Guide to Frugal Living (WIP)

Basically I started putting this together in January and then recently (April 2025) lots of people have been making “recession-core” posts and videos with tips, so I figured now was a good time to put this out (even if it's not complete). This is a collection of tips, ideas and recommendations for living more frugally WITHOUT depriving yourself.

The goal is to save money, live happily and learn how to not be a “good consumer.” The focus is on US resources because that's where I'm from, but many things can be applied in other countries if you're interested in saving money, too.

One of the important parts about being happily frugal (as opposed to begrudgingly) is having the right mindset. Yeah, maybe it's not as fun to not be able to buy the newest electronic thing or new clothes every month. But on the other hand, if you have the right mindset, it's almost like an act of rebellion.

Nowadays everybody wants you to be buying stuff. The government wants you to spend money like they didn't just throw us back into a recession. Marketers want you to buy their dumb shit at inflated prices. Influencers want you to use their affiliate codes for crap you don't need. A combination of high-pressure sales tactics, social media lifestyle competition, fast fashion cycles, super-cheap sweatshop labor stores and the “fuck it, I'm not gonna be able to retire anyway” mentality means that a lot of people have gotten very used to buying buying buying NEW all the time.

Example: Think of how it's normal to buy 5-10 new swimsuits every year now, instead of just using the same 3 you already have (and like). Maybe they only cost you $10 each, but then you don't even wear them all before tossing them so you can buy another 10 bikinis the next year.

No only is that a waste of money, but it's damaging to the environment. Where do you think those bikinis go when you trash them? Or if you donate them to a thrift store, maybe they sell them…but honestly people don't want to buy Shein bikinis from Goodwill because wtf.

Anyway, the point is this: you are not the stuff you own. You are not a better person for having a full fridge organizor set from Amazon. If you wear the same winter coat 5 years in a row, you are not gross or outdated or whatever. And it's a lot easier to retire if you have savings.

The thing that annoys me the most about the modern consumerism culture is that it's a deliberate movement by bad actors to deprive you of your money and autonomy. Fuck those people. They don't have your best interests in mind.

That's the kind of frugal I am, the “fuck you, I'm not spending money” kind. Plus, if you're frugal for long enough it almost becomes a game. How much can I save this month? How can I make a great meal from this random stuff in my cupboard? etc. etc. It's easy to be frugal when you have a specific goal in mind, even if it's just saving up to buy a video game or something. (My goal is to be self-employed/low-employed for as long as possible.)

I also see frugal living as an act of community-building. The best way to share money is to split things with friends, swap with neighbors, make use of community pantries and so on. That's only possible if you go out and find your local community, and build systems where you all benefit. Again modern times (especially post-pandemic) has made it very difficult for people to get out there and interact with one another without causing drama, but there's always ways to make it work. Even just going to something like a free talk about gardening at your local library builds community.

Like I said earlier, the goal is to be happily frugal. If you're the sort of person who wants high-dollar designer clothes, expensive makeup/shoes and the newest car, then it's going to be very hard for you to be frugal AND HAPPY. Your mindset doesn't match up, at least in the way I'm talking about in this guide.

Let's be real though, if you're buying $3,000 shoes you're probably not reading this website anyway. ;)

For other folks, being frugal doesn't mean missing out. It means spending where it makes sense to spend, and spending only on things that make you really happy or that are necessary for your survival.

If a $5 coffee every day helps get you through a shitty work week, then get the coffee. Just budget it into your monthly spending and cut somewhere else, or figure out how to get an extra $25/week somehow to cover it.

Go see that local band for $20; buy a nice skein of wool yarn from a local dyer; get the organic granola that tastes way better than the store band basic stuff. Spend where it makes the most impact, and cut back on the stuff that you don't need.

Some people get REALLY into penny-pinching, to the point where they're sitting in the dark at night to save a few cents on electricity. I'd' rather you go ask for a few bucks from a mutual aid fund to cover your electricity before you get to that point.

Anyway, that's the vibe we're going with in this guide, okay?

If you're in a really desperate situation (like about to be homeless desperate) then being frugal won't necessarily help. BUT building community connections and using community resources (which is part of frugal living) CAN help.

Right now government assistance is tricky because funding has either been pulled, is about to be pulled, or has been decimated, but there's other ways to get help. Check Mutual Aid Hub to find a local group to start with.

There's a lot of overlap between frugalism and stuff like minimalism, zero waste, homesteading, etc. Tends to be that people interested in saving money by growing herbs on their windowsill are also interested in things like environmentalism and under-consumption. This guide isn't about that, though.

Tbh I haven't read many “here's how to be frugal” books because they're all very similar, but I do have a few favorites:

Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn - a newsletter from 1990-1996, later compiled into a series of books.

I love her thinking process. Some of the specific stuff she does isn't practical or even possible nowadays, but that's not the point, really. The point is to change your mindset to thinking like this: buy it cheaper; make it last longer; use it less. More on that here, plus some funny examples of outdated things like extending the life of your typewriter ribbon.

You can borrow the books in PDF format from Archive.org: Volume 1 / Volume 2 / Volume 3

The paper copies are available online at places like eBay. If you want all three books for a slightly cheaper price, then try getting the Complete Tightwad Gazette edition.

You can also try searching for a copy at a local library (though it's an old enough book that it's probably been weeded from most public libraries).

Possum Living by Dolly Freed is another classic “frugal living” book that is highly out of date, but has interesting things about the frugal mindset. From the summary: “be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, all while enjoying leisure and keeping up a middle-class façade.” Sweet!

For 2025 I'm on a “no buy year.” I'm not buying anything new except for, like, bathroom stuff (and maybe shoes).

All my clothes will be thrifted; I'll make due with what I already have instead of buying something to replace a perfectly good item; I'll trade with other people or do swaps; I'll make good use of free community resources like the library and food banks. My money will be going to small businesses, local businesses and mutual aid programs.

Honestly the hardest part is switching my mindset from “oh I'll just buy that thing I need” to “what can I do instead of buying new.”

Like, I needed a wall charger with a USB-C port (or a USB-iPhone lightning cable) and I could technically buy one for maybe $6-10, but on the other hand…I'm pretty sure I can get one for free from a lost and found somewhere. Meanwhile, I'm repurposing my old Macbook charging block which has a USB-C port. Is it huge and annoying to carry around? Yes, yes it is. But I already have it and now I saved $10 (or more after the tariffs)!

If you're interested in doing a no buy month (or year), here's some reading:

• Cappuccino and Fashion did a no-spend month in August. I like how she wrote down everything she was tempted to buy but didn't, and then thought about whether it would've actually been a good purchase or not.
• On Consumerism and the Rise of the "No Buy" Year

The easiest is to just use what you have (reuse).

Sometimes this is called “upcycling,” and it's a great idea! Just make sure whatever you're upcycling is something that you're actually going to use, and not just more junk.

Some of my favorite ideas are: old towels/clothes (beyond repair) turned into rags; pasta sauce jars for fridge pickles; egg cartons turned into seed trays.

Next is to repair whatever is broken.

This can be slightly more difficult, depending on what it is, how it's broken, and your skill level. But most things that are only slightly broken can be fixed easily enough yourself. Or if you can't do it for whatever reason, you can find someone to do it for you, usually for less than it'd cost for a new one.

Many repair skills can be learned with videos or books! You can also take repair classes at local places; for instance bike shops often have bike owner repair classes for a low fee (or free!).

There's also Repair Cafes, where you can take broken items and maybe get them fixed by someone else. Or perhaps use their tools!

And finally, if the thing is just fucking ugly and you want something else that's prettier…make it prettier! Redecorate it!

Clothes (natural fibers) can be dyed, furniture can be recovered, and so on.

Look for swap events (swapmeets) around your town (search “clothing swap [location]” or look at Facebook events), or host one yourself for you and your friends. Mostly people do this for clothes, but you can swap anything if there's enough interest. Kitchen stuff, bedroom stuff, furniture, whatever.

An informal kind of swapping is joining a “Buy Nothing” Facebook group for your area. What's popular in your area may not be on Facebook: try looking at Freecycle or Trash Nothing.

If you want to swap books, I have a whole other guide for that here.

I've been seeing a lot of pushback against using thrift stores for some reason…like, people think they're only for really-really poor people, maybe? But no, thrift stores are for everyone. Thrift stores, especially the huge chains like Goodwill and Salvation Army, get thousands of pounds of donations each day and can only process a tiny amount of it for sale. If it doesn't sell, it gets shipped overseas and now it's another country's problem. Bah!

Thrifting is good for the environment, and it's good for your wallet!

To find thrift stores, literally just search “thrift store” on Google Maps. You can also try resale shops, secondhand shops, charity shops, etc.

Thrift stores too expensive where you live? Ugh, I get you.

First, most thrift stores have discounts on certain tag colors every day, usually 50% off. Stick to buying only that tag color and you're golden.

Second, if you're a senior (or you know a senior citizen who wants to shop with you), they often get special discounts on certain days, too. Savers, for instance, has senior discount days on Tuesdays– 30% off all tag colors!

Usually around the holidays thrift stores will also have bag sales, where you can stuff a bag full of whatever for a certain price. They tend to announce that on social media, so following them on IG can be helpful. And finally, you can sometimes get coupons for donating– like Savers, where you get a 20% coupon for dropping off clothing or household items.

Other options are: look for yard sales, church rummage sales, and flea markets.

If you live super rural and can't find any good in-person sales, try online resale apps like eBay, Poshmark, or Mercari.

A big one, especially since egg prices shot up during the pandemic and never went down again.

I spend about $200/month on food, which is actually less than the USDA Thrifty Food Plan budget for my age range– maybe I need to buy more fruit, idk. I don't usually buy in bulk and I don't go couponing; I'm just really good at making a variety of meals with simple ingredients and I don't experiment much with expensive spices or whatever.

Are you a bad cook? or just an unimaginative one? Yeah, me too. I use SuperCook to help me figure out what to make sometimes. You input your pantry and fridge stuff and it searches for recipes that you can make with those ingredients. Very helpful in a pinch!

That said, there's lots of ways to save money on grocery shopping. You may not always like it, but it can be done.

The big one is to stop buying snacks and flavored drinks (and alcohol). Snacks are pricey for what you get, and if you're me you eat them all in a few days anyway. Prepared foods/quick foods also tend to be expensive for what you get (you pay for convenience, I guess). What I recommend is buying ONE snack/treat per shopping trip, cutting back on the prepared stuff where it makes sense, and buying ingredients for the rest.

Since I'm one person, I usually make larger batches of food and then freeze whatever I don't eat. Then I either reheat it as-is, or I put it in something else to make a new meal. Like maybe I'll make a huge pot of mashed potatoes, eat some for dinner and then the next day make bubble and squeak, and then the third day a shepherd's pie. Here's guidelines from the Food Safety and Inspection Service about leftovers and how long to keep them (and how to reheat them properly).

Some people don't like eating leftovers. Get over it.

Another way to save is to buy in bulk, especially ingredients like flour, salt, sugar, etc. If you're a single person this can be intimidating because it may seem like you'll never finish that 2lb jar of peanut butter before it goes bad (or before you get sick of it), but that's where things like canning, freezing, and sharing with your friends comes in handy.

Finding free food is another huge tip. Food banks, food swaps, taking some leftovers from work potlucks and even dumpster diving can all yield great results.

And finally, growing your own food is always an option. Even if you live in an apartment with no yard, you can grow herbs in your windowsill.

Couple tips! First, most lunch menus are cheaper than dinner. Second, you can get discounted gift cards from places like AARP (you don't need to be old to join!). Third, TooGoodtoGo has restaurants (and grocery stores for that matter) putting together discounted bags of food a few hours before they go bad. I've gotten very good to-go meals for about half off using that app! (Results vary by location.)

Dollar Tree Dinners - again it's the thought process. You may not have a Dollar Tree near you, or you may not have those specific foods available at those prices. But watching her videos gives me tons of ideas for how to make different meals from the same few ingredients– switching things up enough to keep things interesting when you're eating the same leftovers day after day!

Another couple good things about this particular creator: she always includes snacks and other treats in the weekly budget; she always prices out if you need spices or other things, not assuming you have certain items in your pantry already; she does ALL meals, not just dinners; she's honest about what would make a meal taste BETTER if you had a bit extra in your budget for bonus spices or whatever.

Some of my favorite videos:

• $10 for groceries for an entire week from Dollar Tree Part 1 / Part 2
• Eating for $27.50 for a Week from Dollar Tree
• Eating for $5 a Day from Dollar General (7 day series)

Good and Cheap by Leanne Brown - a cookbook for people on very tight food budgets. I like this one because it focuses on delicious foods, actual things I think people want to eat.

Note: the best things come to those willing to wait. Using free resources like your library often means joining a wait list, which can be quite long. But think about it: do you really need to read that new-release book RIGHT NOW? Or can you wait two months to save $20?

Tip: Filter your library's Libby catalog by “available now.” Then you can get all the ebooks you want to keep yourself occupied until your holds come in.

Streaming services are a scam! You don't need subscriptions to all of them, trust me.

Instead, try alternating your subs. Pick one service each month and watch everything on your list. Then unsub and pick another service. If you really want a year's sub to something, wait until Black Friday (November) when they mostly all go on sale and have deals. Hulu, for instance, for the last few years has had $1/month subs for Black Friday.

There's lots of free streaming channels, too. Yes you have to watch ads, but then again even Netflix is making you do that now.

Highly recommend connecting to your local PBS station first, which has AMAZING things to watch like cooking shows (Julia Childs!), documentaries, kids shows, movies and more. Then try channels like Pluto TV, Tubi (owned by Fox btw), and Plex. Youtube has free-with-ads movies, and Archive.org has tons of movies and TV shows available for free.

Try visiting your local library! The bigger ones probably have Hoopla, where you can “rent” movies to watch online. You can also get free (or very cheap) DVD rentals if you go in-person. Some libraries also host free movie nights, usually for families but sometimes also just for adults.

You could also buy DVDs at the thrift store and build your own entertainment library, without depending on any streaming services. Or again, swap DVDs with friends and do movie nights together. Homemade popcorn is very cheap!

Again, your local library is VERY IMPORTANT and you should always try there first for these things. Especially now when funding keeps being cut. Most libraries have funding from local government as well as federal, so if their fed money is cut they'll need support from local. Visit your library, use their services, write letters to your local government in support and go to the library board meetings.

Anyway, libraries have the following for patrons:

• Books of all sorts, including new ones. You can also (usually) order books from other libraries to be shipped to yours, if they don't have it there. That's called an inter-library loan; ask your librarian about it. Use WorldCat to look for books in your local surrounding libraries and to see which libraries have the books you want.
  • This might be obvious, but you CAN sign up for more than one library system at a time. Depending on where you live, you can get reciprocal library cards from other libraries within your state. Some places you can even get cards from neighboring states!
  • You can also get non-resident library cards if you're a) willing to spend a bit of money and b) interested in ebooks and other electronic resources. Mobileread has a list here with some non-resident library card options.
• Magazines, though many have moved to digital versions you can check out on Libby.
• Newspapers, usually for in-person they have the local paper and maybe New York Times or another big national one. Online they'll often have access to all kinds of papers. For instance, Los Angeles Public Library has a subscription to a database that patrons can use to get papers from all over the country!

I have a guide on where to get music besides Spotify here which has some great resources. As for audiobooks, once again I highly recommend visiting your local library! In-person they'll have CDs and maybe even MP3 players with audiobooks on them. If they have a decent digital collection, you can get audiobooks on Hoopla and Libby.

You can also get free audiobooks from LibreVox, where volunteers read public domain books and release them for free. Archive.org has LibreVox files as well as other audiobooks.

Archive.org is also where you can find Old Time Radio programs, if you're into that! And of course if you prefer something more modern, audio drama podcasts are an excellent option.

Buying the newest gaming system will always be expensive; try buying the previous version and you'll often save up to half the price. (Not for Nintendo though, they're stingy with sales.) Otherwise you can always buy used!

Sign up for websites like Deku Deals or Is There Any Deal to get alerts for when games go on sale.

Steam (PC) has big sales twice a year, once during the winter and once during the summer. You can also make family libraries and share games with family members! Itch.io often hosts game bundles which support various charities through sales of indie games.

Tbh PC games will give you the most bang for your buck; you can often pick up hundreds of games for the same price as a few console games, but you DO need a decent computer set-up to play graphics-intense games. My computer is better for writing than gaming, so I can't play stuff like Baldur's Gate 3 (unfortunately) because it lags too much. But I can play nearly every 2D game, point-and-click game, and retro abandonware game that interests me!