Guy and I were talking the other day and I admitted that I am secretly envious of those people that “live on less.” The people that always eat at home, clip coupons and search for bargains and deals before making purchases. As I get older my envy has been making a switch from families with large homes and fancy cars (and lots of credit cards) to the people that are driving their well maintenanced five-year-old car. I want to be like them.
“Oh wow, nice Lexus! Did you pay cash for that? No? Aww, I’m sorry. Take care…”
But that is me! I’m that Lexus driver! (No, I don’t drive a Lexus, I’m them in theory.) So I’m scouring to come up with ideas and inspiration to start living on less. Which apparently doesn’t mean living worse.
I’m trying to be more frugal and getting rid of things that are not necessary like the junk in our basement (garage sale) and all of the books I don’t read (Amazon) and I am THIS close to cancelling cable. Yes, cancelling cable.
So you frugal wives out there – what are your secrets? I read many a blog of women that don’t work and I’d love to know how you do it (besides having husband’s with a huge income.) I’m excited to become “one of you.”
Sher Bailey is a writer in the Midwest who believes the power of humor, Mod Podge, and grandkids can fix most problems in life. You can find her at SherBailey.com.
Sher says
Exact conversation I had with your SF this morning. Totally. Love it and can’t wait to hear more.
Katie says
I’m envious of those people too. But I’m trying to become one, because we are living on income (mine), because my husband is in grad school. I do not make much at all, especially considering we live in Southern California.
So far I’ve been getting movies from the library to save on renting or going out, shopping the grocery store sales paper and clipping coupons occasionally.
i also LOVE sites such as groupon.com, restaurant.com, retailmenot, and others. I never buy anything online for full price, and try never to pay for shipping.
We also have a set budget set up that we need to stick to in order for husband to receive a grant for school…so we are trying to live within that while I make student loan payments and put a little bit into savings and retirement every month.
Anyway, it’s a work in process, I’ll look forward to hearing about what you guys start to do!
Adorably Distracted... says
ahhaha I LOVE this topic!! I have become the coupon queen!!! I only get the paper on Sundays… it’s like 4 bucks or something a month and you save that on your first run to the store for groceries. I cut coupons out of there and then there are also online sites you can go to for free. I started shopping at the grocery store that has the cards instead of super walmart. Between their savings and my coupons, I saved $19 in one trip! Since i’m not a picky eater, I buy things that are on sale whenever i can, even if it means saving the coupon for another day. I buy meats in bulk and freeze them into dinner size portions. It maybe an expensive trip that day but then you are good for like a month. If I like a look from pottery barn, I try and recreate it through target or other places like that.
I hope this helped!! good luck
Mrs.LifeAccounts says
The hubby and I both drive old clunkers that we bought for cash, we are living with my parents temporairly while we finish remodeling our home to the point of livability, and we currently live like paupers in order to pay off our student loan debt by next year (four degrees really adds up). In the meantime, we’ve cut things like internet on the phones, not eating out, not shopping (boooo!) etc. The biggest ways for us to cut money is to meal plan ahead of time, never go to the grocery store outside of our set times, make larger meals and freeze portions so on nights we don’t feel like cooking we can “eat out” by ordering out of the freezer. 🙂 We never carry cash, as we both find it seems more like disposable income and we try to stay out of stores as much as possible. This helps eliminate a lot of our “needs.” We set budgets and do our best to stick to it. We each have a set amount of money that is ours to spend as we want. The rest goes to bills(cell phone, rent, insurance and set amount of groceries) and to student loans. All excess above our bills pays down the loans. *Phew* that was a lot. I grew up in a family of ten and my mom was a SAHM. I learned ALL kinds of tricks to save.
chocolate rose says
This is a great idea. I understand what you mean. We’re not good with the coupon clipping, yet (although they save you soooo much money), but we do our best to hunt for deals and rid our place of junk (to us) regularly. It feels good when we get rid of stuff. It’s like we’re clearing out old gunk in our lives to make room for the new–wait, does that defeat the purpose? lol. Well, I guess the real goal is to get rid of more stuff than we bring in. Anyway, this is my long comment to say, good luck with your mission!
Adorably Distracted... says
Also, you may not like this one… I gave up name brand shopping for clothes/shoes whatever. Instead of going to see Victoria I go and rock the undies from a dept store or even target. I try and stick to plain colored clothes so that i can just spice them up with accessories. I go to the sale dept first and i usually try and wait for something to go on sale before i’ll ever pay full price. I go to Ross, TJmax, all those stores before I’ll go to ANY expensive store. I was making a photo album for my parents for xmas and got the same album at tjmax for $8 that i paid for at walmart for $20 a few weeks before.
Can you tell were broke yet? lol we’re not really broke i just like my dollar to stretch as much as possible!
Dollface says
I actually have started becoming more frugal… but I cant wait to see what everyone comments.. tips are sooo necessary!! xxxooo
Lindsey says
I’m envious of those people too and I’m trying to be like them! Our first step was clipping coupons out of our weekend newspaper and setting a budget and keeping track of everything we spent. Watching our savings grow has kept me motivated and less tempted to spend.
Kristen says
love the new layout! We have pretty much quit going out to dinner, we quit the “oh lets go to the mall” stuff cause then we end up buying things just because! It’s a matter of self control! 🙂
Sara says
I would love to be one of those people too. It’s so hard to get focused on two incomes with no children. I make more money and am more stable than I’ve ever been so it’s very tempting for me to want nice things and to fix up the house. I do clip coupons but it’s rare that I use them since they’re mostly for junk food. Our big thing we need to cut out if restaurants. We eat out WAY too much. Good luck; let us know what you come up with.
Tammi J says
I’m compelled to comment so you’d have a wide range of POVs…
Its very weird for me to hear so many people agree to feeling envious of people living on less. I’ve never tried to imagine it from the other side.
I do live on less. But not because I think coupon clipping is exciting or because I enjoy finding bargains… but because after my rent payment, all of my bills and paying off student loans and personal debt… I have no room for fancy.
And I’m okay with it.
Even the well maintenanced five-year-old car you refer to is far from my reality. I can’t afford a car. Any car.
Buying myself one $10 tshirt gets me excited because I so rarely spend any money on myself. Going out to one dinner a month would be a treat. Cable is a foreign term to me that I haven’t been around in YEARS!
My point is, everyone lives their life so differently – it never means their “living worse”. I am so grateful for everything I have and wouldn’t have it any other way.
Mrs. Stethoscope says
I am the coupon queen. I clicp a ton i also only grocery shop 2 times per month and it last us for two weeks, that way we are not spending every other day. I went to the store yesterday and the bill was $192 then I swiped the club card and gave her all of the coupons and I paid $141 when it was done. we also budget and never spend more then we have bedgeted. and we do not have credit cards, except for emergency only
Lucy Marie says
It makes me excited to see that you want to try to live with less. For us, it’s all about simplifying. I once heard someone say to always attempt to live in a way that you could survive if we entered another depression. I try to keep that in mind. For me this means doing as much from scratch cooking as possible. We grow a garden because we have the space for it. Even if you don’t have the space, you could plant some veggies in containers. I preserve them for the winter to cut down on grocery costs.
Also, we had cable for the first 3 months we were married. Then our apartment flooded and we moved to a new house, in the country. Cable wasn’t available here and we decided not to get satellite right away. At this point, 3 years later, we still don’t have cable or satellite and it’s the best choice we’ve ever made. We watch movies when we want to watch something, and we get 2-3 channels so some shows are available, but it really takes away the temptation to sit around the TV all the time!
I’d love to talk to you more about living on less if you ever want to. I’m not a pro and I’m always learning new things but I try to do the best I can with what God’s given to us.
Brittany and Charlie-Social Butterfly says
You will make a great frugal wife! I always see what I want and then pursue making it on my own or searching for it cheaper. I always use http://www.onceamonthmom.com for my dinners and really helps on my grocery bill! Good luck:)
Blushing hostess says
You’re on the right track. Old money does not get that way by squandering it…
SARA says
As much as I would LOVE to have that new item I saw in the window of a fashion store, I am one of those wives that live on less. My husband and I have been known to eat on about 150 a month…
you can STILL go out to eat, but you must be a frugal person!!! For my birthday we chose applebees…they have a 2 for 20 deal (2 meals and appetizer) choose water (since that is usually free) and if its your b-day or anniversary…make sure they know that!!! I always end up with a free ice cream 🙂
definitely clip coupons!!! and credit cards are a huge no no in times like this…we actually just took two trips this summer without credit cards!!! we went to DC actually and managed to find a hotel for less than 200 for 4 nights! our “secret” is to budget EVERYTHING! when we travel we budget how much is available for gas (our car on a 10 hour trip gets filled up b4 we leave, once on the trip….and once maybe b4 we leave and once on the trip…when we got back home it was about 2 weeks b4 we filled up again) we budget food, hotel (if needed) and specialty gifts…once that is budgeted in, we stay at that and avoid going over it! Before making ANY big purchases we go over our budget…during the school year my husband only gets PT and it can be grueling, but we stay to a budget. Personally, when it comes to those extras…I choose wisely…for instance for shampoo I use the v05 stuffs, which smell great do a wonderful job and cost between 88cents and 1.05…
if you want good movies to rent: check out your local library…its free, so its not like going to blockbuster and paying alot…
also…try a candleight meal at home..and play games or watch rented movies together…or even go out on a date (picnic) lunch…which saves on restaurant fees 🙂
make smoothies or coffee at home instead of going to a specialty place (unless you can find the extra money in your budget)
have a jar where you put a dollar here and there for “fun nights”
honestly when it comes to the store: shop around…don’t assume one store is the be all end all…if you have to try looking at the different stores papers…see whats on sale where…to save gas to the shopping, errands on the same day if you can 🙂
we have learned to be “frugal” but we still enjoy life, go on trips and have fun 🙂
its just a matter of throwing away credit cards (we’ve never owned any) and budgeting 🙂
Laura says
I had to quit shopping. GASP! But it actually hasn’t been as horrible as I pictured. 🙂 The main reason why I get to stay home is because child care would have been too expensive. It would have taken my whole check, and I would much rather stay at home with Cam than pay someone else. Oh, and also my car is paid off. 🙂