful tool at certain times, but only when you know how to use it. However, when we acquire a consumer debt to shovel a lifestyle beyond what we can afford, it will be the beginning of a financial hell, where budgeting and saving will not be possible, because remember: pretending makes you poor.

Distinguish what you need from what you want

Day after day, we live bombarded with advertising that urges us to consume. This continuous marketing stimulus has led us to have confusing distinctions between what is a real need and what we simply want to have. And as in point 2, not knowing that difference can also be damaging our financial life.

A need is that which must be present in our day to day, because its absence can mean a threat to our integrity and our life, for example, food, shelter, health, safety, etc. And something I want but do not need, is simply something whose absence does not threaten my integrity or my life, like that TV or that stuffed toy in your room.

In that order of ideas, being frugal does not mean that everything I buy should be a necessity, and that I avoid using my money in things I want. What it means is that you have to know that difference, because that will allow us to make more wise financial decisions (and a luxury once in a while does not hurt anyone).

Do it yourself

Learning to do certain things yourself, can save you money, and can even become an extra income if you know how to capitalize. For example, if you need to repair an appliance, you can hire a professional technician and pay for it, or you can learn DIY and repair it yourself, and who knows, maybe you become so good at it that they can hire you to repair other houses, or hire you to teach it.