5 Things That Create A Happy And Money Saving Frugal Home

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Frugal living doesn’t mean no fun and boring. In fact it means the exact opposite. 

Frugal living means you are living well on less.  You are enjoying life now and saving for the future. You are making smart choices for your family and telling your money where to go and what to do.  You are making your money work for you.

In a frugal home you make choices to do without or choose the cheaper item.  You choose to save money instead of spend. You choose what is important to you instead of keeping up with the Joneses.  A frugal home is a happy home.

5 Things that create a happy money saving frugal home:

1. A plan

A money plan, a life plan, a meal plan.  You name it and a frugal home has it.   A money plan is simply that, one that keeps track of your money and where you make your money work for you.  You can learn all about money plans in the Total Money Makeover.

A life plan – where do you and your family want to be in five years or in one year?  Where do you want to be next year? Where do you want your money, your debt and your savings to be?  What holidays do you want to plan?  Or what big life events are going to take place in the next year?

A meal plan is the best thing to happen to our frugal home. We use the a meal plan and I love it.  I know what’s for dinner. I know what’s in my freezer and I know what I need to go grocery shopping for. A meal plan saves time in the kitchen and money in the grocery budget.

A plan in various forms keeps our frugal home organized and happy. We know what our money is doing, we know what’s for dinner and what we need at the grocery store. Planning takes away the stress and allows for happiness and enjoyment.

2. A want for more

A want for a happy future, a want for life without debt.  A want to live well and provide for our family. A want for more will extend you beyond your boundaries to search for more frugal options. A want for more may have you looking for a second income or a side hustle.  A want for more may have you looking at your budget and seeing where you can save more money. What do you want?  Where do you want to be?

3. Communication

Open, honest communication is the best policy and one we keep in our home.  We are honest in our budget meeting – if something didn’t work we fix it. If we can’t afford something we say “no”. We communicate about where we want to be, what we want to do and what we want to save for. If we want to plan a family holiday everyone is included, we set a plan and we save.

Great communication also keeps us happy and sane.  We sit down and have meals together. We talk about our day.  Communication doesn’t have to be just talking it can be writing or emailing or calling a family member on the telephone.  Communication is cheap on the dollar but it is good for the soul.  In our house some of the best communication is over a meal or a cup of coffee on the patio.

4. Skills and education

Learning to budget can keep you very happy.  Knowing where your money is and not stressing about it having your money work for you. Learning new skills and providing for your family.

If you could learn something new and provide new options for your family wouldn’t that make you happy?  What if you could work from home and skip the day to day commute – would that make you happy?

What if you learned how to live more frugally and it saved you a bunch of money wouldn’t you be happier?  I bet you would, in fact I know you would be happier if you saved more money.

Knowledge is power and the key to happiness.

5. Fun, fun and more fun

Frugal living doesn’t mean you are stuck inside and bored. No way in fact you can have an amazing time without spending any money. No spend weekends can be great family fun. Or cheap date nights with your spouse.

In fact I think we are have more fun now than we did before we pulled in our budget and started living more wisely.  We now know that expensive holidays and birthday parties don’t make us any happier than a family get together or staycation or frugal vacation. We don’t need to keep up with the neighbors and have it all.

Give us some coffee, chalk, a swimming pool or a park and we are happy. You can make fun and enjoyment in any situation. You simply need to think outside the box.

A frugal household is a happy household. 

Cutting down on household expenses, saving money, setting a plan, being open with your communication all work hand in hand with decreasing the stress and keeping you happy.

Honestly, before budgeting and frugal living my husband and I, we argued about money and where it was coming from and where it was going. It was stressful and I was unhappy.  Now with a budget and a plan we don’t argue about money. We have a plan we know where we want to be, what we want to save for.  We know what makes us happy.

As I write this post we have just come home from a family fishing trip and we caught nothing, but we had an amazing time. We spent nothing – zero, just the gas that was in the boat and in the truck and time. We packed lunches from home, we had all the gear. We had an amazing time and we were frugal.

Another example of a frugal moment would be a picnic in the park playing softball or playing on the playground.  You spend nothing but there is lots and lots of laughter and happy moments.

A frugal home is a happy home.

Have an amazing day,

Cynthia
Saving & Simplicity

Are you looking to save money?  Checkout these money saving resources:

Are you looking to get your finances under control and learn how to budget?  You can get our free budgeting printable here.   Another great resource for budgeting and learning all the ins and outs of personal finance is The Total Money Makeover.  This book changed our personal finances for the better and is a must read.

If you have read my blog before you have heard me talk about MyFreezEasy meal plans and how much I love them.   You have also heard me talk about all the time and money meal planning saves me. I use to choose take out or drive thru coffee or dinner at a restaurant after a long hard day.  Learning to meal plan effectively helped curb that habit and now we are enjoying yummy homemade meals that our family love.

Is your grocery budget stressing you out? Are you trying to figure out how to feed our family healthy meals while you watch the price of groceries rise?  You are not alone.

The Grocery Budget Workshop taught me how to save money at the grocery store.  It taught me how to cook efficiently, manage a grocery budget, shop sales and coupon quickly.  It also taught me how to save over $700 a month on items our family really didn’t need.

Are you ready to earn money while you shop?  Yes, I said earn money while you shop.  Have you heard of Ibotta?  Earn cash back on everyday purchases.   Simple select the items you will be shopping for in your easy handheld app, go shopping, redeem your rebates and earn cash. Simple and easy.