With the rising cost of living, you may wonder if it’s still possible to live within your means and manage with limited income. The good news is that you can live within a budget and even save with little adjustments. Our grandmas survived the Great Depression and long periods of rationing without ever going into debt.
Read on to learn more about old-fashioned, frugal tips from grandma that you can still apply today to save money.
Ditch the Credit Cards and Save Up for Things
While credit cards provide the convenience of buying things immediately, they can be expensive over time. Learn to save up for big purchases instead of picking up your credit card each time you go out. Doing so will help avoid costly interest payments, poor credit scores, and debt.
Cook Your Meals at Home
Pre-packaged meals, takeouts, and frequent dinners in restaurants can be expensive. You can practice frugality like grandma by preparing delicious meals from scratch. By shopping for groceries and planning your meals for the week or month, you can save hundreds of dollars every month that can go into your retirement or investment account.
Explore Free Activities
Explore free activities to find joy in simple pleasures. You could go for a family picnic, organize a pot-luck dinner at home with friends, or play board games with family as you talk. Our grandmas focused more on experiences than material wealth and were content with what they had. That’s something we can replicate to help us save money.
Conserve Energy
Our grandparents were very conservative and would find ways to save every coin. You can also conserve energy like grandma by unplugging electronics when not in use, line drying your clothes, investing in energy-efficient appliances, and switching to energy-efficient light bulbs.
Repurpose and Reuse Items You Already Have
Grandmas would always find unique ways to repurpose and reuse items they already had before purchasing new things. For example, they could cut worn-out jeans into shorts, use old towels as cleaning rags, or use worn-out sheets for kids’ projects.
Repair Damaged Items
If you’re creative and willing to do the work yourself, you can save money by repairing damaged items instead of purchasing new ones. Fixing broken chairs, sealing leaky faucets, and mending torn clothes can extend the life of these items, saving you hundreds of dollars each year.
Line Dry Your Clothes
Hanging your clothes on a line or drying rack saves you money, as you don’t have to use the dryer often. Project Laundry List shows households can save up to 20% on utility bills by line-drying clothes. You’ll also preserve fabrics by extending their life, which saves you more money in the long run.
Give DIY Gifts
Buying gifts for every birthday, celebration, or season can be expensive. Instead, you can opt to give DIY gifts. They are cheap and thoughtful, and you can always customize them to the recipient’s interests without splurging. Candles, friendship bracelets, body scrubs, and personalized cards are all gifts you can make at home and save a few coins.
Skip Impulse Purchases
Grandmas were frugal during their era and would budget and account for every coin before thinking of the next purchase. While impulse buying gives you that temporary excitement, it’s expensive and means you don’t get to live within your means.
That could leave you struggling to achieve important financial goals. Do a no-spend challenge, ditch that credit card, and have a budget and plan in mind when shopping to avoid impulse purchases.
Avoid Wasting Things
Most of our grandparents were raised or got their frugal mindset in the Depression era. They embraced minimalism during this period as they had to work with a tight budget and limited access to resources, which meant well spent.
You can also learn to avoid wastage by using reusable shopping bags, reusing plastic garden containers, packing lunch to work, repairing your furniture, finding creative ways to use food leftovers, etc.
Walk or Ride Your Bike
Choosing to walk or ride your bike will save you money. You don’t have to think about gas, maintenance costs, or depreciation constantly. Statistics show that taking your bike for a couple of days each week could save up to $10,800 over ten years. Additionally, the personal health benefits of walking or riding your bike make this a better transportation alternative.
Take Advantage of Discounts
Remember how grandma would spend time in newspapers looking for shopping coupons and discounts? You can also save some bucks by knowing where to get coupons, free promotions, and utilize discounts.
Find coupons from companies where you shop or download their apps. Stores like Kroger, Target, and Dollar General have coupon apps, depending on your shopping activity. You can enjoy other perks like pharmacy or fuel points. Sites like Wayfair, Old Navy clothing, and Bath and Beyond have plenty of coupons to save hundreds of dollars annually.
Ditch the Disposables
Do away with disposable items like diapers, face wipes, paper towels, napkins, etc. Focus on switching to reusable options for wiping your countertops or cloth diapers to save costs and preserve the environment.
Shop in Second-Hand Stores
Sometimes, going the DIY route isn’t easy, but you can still save some coins like grandma by buying things secondhand. You can find everything you need, including jewelry, furniture, golf sets, clothes, toys, books, appliances, etc., in thrift stores, yard sales, and even on online marketplaces.
Old-Fashioned Frugal Tips
Although our grandmas were strict with their spending, that’s how they managed to survive tough economic times and have enough to educate their children. You can save money and live more sustainably by implementing some of our favorite old-fashioned frugal living tips from Grandma above.
