How To Be Frugal: 25 Frugal Living Tips

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Being frugal is something that now comes naturally to me – I always look to spend as little as possible and save as much as I possibly can, whether I’m making a big purchase or simply doing the weekly shop. I love finding new ways to be thrifty and save money as part of my frugal life.

That hasn’t always been the case though and I know there are plenty of people out there who are just starting out on their journey with frugal living and trying to live a more frugal lifestyle. In this post, I am going to share my top frugal living tips to help you get started with living on less and teach you how to be thrifty.

Related Post: What Frugal Living Means To Me

Being frugal means different things to different people.

To me, frugal living is all about getting the most out of my money, saving where I can but still being able to afford little luxuries and being able to do the things I enjoy.

This means spending money on things I love and having money set aside for emergencies.

Frugal living has impacted my life in more ways than one. Saving really hard and making sacrifices enabled me and my partner to save almost £50,000 when we wanted to buy a house – this, in turn, has meant our mortgage is small and over a shorter period.

It allowed me to quit a job with unsociable hours to work from home because I had enough savings behind me to build my own business.

My super frugal ways and awesome thrifty tips have also earned me two awards for this blog – in 2018 and 2019 I won the award for being the UK Best Frugal and Thrift Blog at the annual U.K money blogger conference and awards – something I am incredibly proud of.

How To Be Frugal: 25 Frugal Living Tips

There are so many things you can do to start living on less – whether you tackle them all once or one or two at a time it doesn’t matter, frugal living slowly becomes a way of life and there a plenty of benefits to it.

This post is full of thrifty tips showing you how to be frugal with money, give you ideas for extreme frugality and show you can enjoy frugal living without missing out on the things you love. Try throwing on a thick jumper and slippers instead of putting on the heating. Use up every scrap of food – as well as saving money these tips can often help the environment too.

Having a thrifty lifestyle doesn’t mean going without – it’s much more about being careful and intention with the money you do have so more of it can be spent on the things that make you truly happy.

From money-saving tips around the house to how to live well on little money this post is crammed full of the best tips for living a frugal but happy life.

1. Be Thrifty With Food: Cut Down On Food Waste

Cutting down on food waste is one of the biggest ways to save money and you might be surprised at how much of your food waste could have been eaten.

I try to avoid peeling vegetables where possible and when they do need to be peeled I’ll use the trimmings to make soup or stock.

Even the smallest portions of leftover food can be saved – I’ll often freeze a small portion of leftover sauce and use it for a light lunch when I’m home alone.

Or, I’ll wait until I have three or four small portions frozen and there is enough to make a portion of something for the whole family.

Knowing the difference between ‘Use By’ and ‘Best Before’ also plays a big part in eliminating food waste. Best Before is only a guide – eating food past this date won’t harm you or make you ill, it might just not be at its best.

Use By should be adhered to more closely as it is linked with the safety of the food. However, food doesn’t magically become inedible at one minute past midnight on its use-by date.

Use your senses to discern whether or not the food is edible.

2. Use Coupons and Vouchers

Using coupons and vouchers is a huge part of frugal living for me and one of the best frugal living tips I can offer.

I use coupons every week to help me save money.

Even places that are already cheap, such as Lidl, have discount vouchers. Try downloading their app for freebies and money off when you

3. Avoid The Takeaway (and if you can’t, be frugal about it!)

Of course, avoiding the takeaway is an obvious frugal living tip for anyone wanting to live a more frugal lifestyle.

But there are plenty of ways to still be frugal even when you do fancy a treat.

Places such as Just Eat often offer discount codes if you order through them.

This might look like a great way to save money, but I’ve often found there are hidden charges – our local takeaways only charge for delivery if you order through Just Eat – usually it’s free.

So it’s worth working out if the discount or the free delivery saves more cash.

Another way we’ve found to stick to frugal living and still enjoy the odd takeaway is by ordering a munchie box. These seem to be all the rage where we live at the moment and are a pizza box filled with lots of small dishes.

We usually order one from the Chinese which has rice, chips, ribs, chicken balls, chicken wings, spring rolls and sweet and sour sauce. It costs £13.95 and comes with prawn crackers.

Our usual order from the Chinese used to come to over £30 – so we’re still getting a treat but spending half the money.

4. Using Budget Envelopes To Restrict Spending

If you’re not great with money using budgeting envelopes is a great frugal living tip because it really gets you to focus on where your money is going and helps prevent overspending, while still allowing for emergencies.

5. Grow Your Own Herbs

Growing your own herbs is a great way to save money when cooking. Although there is a small initial cost to consider, having fresh herbs can make the most frugal of meals extra tasty.

You can even dry herbs in the oven and freeze them if you find yourself with an abundance.

6. Frugal Living Tips: Always look for a Discount Code

Whenever I buy anything online I always, always, always, look for a discount code, and I would say the majority of the time I can find one. Being as frugal as I am, I’m usually shopping in the sales so if I can get a discount on top of that, even better. If you’re not spending much it’s also worth looking out for codes for free delivery.

Another handy frugal living tip is to put items in your basket, log in as if you are going to pay and then don’t check out/pay for the items. As the brand can see you’ve got items in your basket but haven’t bought them, they’ll often send a discount code to entice you to buy. You have to be logged in for this to work.

It can help to curb impulse buying and gives you time to consider whether or not you really want to make that purchase – if you do you should hopefully have a code to get it for less.

7. Find Frugal Freebies First

Before buying anything, it’s always worth seeing if you can find it for free first.

Frugal living is about always looking at ways to reduce spending and getting things for free is the best way to do that. T

here are sites such as FreeCycle where people offer items free – usually clothing and household items such as beds and wardrobes, but also smaller items like toys and books.

Facebook Marketplace is another great resource for finding freebies.

You can search Facebook marketplace for free things or put a shout-out for what you are looking for in one of the many buy and sell and groups.

Frugal living is often about changing your mindset and now I always try to think ‘How could I get that for free’ before buying anything.

Of course, it’s not possible with everything but it’s a good starting place. Some examples below.

‘I want to buy a new book’ 

Instead, I could . . .

• Borrow one from the library
• Download a free book from Amazon or find books that are out of copyright (think classics like Peter Pan)
• Ask friends and family for books they have read recently and no longer want
• Pick up free magazines from the supermarket (not the same as a book, but free reading material nonetheless!)

‘I need a new dress for an event’

Instead, I could

• Borrow one from a friend
• Repurpose something I already own
• Find A Clothes swapping party

8. Thrifty Tips: Take Picnics And Packed Lunches

As most families will know, picnics and packed lunches are an absolute godsend when it comes to frugal living and thrifty days out.

Taking homemade food on days out can help cut the costs and means there could be a little bit left in the budget for small treats like ice cream (although one of my best hacks is nipping to the supermarket for a multi-pack while at the beach rather than going to the expensive ice cream van! Four magnum style ice creams for £1? Yes please!)

Even taking packed lunches to work every day can save a small fortune – and they don’t have to be boring – see this post for some super frugal lunch box ideas.

Frugal living doesn’t mean always having to miss out either – my partner takes a packed lunch Monday to Thursday and then has a ‘treat lunch’ on Friday.

It still saves us money but means he has a treat to look forward to at the end of the week. For me, frugal living is all about finding a balance and saving as much as we can without feeling like we are missing out on anything.

9. Tips For Being Frugal – Avoid Temptation

Knowing your triggers for spending money is one of the keys to reining in spending and living a more frugal lifestyle. I’ll often avoid walking through town because I know I’ll end up taking a look around the charity shop and will be tempted to spend money.

It’s the same with the supermarket – I have a proper sweet tooth and can find it hard to avoid buying a cake or other treats. Avoiding these places when I’m trying hard not to spend can help.

It’s worth getting friends and family on board with your frugal living too – even if they don’t want to do it themselves, friends that refuse to understand your lifestyle choices and encourage you spend when you don’t want to aren’t very good at all.

I feel very lucky in that I can say to my friends ‘I’m skint this month – can we have a night in rather than a night out’ and they’ll all understand and support that.

10. Frugal Living Means Meal Planning

Meal planning is something that I’ve only recently got to grips with, but I do think that it saves us a heck of a lot of money.

We usually meal plan on a Saturday morning before we go and do our weekly shopping.

This allows us to see what we can make with the food we already have and make sure food is being used up before it goes out of date. It also means we only buy what we need for each day’s meals and don’t end up bunging whatever we feel like in the trolley!

I’ve written a couple of posts on meal planning which you can find below.

How to start meal planning & Save Money

10 tips for meal planning success

How to mix up your meal planning

11. Love Your Leftovers

One of the most popular posts on this blog is this one which is all about takeaway leftovers and whether they are safe to be eaten the next day – it’s something a lot of people wonder about and I’m not alone in having ordered way too much food from the takeaway on more than one occasion!

Frugal living is all about making the most of every little thing you have and leftovers can play a big part in this.

I still struggle with cooking the right amount of rice and pasta, even after weighing it out!

However, I’d never dream of throwing it away – it can be tomorrow’s lunch or the next day’s dinner for my little girl if we’re having something she won’t eat.

I think knowing whether or not leftovers are safe to eat often puts people off keeping them so here are a few key points to remember:

• Pasta and Rice need extra care and attention – cool under cold running water and refrigerate immediately. Reheat to a minimum of 82 degrees Celcius. Never reheat rice from the takeaway.
• Storage is important – and ready-to-eat foods like sandwiches and most cooked foods need to go in the fridge as soon as they are cool (never when hot as this compromises the temperature of the fridge) and again should be reheated to a minimum of 82 degrees Celcius
• Leftovers will be safe to eat for a few days if properly cooled and stored.

12. Frugal Cooking Methods

Using a Slow Cooker or an Air Fryer are two of the most frugal ways to cook. Both of these use less electricity than a standard oven and after the initial cost should save you plenty of money in the long run.

Slow Cookers are perfect for cooking the cheapest cuts of meats and all-in-one recipes mean less power used as well as less washing up.

Air fryers act like a mini oven but their small size means that they heat up and cook food much more quickly than a conventional oven.

The only time an Air Fryer might not save you money is when cooking a roast dinner (although there’s nothing to stop you doing this – we’ve cooked a whole chicken in ours before!)

13. Reductions & Yellow stickers

I love buying food from the reduced section – it’s where the majority of our food comes from and over the year it saves hundreds of pounds meaning I can make lots of frugal meals.

I always make sure I cook the food quite soon after buying or it goes in the freezer to be used at a later date.

It’s not just fresh produce that gets reduced either – often dry goods are reduced if they are being rebranded or a particular line is coming to an end and this again helps me make frugal meals.

It’s worth getting to know your local supermarket’s reduction times so you know when to head there for the best bargains. It’s not always late at night either – I’ve picked up lots of reduced to 10p fruit and veg from my local Morrisons at midday!

Supermarket Reduction Times: The Best Times For Yellow Sticker Shopping

More Posts On Yellow Sticker Food

Ultimate Guide To Buying Yellow Sticker Food

Reduced food and why you should be buying it

10 Misconceptions about buying reduced food

How To Freeze Yellow Sticker Birthday Cakes

7 Things To Do With A Yellow Sticker Loaf of Bread

14. Thrifty Tip: Eat out for Free

The saying goes ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’.

Well, there is. If you sign up for a mystery shopping or dining company they’ll often offer a free meal in return for feedback.

Even better, you can usually take a guest with you.

I will point out that the feedback forms do take quite a long time to fill out, so I guess you are essentially paying with your time.

However, if you’re being frugal but still want to eat out and have plenty of spare time, this is perfect. See How to become a mystery diner for more info.

15. Portion Control

There is often a fine line between eating too much and eating too little. I’ve already discussed in this post how I always cook too much pasta and rice.

I’m also terrible for using a whole jar of sauce that is meant for four people for just the two of us. These may sound like little things but they can soon add up, especially if you have a large family to cook for.

Cutting down on meat portions and replacing with more vegetables is a great way to make meals go further without adding to the cost. I have a post all about how to bulk up meals for growing families.

16. Eco-friendly Products Can Save Money

Since the release of Blue Planet more and more people have realised just how much impact the use of single-use plastics is having on our planet. As well as being more environmentally friendly many of the products, although a little more costly to begin with, will actually save you money in the long run.

• Eco Eggs instead of your usual washing liquid or powder.
• A Mooncup instead of tampons or try reusable sanitary towels.
• Shampoo and conditioner bars instead of your usual bottles. While these may be more expensive than the absolute basic supermarket shampoos they average out cheaper per wasg than a lower-end branded product.

17. How To Be Frugal: Wombling

Wombling is the term used for collecting other people’s receipts, coupons or vouchers to save yourself money. For example, you might have the nectar points, from an old receipt found in a trolley, added to your Nectar card.

A great time for wobbling is during the Mcdonalds Monopoly which usually runs in April – lots of people discard their tokens so it’s worth keeping an eye out if you’re eating there anyway.

You could pick up free food such as ice cream, fries or apple pie or something else – I won a NOW TV pass this year – perfect as we had been planning on getting one to watch Game of Thrones anyway.

18. Frugal Household Tips: Drop Down A Brand

Switching brands is another way you can start frugal living and saving money. Try the very cheapest first – if you hate it then you’ve not wasted much money – if you love it then keep buying it. Try the next brand up again if you hated the basic version.

I’ll be honest there are a few branded items I really can’t do without – Heinz Ketchup being one of them. I try to only buy it when it’s on offer and I don’t use it too often, but it’s nice on the rare occasion we do have proper chips.

On the other hand, we were fed up of paying a fortune for Coke and Pepsi – so we now drink Lidl’s version of Pepsi Max which is 50p a bottle.

Yes, it would be cheaper to go without completely but this is a good frugal compromise.

As well as dropping a brand you could try dropping an entire supermarket – Lidl and Aldi continue to increase in popularity although if you’re used to, for example, Sainsbury’s you may find their stock levels and ranges a little lacking.

We usually do three out of four shops at a budget supermarket and then once a month at one of the big four to grab the bits we can’t get elsewhere.

19. Grocery Shop Online To Save

Food shopping online can save you a lot of cash -no kids throwing things in the trolley, it’s easy to avoid shopping when stressed or hungry and it’s much easier to stick to a list.

In the UK lots of supermarkets offer incentives for your first shop – with Sainsbury’s it’s £18 off! – so this is another great way to save on your weekly shop.

20. Haggle, Haggle, Haggle

Haggling is a great way to save money is something we should try more often. I think people are often embarrassed to ask for a discount – here I am going to give two great ways to haggle without actually having to speak to anyone.

First up is Sky T.V. Having Sky T.V is not frugal or thrifty, but each to their own – for me frugal living is about saving where we can and being able to afford a few luxuries too, and essentially that’s what Sky is to us.

If you log into to Sky account online, you should be able to speak to someone on the live chat feature – simply be honest and ask for a discount. They can only say no, but usually, they’ll do their best to find a deal. Click here for a full blog post, with pictures of where to go on the Sky Website.

The second is now TV, which we use for Sky Movies.

We started on a special offer and when they increased the prices I cancelled. They offered me a special deal of £4 off a month but it wasn’t enough to tempt me so I went ahead with the cancellation.

Two hours later I got an email offering me Sky Movies for £3.30 a month, around 75% off the usual price, for three months. After that, I’ll simply cancel again.

21. Love Second-Hand

Second-hand is definitely the way to go when it comes to the top frugal living tips. We had a baby last year and almost everything we bought for her was second hand – from the bottle sterilizer, bouncer and crib (although we did buy a new mattress and sheets) to loads of her clothes, toys and baby play stuff.

I actually wrote a post all about my second-hand baby items.

In the end, I was very glad we hadn’t bought everything new – our girl was a big baby so wore newborn clothes for less than a week.

She also hated her play gym! I’m so glad we didn’t waste money buying everything new and we’ve kept the majority of the items for if and when we decide to have another baby so we won’t need to buy them a second time.

In the picture below she’s wearing a jumper I picked up from a charity shop for £2.50. It would have been over £30 new!

I also love buying things for myself second-hand – the majority of my clothes are now from charity shops which I love – it’s more eco-friendly, it saves me money and I’m supporting a charity at the same time.

Tips For Buying Kids Clothes From Vinted

22. Get Your Baby Involved in Frugal Living – Being A Frugal Mummy

We all know how expensive the arrival of a little one can be in particular things like nappies and formula.

Using cloth nappies is more environmentally friendly and can work out significantly cheaper than disposables, especially if you can pick up a set second hand.

I also sent off for a lot of freebies before our girl was born – these included free baby milestone cards, a free teddy and a free baby box which came with a mattress, sheet and muslin as well as lots of information on safe sleep.

I have a full round-up of the baby freebies you can apply for here: Where to find Baby Freebies in the U.K.

When it came to weaning , we decided Baby Lead Weaning (or BLW) was definitely the most frugal living way to go.

When doing BLW, weaning isn’t started until the baby is six months old and they just have whatever Mum and Dad are having, provided there isn’t too much salt or sugar and prepared safely so not to be a choking hazard (eg. grapes and cherry tomatoes should be quartered.)

Baby Led Weaning also teaches babies to feed themselves – parents don’t put food in the babies mouths at all there is no spoon-feeding from jars and no need to make any separate purees for the baby.

Since starting weaning the only baby food products I’ve bought are baby rice cakes, other than that she’s had what we’re having – her favourite foods are pasta, strawberries and chicken curry. Doing this means I’ve not bought a single jar of baby food and in turn have saved a fortune.

23. Keep Your Receipts

Did you know your receipts can save you money?

Next time you get a receipt take a closer look at the back – a lot of restaurants will give you a code which when redeemed online will get you a free starter or dessert or a voucher for money off next time you visit. Sometimes you’ll need to give feedback or signup to a mailing list.

McDonald’s receipts have a voucher for a Big Mac and fries for just £1.99.

Iceland (the supermarket) sometimes give out 10% off on their receipts – perfect if you shop there often.

As well as saving money from your receipts, you can also make money from them. While this won’t make you rich, it can add up over the course of the year and I know lots of people like to use it as a bit of a Christmas savings fund.

24. Keep On Top Of Your Renewals

Keeping ahead of your renewals for things like car insurance, house insurance and energy bills is key to living a more frugal life.

Being ahead of the game gives you plenty of time to have a really good look around and find the absolute best deals rather than simply allowing your premium to renew, often at a much higher price.

25. Frugal Mindset: There is always a way to save

It’s worth remembering that no matter what you’re buying or spending money on there is almost always a way to save money on it. From finding freebies – free stuff from Nike anyone? – to using discount codes to simply deciding not to spend any money at all, frugal living is all about making the best with what you have and saving as much as you can, whenever you can.

What are your best frugal living tips or advice on how to be frugal?