30 Surprisingly Easy Frugal Changes That Helped People Reach Their Financial Goals

Done that.. it has worked somewhat but have items which i dont regret... books mostly

I prefer putting a link on my calendar 1 month in to the future. When it pops up 99% of the time I don't want it.

I do this only I put them in "my list* on Amazon. Works well for me.

Or just not use Amazon.

Restaurants are too loud to enjoy chatting with friends. They want people to shut up and eat but what they got was my me waving goodbye.

We still like a Coke now and then -- but I generally don't keep extras in the fridge, but in a cupboard a good ways away. Is it worth the effort to dig in the cupboard, get a glass, put in ice, etc.? Surprisingly, half the time it isn't. This has helped us minimize pop drinking.

About 15 years ago I bought a CO2 tank and have been making my own sparkling water; it costs US$20 to fill the tank and it will last me a couple years. When I am in our mountain cabin and have to buy my sparkling water, I go through about 12 cans per day.

Your dentist will be ambivalent - less work but also less money for them in the long run 😁

I am so grateful for libraries.

They have movies too. Kanopy app. On a phone or Roku.

Have a kindle.. need to use it better

And don't worry about us authors; the government gives us money in exchange for having our books in libraries. At least they do here in Australia. PLR payouts have bailed me out so many times.

Many libraries have large selections of audio books. I'd much rather see tax dollars buying many libraries rather than a single sports arena.

sadly my local library closed... online libraries are no fun..

And, depending on your library, you can download the Kanopy app for free, and watch I think up to 10 +/- movies from their EXTENSIVE library of films, newer films, classics, foreign, silent, documentaries, obscure, TV shows new and old, you name it. There are movies on there I could not find anywhere else. If your library doesn’t offer Kanopy, you can join a library online that’s in another city. I live in a really rural area, and my local library isn’t on a system that offers it. I now am registered online with a library in the major city in my state that does. I can also check out any online books from their much larger collection, which is nice.

Who would have thought /s

This is only true in the US and more modern countries. I live in Italy and my food deliveries 1. don’t go through an app, you can call them directly 2. It isn’t food from a fast food chain but from a local business 4. You have options (see n.3) that are healthy and local not only pre-cooked burgers and fried-in-motor-oil stuff 5. It’s CHEAP! Pizza here is 4,5€. 6.If you don’t have a dishwasher (like me), you’re basically consuming water to wash pots and plates for a whole family even if it’s just 1 meal for 1 person. Cooking is like cleaning, it’s labor and it’s perfectly acceptable to delegate it to someone else if you can afford it. I’m just sorry this isn’t the reality for many western countries.

I'd like to add, making your own cute, but simple, gift cards. I bought watercolor pens and a 50pk of cardstock and envelopes for $25 a few years back. Saves me $2-$6 at least a couple times a month. I have a massive Irish family, so it does add up. Bonus; I'm now revered as an artist for my silly doodles paired with dumb jokes.

I still have the giveaways from my time in a publishing house 10 years ago. Piggy banks, plates etc if I need a small gift.

My strategy for gifts, don't buy gifts for people, don't accept gifts from people, gifts are a bad tradition.

OMG... F**k food delivery apps. By the time I checkout, a $10 burrito is $23. And, literally, half the time something goes wrong: like missing items, half the food is spilled in the bag, hot food is cold, cold food is warm, it's missing sauces and dressings. I'm not gonna agree that frozen tater tots serve the same purpose, but I too have sworn off food delivery apps and just gotten over my aversion to eating out by myself in my sweats and headphones.

I used Doordash one time... I can easily make 3-4 nice meals for my family at the same price. With no rando in the middle.

Or frozen pizza!!! Keep a few of these in the freezer; it helps with going-out-to-eat urges, too.

I have never used a delivery app. I just can't fathom paying double the cost of the meal for someone to deliver it to me

I uninstalled a food delivery app. good for now since it is definitely not cheap ordering food...

I have been using a budget book for over 20years. It is good to see where your money actually went, and make you think twice over your expenditure. It also allows you to stay within that month's salary and not dip into access funds in your current account

yep addictions are expensive

Quit 24 years ago and still suffer from the effects, though not as bad as if I had not stopped. Am trying to get my sons to quit vaping and smoking weed.........not an easy task as they have been brainwashed by those that sell the c**p!

That would be double here in Canada considering even a cheap pack of smokes with all the taxes and stuff is like $18

Sadly in Canada Loblaws has bought all the cheap grocery store chains and harmonized up the prices. Record all time high profits while claiming inflation/supply chain issues are responsible. You have to really shop around here to find cheap groceries. We had a nation-wide boycott and they reduced prices for a few months, but they've been edging them back up

There's a difference between sell by and expiry. Expiry means it's usually something that cannot be sold due to health concerns like meat or something like that, that is fresh.

We have a food Co-Op so I can basically feed my family for $60 for two weeks.

I canceled cable years ago when the talk started about antenaes. Most of the channels (free and paid) show the same thing. There are lots of old shows/reruns that I'm not interested in, because at my age, I've seen most 2-3 times already. And so many of the shows have the same plot. Right now, I pay for Netflix and Max, but I'm seriously thinking of discontinuing both and only reinstate if there's something really interesting and then cancel again.

If you're still on the main plans, cancel and switch to ad supported cheap plans, then get a good ad blocker. I pay less for two services with ads than I paid for either without, and every few months I switch services to catch up on shows released elsewhere. I've never had to watch a single ad and I manage to keep up with all my favourites

You can set up a rule in Gmail e.g. any email with the word "sale" or "discount" or even "mailing list" you can route to a folder or auto-delete.

Here's a tip if you want to make cheap wine taste good: use a blender/magic bullet. It's an old restaurant trick for house wines. The super oxygenation really helps improve the flavour, especially if it's acidic. You can take a $5 bottle of terrible wine, blend it up, and it'll taste MUCH better.

We open a bottle of wine on a Friday night, I have a glass on a Saturday and maybe another one or two in the week but almost always struggle to finish the bottle. I could do with the bottle being 500ml instead of 750ml. I know you can get that size bottle, but they always seem to be the c**p wines and they cost the same.

this is always interesting to me - I buy in coffee shops only when travelling. People actually use them regularly :D

I took my coffee machine with me to my mother's 70th, which was at her house. For those of us driving and not drinking, it gave us a lovely option instead of fizzy drinks or water.

I use a coffee plunger that my late FIL gave me one year. Must have had the thing for at least 20 years and I use it twice a day. Theoretically I’ve saved a small fortune. Theoretically…

Gave my wife 2 choices. Stop dying your own hair to save$$ and go to a proper salon or go gray. She has the most beautiful gray hair on the planet!

I love my unicorn hair too. It makes me stand out. I've had grey hair since I was 20 and dyed it for years. I stopped just before the pandemic (very fortuitous timing!) and it's never been softer, healthier or got me more compliments!

Owning the grey always looks better. Distinguished and actually sexy. Never understood my mom who does chunky blonde/brown/black/purple ever since I was a kid. Her natural gunmetal grey looks so much better but she won't stick with it, even after turning 65

I have a Polgara streak, that I love :)

I love this attitude and wish I had it. It's difficult to throw things out if you've come from a financially unstable background. I earn the money to buy something, you're bloody right I want to keep it. So I've adopted a "one in, one out" system. If I'm going to buy something I have to donate, sell or throw out something first. And I have to do the "out" before the "in". I can't count the number of times it's helped me realise I don't need something, I just want it.

I want to upvote this 100 times. Aldi is the best grocery chain. My *only* qualm is planning to buy in bulk when there are special times (I.e. like last week during German week because those frozen potatoes are amazing)

We live walking distance (relatively long as far as walks go, Google maps says 6 minutes but it's skipping the large parking lot and I assume traffic lights. Maybe it only seems longer because it's on a busy road) from an Aldi's. Oddly we don't shop at Aldi's a lot.

Yeah. Just not buying booze for a month at a time really helps. I went from 2 bottles of whiskey and about 12 beers per month to just none. That saves me over $75/month and I really don't miss it

If, like a dog, you don't mind eating the same thing day in day out ...