“What Is Something That Is Super Cheap, But Vastly Improves Your Quality Of Life?” (30 Answers)
Not everything in this world costs an arm and a leg. And while most people believe that their quality of life is largely governed by the amount of money they have, this illuminating thread proves us wrong.
Shared on the Frugal community on Reddit, the thread has people sharing the cheapest buys and even things that cost nothing they use to improve their life quality and overall wellbeing.
From small things like incense sticks to amazing things that are free of charge like long sleeps and walks in nature, there are many ways to get ourselves together without breaking the bank!
This post may include affiliate links.
The library. Free. So much joy and entertainment and learning right there.
Love the library! The Libby app is awesome, and I even get free movies from Kanopy.
Long walks as often as you can. Preferably in nature.
Even better: walks with a friend. Healthy exercise, sun or at least fresh air and good conversations.
I received a microwave splatter cover as a Christmas present. I heard it was bought at a dollar store. It's my most valued, most often used gift of the past many years.
Blackout curtains for your bedroom window
God yes, especially during the summer when the sun in still blazing at 9pm and you’re trying to get to sleep.
We never had fresh flowers in the house growing up, but now that I’m almost 30 and married, I love getting the little $5 flower bunches at Kroger every week! I know $5 adds up over the year, but it makes me so happy seeing pretty little blooms on our dining room table. Sometimes little joys are worth the expense :)
$1 bamboo back scratcher (is this an age thing, I never needed one when I was young?)
Drinking water lol no sodas or carbonated beverages. My teeth, gut and overall health are a bit grateful.
I drink water 90% of the time, but sometimes I want some fizz. So I get some plain mineral water and add fruit to it. Strawberries etc are pretty good for flavouring. Sweetens it naturally and you get a serving of fruit too.
A hot shower.
And the little metal hair catcher I put in the drain so it doesn’t clog.
A hot shower is such a huge luxury that many people in the world do not have. Yet those of us who do, take it for granted.
Condoms
Walking my daughter to school.
We literally live across the street and I would drive her. The amount of time it would take for us to get from our apartment to the van, get buckled, and down to the exit of the parking garage, around the block and wait at the light, I could already be across the street.
Now we walk to and from, round trip is 20 mins, twice per day, so roughly 40 mins of low-impact cardio per day five days per week.
We have more energy and diminished pain (she has scoliosis and some fused vertebrae and I have fibromyalgia). Bonus: my pants are now too big.
Growing my own vegetables. Getting out in fresh air and working in it. Frees my mind and helps me relax. Plus is fresh vegetables.
Home grown vegetables taste infinitely better than the junk you buy at the store.
Binder clips. Handy for closing chip bags. Handy for anchoring picnic tablecloths to the table. Handy for posting things prominently so you remember to do them.
I keep some in multiple rooms of my house and in my vehicles.
I'm going to go with... Buying duplicates to cut down on the barrier to chores.
For example, cleaning the toilet. I could buy just one bottle of toilet bowl cleaner and carry it to each bathroom when I'm cleaning. But instead, I buy one for each bathroom and leave one by each toilet. This doesn't cost more than buying just one in the long run, since the cleaner is consumed at about through the same rate (although it's a little faster because I'm actually using it), but it means that it's that much easier to clean a toilet when I need to do it. And because it's easier to clean the toilet, they stay cleaner, which means it takes barely a few minutes to clean a toilet and I don't have to deal with the extra nasty level of grime that's hard to clean.
Another example would be having broom for each floor of the house. I'm more likely to sweep if I don't have to bring a broom from upstairs or something. Or buying extra rolls of trash bags and leaving the rolls near each trash can.
My mind boggles at the idea of being able to afford to live in a place that has more than one floor and more than one toilet/bathroom.
Yoga With Adriene on YouTube. I love her relaxed vibe and variety of offerings. So much better than having to go somewhere and pay for a class, and I always feel so good afterwards.
A hot cup of tea with a little honey.
A day spent hiking or biking.
Free YouTube yoga classes.
Exercise in general - no expensive gym needed. Work out at home or outside.
An afternoon on the sofa with a good book and a blanket.
Walks outside are easy, but I've tried multiple times in the past to be an "exercise at home" kind of person, and I just don't have the discipline to keep with it if I don't have a group workout to go to. But a lot of towns do have groups that meet in the park in summer time and stuff.
Buying treats for my pet, and showing him love through them. Quite rewarding
This is good for pet and owner. It gives trust to pet and owner, plus it is very helpful in training dogs.
A second vote for some dollar store bins.
Having ADHD causes me to forget to do morning routine things constantly. So I finally put everything in a basket - hair brush, hair ties, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, tongue scraper, ear cleaner. Basket comes out and everything is right there.
Also a pill organizer. I got two huge unopened ones from the thrift store and since I take several daily meds to keep me alive, it's kind of important to remember to take them. So on Sundays I refill and I have two so I only have to do it twice a month. It sits out on my counter as a reminder.
I have had one for four months. My little sister went out of her way to get one for me that has 4 sections per day of the week. And I still haven't gotten around to using it. I'm sure that it will be super helpful once I remember to fill it.
Load More Replies...
Pharmacies in Canada organize your daily schedule of pills for you into blister packs when they dispense them to you. All of your morning pills together in one "blister" etc. Comes in a two week sheet folded in half like a book with everything labelled.
THE PILL ORGANIZER!!! Oh my gosh, a literal life saver for me. I always forgot my meds before I started using one (hadn't been diagnosed with ADHD yet LOL) then when I need to take certain ones in the morning and others at night I bought a morning one in another color. So freaking helpful. And when I do forget, cause it still happens sometimes, I can SEE it. Which means I don't double up and also, if I notice a difference in my health, I can track if I missed my meds or not.
I now have two dosette boxes because I have to take my meds as soon as I finish work, as well as ones in the morning. The night one has compartments that come out so I can take my one dose a night with me in my bag.
We need a whole tread of things that make ADHA life easier for sufferers.E.g I can now clean my house,once sometimes twice a week,completely in an hour. It took a lot to get to this point but now ,it is literally show home clean(we are selling and having open houses every weekend).I clean to the same list of songs ,by the same artist.(Thank you Billy Bragg).Cleaning the sinks and benches to "Must I paint you a picture",Stove and fridge to "The Price I Pay" etc etc ...By "Never Cross A Picket Line " and "the Internationale" , the beds are made...It works a treat and is the first time in my life that I can clean successfully ,without verging on panic :)
For the bathroom supplies, a shower caddy works well too. But they are prolly more than a bin from the dollar store
We have a side by side fridge, love water & ice in the door, HATE the freezer. I bought a plastic bin for each shelf. So much easier.
OCD answer: my bathroom wire bin also fits well into the travel bag- looks like a camera bag.
I, too, find it helpful to keep my pill reminder thingy in the kitchen.
My husband and I are seniors and he has more complex health issues, though I have my own troubles, so we both have pill dispensers that I top up every Friday. I bought dollar store plastic baskets to keep all the bottles etc. for each of our meds, and they're on a kitchen shelf while the dispensers are on the counter. Invaluable tools. 👍 We've had to replace them sometimes but it's worth it for the safety of avoiding mistakes. You can save pill bottles and mark them with Sharpies if it's hard to find the dispensers. I mark the pill bottles with the dose and time of day to be take as well, to simplify the process, and make a note on the fridge whiteboard and shopping list when supplies run low. 😊
No Adhd, but same thing for my (mostly zombie-like) morning routine. Before going to bed, I put out all clothes I am planning to wear the next day, all grooming items I need are in a basket, lay out a towel etc... It's a complete mental list which takes me five minutes every evening but spares me running around like a headless chicken in the morning and allowing to go on autopilot for 20 minutes.
Dental floss
Taking walks or hiking in the woods. So rejuvenating!
Or simply birdwatching and listening to birds in the backyard.
A microwavable heat pack. Helps me feel relaxed and ease aches and pains
A walk beside the ocean. A cup of tea and a blanket and a book.
All of these suggestions are so good. Scrolling through I had that "these are my people" feeling. I love this sub
Lemon or cucumber water!
A crystal suncatcher prism in a sunny window (rainbows everywhere!)
A clean, organized home
Exercise in nature (hikes, yoga, wild swimming, etc)
Line dried bedding (the freshness makes me so happy)
Deep breathing
Tea and a book
Fresh flowers (bought or foraged)
Gardening
Volunteering
Really good food, not expensive either. Today I'm cooking mahi mahi over cheesy grits with asparagus . Less than $4 a serving. Everything was bought on sale. Last week was Mongolian pork with ramen noodles. Pork loin on sale for $1.48 a pound, ramen $.39 per packet.
Water bottle
here in japan water bottles cost around 1-5k or smth depending on what kinds ur going to buy. but stainless that keeps everything in the bottle hot or cold last longer
Cheap organizational containers- I tend to misplace things a lot, so having my items (office supplies, makeup, food, etc) allocated to different boxes saves me so much time and frustration. Also, it allows me to save space by vertically organizing my desk/cabinets via stacking boxes.
Used/resold books - I’ve gotten some classics for $2-3 at Half Price Books and at other great sales to add to my mini library and preoccupy me. Taking advantage of the library for free books/movies is also a great idea, and the library (or mine, at least) used to have a program where they were selling older books for $0.25-0.50.
Humidifier/diffuser/air purifier - The diffuser I got was from Five Below and had a low capacity, so it could only humidify a very small space, but all you do is put essential oils into the small sponge provided and it makes the room smell amazing. My tiny, drab dorm smelled like roses and was beautified by the changing rainbow light built in, which made my time in there less miserable lol. If you live in a cold, dry midwestern state like me, then a humidifier is a great investment and you can find a pretty good one under $20 on Amazon.
Used books at book sales are so amazing- Flyleaf Books also has an amazing used book section.
Note: this post originally had 60 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
https://ziasabers.com/product/fury-custom-lightsaber-10-sound-fonts/ its not like 5-20 bucks cheap but its great for the price and i can near guarentee it will make your life better
Zip ties, duct tape, fishing line, hot glue and wire coat hangers. Combinations of these items can temporarily fix about anything.
I'd like to add one. Stopping smoking or Vaping. It's hard to do, it wasn't fun, but OH MY GOD was it worth it.
Welcome to the club. I stopped 9 years ago after 55 years smoking 25 a day. It also allowed me to indulge my hobbies instead of burning money. 😊👍
Load More Replies...
Hugs. I know there are people who aren't huggers, but I totally am. I love getting a hug from my kid. After my husband died, I was randomly hugged by two strangers in Costco (they asked), and I appreciated being seen so much. I love hugs from animals, too. Just being warm and fuzzy.
Something that didn't cost much but improved my quality of life; empty gel capsules and a pill splitter. It's healthier for me to do a half a pill, but the pills themselves were uncoated, and LOVE to stick in your throat, 5x worse when split. So by putting the halves in a capsule, it allows me to swallow them easily without choking. Plus, the taste is unpleasant, so this helps with that as well.
Do you think an exclamation mark is appropriate for hygge?
Load More Replies...
People living in places with actual libraries and near accessible nature are so lucky! I've lived in a place like that and enjoyed myself immensely, but have since come back to my big city in Southeast Asia where none of those are doable lol
Buying and repairing an espresso machine has saved me a lot of money. Cost for machine and fixing the part that was broken $60. The owners just went out and bought a new one for $2000. I bought the part, cleaned up the machine, and now only spend $10 a week on coffee beans. Also trading smoking for vaping. Don't care if I look like a nonce, the health benefits are waaaaaaay better, helped me give up smoking, and now I'm no longer spending over $120 for four packs a week.
Well done. More toxins in cigarette smoke than the other stuff plus you're saving those around you not just yourself.
Load More Replies...
Uncle Ben's Rice and some precooked chicken or beef. Easy and filling meal for one in less than 10 minutes that costs less than $5
A) So you simply can not bake..B) That is the reason. NOW I understand your stupid statement.
For me, the free version of the Cozi app for helping organise our family. Colour-coded entries for each person's calendar, shared shopping lists and to-do lists. There are other apps available of course but this is the one that works for us!
https://ziasabers.com/product/fury-custom-lightsaber-10-sound-fonts/ its not like 5-20 bucks cheap but its great for the price and i can near guarentee it will make your life better
Zip ties, duct tape, fishing line, hot glue and wire coat hangers. Combinations of these items can temporarily fix about anything.
I'd like to add one. Stopping smoking or Vaping. It's hard to do, it wasn't fun, but OH MY GOD was it worth it.
Welcome to the club. I stopped 9 years ago after 55 years smoking 25 a day. It also allowed me to indulge my hobbies instead of burning money. 😊👍
Load More Replies... Hugs. I know there are people who aren't huggers, but I totally am. I love getting a hug from my kid. After my husband died, I was randomly hugged by two strangers in Costco (they asked), and I appreciated being seen so much. I love hugs from animals, too. Just being warm and fuzzy.
Something that didn't cost much but improved my quality of life; empty gel capsules and a pill splitter. It's healthier for me to do a half a pill, but the pills themselves were uncoated, and LOVE to stick in your throat, 5x worse when split. So by putting the halves in a capsule, it allows me to swallow them easily without choking. Plus, the taste is unpleasant, so this helps with that as well.
Do you think an exclamation mark is appropriate for hygge?
Load More Replies... People living in places with actual libraries and near accessible nature are so lucky! I've lived in a place like that and enjoyed myself immensely, but have since come back to my big city in Southeast Asia where none of those are doable lol
Buying and repairing an espresso machine has saved me a lot of money. Cost for machine and fixing the part that was broken $60. The owners just went out and bought a new one for $2000. I bought the part, cleaned up the machine, and now only spend $10 a week on coffee beans. Also trading smoking for vaping. Don't care if I look like a nonce, the health benefits are waaaaaaay better, helped me give up smoking, and now I'm no longer spending over $120 for four packs a week.
Well done. More toxins in cigarette smoke than the other stuff plus you're saving those around you not just yourself.
Load More Replies... Uncle Ben's Rice and some precooked chicken or beef. Easy and filling meal for one in less than 10 minutes that costs less than $5
A) So you simply can not bake..B) That is the reason. NOW I understand your stupid statement.
For me, the free version of the Cozi app for helping organise our family. Colour-coded entries for each person's calendar, shared shopping lists and to-do lists. There are other apps available of course but this is the one that works for us!
