If you are tired of letting money control every aspect of your life, it might be time to look into the benefits of living a frugal lifestyle. But what does that entail and how can living this way give you a better quality of life? Let’s take a look at both of these questions.
What is Frugal Living?
Living frugally doesn’t necessarily equate to living cheaply. It does, however, refer to taking steps towards financial minimalism and keeping spending on the lower side, also not being frivolous with money. It’s about being smart with the funds that you do have so you can keep more cash to put towards investments and things that will improve your life and financial situation.
Ways to Finance a Frugal Lifestyle
To really make a change in how you live, you have to flip the script and do things differently. By making fundamental changes, you can usher in a new way of living that will relieve some of the stress and give you a better quality of life. If you want to successfully start on the frugal lifestyle path, you’ll need to give yourself a fresh start. One of the best ways to do this is to eliminate your crushing high interest credit card debt. Credit cards are designed to overcharge you, month after month, with rates that can soar to almost 20%. When you have such big card payments to make, a lot of your money for the month is gone before you even open the other bills. If you take out a personal loan at an affordable rate for your budget, you can use those funds to start right by paying off or paying down your credit card balances.
Create Affordable, Restaurant Quality Meals at Home
If you want to improve your family’s life on several levels, you can change how you shop for groceries and learn how to make delicious meals at home. Most people spend a lot of their budget on prepared foods and impulse purchases from grocery stores. In addition, there are expenses for pricey takeout meals at work and for dinner. Typically, the prepared foods and takeout meals are not very good for your health, either. To live a frugal lifestyle and nurture your family’s health, revamp your grocery shopping and start buying only raw ingredients and fresh-produce and protein at the grocery store. Then spend some time learning how to be a home chef by watching online videos. Soon you’ll be spending hundreds less each month and you will be sharing wonderful meals with your family too.
Go On More Outdoor Adventures
With our hectic lifestyles, it always feels like we are stressed beyond belief. It doesn’t help that we have to wait all year for our all too short vacation, which likely costs thousands that we put on a credit card. The added debt just adds to our stress. Instead of taking one break a year, open up your life and set things up so you can enjoy weekends away whenever you want. By investing in the great outdoors and camping gear, you’ll be able to spend beautiful time in nature whenever you like. You’ll be able to go to the lake, take a trip to the ocean or mountains or even spend the weekend in a picturesque National Park. Best of all, you’ll hardly be spending any money for these amazing experiences.