Tips on Living the Frugal Lifestyle

I'd wager that you'd have to be living under a rock to not know how insane food prices seem to be these day. In the grocery store the other days, eight items came to a total of $41.02 and these were not things like steak and caviar but everyday things like flour and bacon. The gas pump as well, is also ready to take a pop shot at your wallet. With no end in sight for the tough economy, it might be time to give frugal living another thought.

Knowing and avoiding loss leader marketing is one way to cut on costs. In a nutshell, loss leader marketing is where a company gives something away at a financial loss in hopes of recouping that loss with the purchase of another product down the road. An example of this might be a store that gives away an inexpensive prize but in order to claim the prize, you might have to navigate all the way to the back of the store, passing by sale item after sale item. For many people, that free gift could result in the purchase of hundreds of dollars of on-sale merchandise. It's usually best to avoid these situations but if the offer is attractive, make sure you bring along a healthy dose of will power.

Probably the easiest place to save money is at the grocery store. A quick check on Safeway's website shows a TV diner currently selling for $3.29. For a single person that might not be a big deal but if you've got a family of four, that's $13.16 for one meal. If you ate like that everyday of the month, you're looking at $400. Then consider what eating processed foods all the time does to your health. Homecooking, though it might take longer to prepare, costs a fraction and is better for your health.

Our final frugal tip is learning the real way to recycle and that's by reusing and repurposing things that you might throw away. I have to qualify this by saying real recycling because generally the top of recycling done by the garabage collection agency is a scam, which is why it has to be subsidized by tax-payer money. Additionally, in most cases it's actually worse for the environment. The good news is though, you've been repurposing things since you were a kid, just back then it was called arts and crafts. An example of a something old being put to a new and good use; I turned to worn 16" bicycle rims into a clothes hanger for socks and handkerchiefs to air dry. Another idea would be using an old athletic sock to store plactic shopping bags.

A lot of people may reject the idea of frugality at first, fearing that it signals a huge change in lifestyle but it doesn't have to be. Start slow if you need to but realize in the end that a thrifty lifestyle really puts yourself under the care of what's best for you. To learn more about frugal living, please visit the Frugal Living Blog.