Reach Your Money Goals Sooner By Using The Frugal Living Tips

(Adapted from Julie's YouTube video)

Last week on my channel I shared how you can spend less but still feel like you're living luxuriously.

And today I'd like to take that a step further and share with you some more ways that you can spend less money and feel really good about it.

Think Differently

I am going to challenge you to begin to think differently, because I found that you can begin to save a lot of money by really beginning to question what you use and what you spend.

My laundry room is the first place that I'd like to start.  I like to use laundry balls, but in the winter I find that there's a lot of static electricity that they don't seem to remove. I have a little safety pin on them, but in my opinion, it doesn't seem to really work that well. 

So in the winter, I do like to use dryer sheets. I have unscented ones from Whole Foods, but what I have found is that you can very easily, take a full dryer sheet and just tear it in half. Use half of a dryer sheet–I can't tell the difference and I'm surprised how it works equally as well. This will very easily stretch your use of dryer sheets to twice as much.

I also did a little research with respect to laundry and listening to the laundry guy, he recommends that you only need two tablespoons of detergent for a full load of laundry. What!? That's an incredibly lower amount than the manufacturer's recommended amount on the bottle. I haven't tried this yet, but my guess is that the laundry guy knows what he's doing. I'm certainly going to give it a try and then this will definitely stretch the amount of time our detergent lasts.

Okay! Let's head up to the kitchen and I'll share with you some more money-saving tips up there.

Reduce Your Plastic Consumption

One of the easiest ways and a fast way to start saving some money is to reduce your plastic consumption, particularly plastic bags. Think about how much money this would save, if you cut down on your plastic bag use.

According to a quick Google search, 5 trillion plastic bags are used in a year–in the US this is 365 plastic bags per person per year. In contrast, people in Denmark only use an average of four.

We invested in some Stasher silicon bags and another brand called ProKeeper. Both have worked very well. 

We also use quite a bit of glass and I really like glass containers that have the snap-on lids. We also use a lot of just glass jars.

Ask yourself if you need the BEST

I used to get the heavy-duty aluminum foil just because I got in a habit of always searching for things of higher quality. I typically use aluminum foil to covers things in the oven or that I will want to heat in the oven again and not necessarily as a means to grill something on. For my purposes, I 've found that just the cheap variety of aluminum foil works just as well, but is quite a bit cheaper.

This really has made me stop to think about the question of quality a little more broadly. For a long time I got used to being able to buy a better quality and so I would automatically try to buy the best quality for everything, but often it's really not necessary and in some ways, it can be more wasteful.

There are times when good quality makes sense because it lasts longer, but you have to think about what you need and how you are going to use it before making a decision on what to buy.

We've also reduced our use of plastic wrap. I  made some cloth covers that work really well to go over bowls–these are just a piece of cloth an elastic edge that allows them to fit snuggly over the bowl. You can also find these quite a few cute options for these by searching cloth bowl covers on Etsy.

Buy in Bulk

We also recently switched to buying a lot more bulk spices. We used to buy most of our spices from Penzeys but recently I calculated the difference in purchasing from Penseys versus the bulk section of my local health food store and it actually is a little cheaper to buy from the bulk section. The quality of the spices still are very good because they're fresh.

Make it Yourself

There are a number of things that I started making myself, which can be significantly cheaper too. These really add up over time and I personally have fun making some of these things.

I recently started making my own rose water. It must be stored in the refrigerator, but it smells so wonderful and rose water is really good for your skin. I've found that it works really nicely as a facial toner.

It's super easy to make. You just take some dried rose petals (you can buy organic ones from Mountain Rose Herbs in bulk).  Using equal parts roses and distilled water, just simmer them for a short period of time until the roses petals lose their color. Then let them cool, strain it out and put the resulting liquid in a glass container.

Another thing that I started making for myself is dry shampoo. It is simply a mixture of cornstarch or arrowroot powder with cocoa to add some color. This is a very inexpensive solution, but it works extremely well and you know there are no harmful chemicals in it. Not to mention, it is super easy to make. You can use a small makeup brush to dab it onto the roots of your hair and then brush your hair and you are good to go.

Another DIY that we just recently started using is vinegar and water for cleaning. It works really well for keeping the shower door clean. I have a little glass bottle with a silicon cover around the base that I keep in the shower and then every couple of weeks, we'll just spray down the inner part of the shower door. It has worked so much better than scrubbing with the chemical cleaners. Again, this is a super inexpensive solution for cleaning.

I also like to make a lot of different things in the kitchen. Almond milk is super easy to make. You can buy big bag of almonds at Costco and make your own almond milk for a fraction of the cost. For this it is best to use a high powered blender such as a Vitamix.

I also never realized how easy it is to make your own yogurt too and I really love the taste of homemade yogurt. It is also very easy to make your own sour cream and buttermilk. If you consume these often, this can be a great way to save some money as well.

Do I really need this?

Lastly, I would encourage you to begin to think, "Do I really need this?"  before buying and to avoid purchasing things on the spot when you see them in the store.

I've found that two purses are all I need–one for everyday use and one for travel. I also don't have a lot of shoes in my closet. I'm trying to do a better job of being really conscientious about what I purchase for my wardrobe. I don't have a capsule wardrobe yet, though I am open to moving in that direction. 

I hope that you have found one or more tips in what I've shared with you helpful and I'd love to know some of your favorite ways to save money.