Wading into the Frugal Deep End
Lately, I have gone to the frugal extreme when it comes to any discretionary spending. I spent $850 last month on all food, gas and other discretionary spending. What if I cut that to $800/month? $750?! It’s not so much the $100 which would go to debt that gets me excited, it’s the thought that I can minimize my expenses and still be happy. It’s the idea of living more simply and eliminating the things that don’t matter that make saving money fun. Reducing any amount of consumption is also environmentally friendly. I’ve never done anything like this before!
People warn against being too extreme and burning out on frugality, but for me, it’s exactly what I need right now. Heck, I’m enjoying denying myself the little stuff.
It's not called a Spartan lifestyle for nothing.
I’ve been saying it to my friends a lot: A little sacrifice is good for my character. I don’t want to go through life feeling entitled or having things handed to me. I like working smart and working hard at things that matter. I really loved when Punch Debt in the Face wrote “I never (repeat NEVER) want to think I am too good to clean my own toilet or shower.” He’s right, I want to stay humble and never lose sight of the important things. My sister motivated me yesterday when she said “Life is what you make it man, so make it!” (You see where I get my tendency to refer to everyone as dude, man or bro. We really are California girls.)
So the point of this was to say that I have taken just a few more steps to wade into the frugal deep end and I am happy to have taken them. What exactly do I think is so frugal? Well, I’ve:
- Switched from fancy-schmancy shower gels to Dove bar soap. Shower gels come in plastic bottles, bar soap in recycled cardboard. Two Dove bars cost $1 and last quite a while. Shower gels tend to go quickly because one dollop never looks like enough. I never thought I would be so frugal as to cut out a $6 item and replace it with a $1 item. I don’t care. I’m doing it! Monthly savings: $5
- Switched from hoity-toity liquid detergent to powdered detergent. Although I worried that powder doesn’t clean as well or might fade clothes, there are good powdered detergents out there that clean as well as liquids and are still cheaper and more eco-friendly, since they also come in recycled cardboard versus plastic bottles. The Shift Your Habit blog convinced me. Monthly savings: $10
- Am going to TRY as hard as I can to quit cheese or reduce it to the equivalent of one cigarette per month, since I am a cheese addict. Nick Swardson gave me some inspiration. It’s important for my health and it would cut another twenty bucks from my grocery bill. Monthly savings: $20
Total Monthly Savings: $35
Total Annual Savings: $420
If I can convince my brain that $420 is significant, I can continue to find new ways to save money since my previous habits are so comically riddled with wastefulness.
Have you made any small changes lately (related to money or not) that you’re proud of?
Congrats on the jump into the frugal lifestyle. It is a liberating feeling to convince yourself that you just don’t need certain luxuries. While a switch from $6 soap to $1 soap might not sound like much, it all adds up. Find a few more ways to save money like that and you’re easily saving over $1000/year.
For laundry detergent you can probably save the most money by switching to cold water detergent. The electricity savings can be huge.
We’ve always used bar soap as opposed to the gel…not sure why but I just like it more.
We haven’t done a lot recently to be more frugal as our primary focus has simply been increasing out income.
@ModestMoney: Exactly, I like what you said about convincing yourself you don’t need certain luxuries. If you don’t care or worry too much about them, you free yourself up to other activities.
@WorkSaveLive: I think you are doing great on the frugal side with those delicious recipes! And increasing income definitely is the bigger factor.
Finding little things to reduce expenses is a big deal! Especially if you can do it in ways that doesn’t affect your quality of life, because then you’ll stick with it.
Funny you should say that you enjoy denying yourself. You know what? The masochism of frugality wears off and what ought to kick in after is that you stop wanting this stuff. Wanting and denial bring about longing and temptation – on temptation I am with Oscar Wilde (can resist anything but).
If you can cut out the cheese, you’re doing far better than me. That was my breaking point. I could cut almost anything out of my food budget and not feel deprived, except the cheese. I came to the conclusion that spending the little extra on that one item would prevent me from overspending in the rest of my food budget trying to make up for it.
@Cassie: cheese is so hard to quit! But it’s really the health part, I eat grilled cheeses and quesadillas way too often and I know my metabolism will eventually catch up to me. I still plan to have some kind of cheese every month (like a goat’s milk white Gouda, mmmm…)
@Maria: Always so smart. You’re right, I’m not really denying myself, I just no longer want or need the little luxuries that seemed important before. How could I have not known you are an Oscar Wilde aficionado?
Haha I’ve also been trying to stop buying cheese mainly because it’s expensive and it always goes moldy before I get a chance to finish it. I’m the same way, I feel the less stuff I buy or consume the less I feel weighed down by stuff. Living frugally is kinda of freeing actually
On with the frugal living. We all have tons of things we can live without, most of the 2nd and 3rd world goes without our ‘needs’. Keep at it. I quit cheese, sans pizza, for health reasons.
I LOVE that Sparta pic! Hehehe.
We definitely had to cut back on cheese in the past couple of years. It’s just too expensive. We have also started buying really good cheese in smaller amounts rather than the big supermarket blocks we used to get. But I refuse to give it up.
I’ve never been one to use shower gel unless it’s given to me as a gift. Soap is fine!
I agree with Maria. I have come to realize that is one reason so mnay dieters fail. They feel deprived when they eat healthy rather than proud for eating intelligently. We do bar soap-it just never made sense to pay extra for soap.
It’s amazing how the little things add up. Very cool that you found some areas to be more frugal in, without really having to give up too much.
I think it’s hilarious you are a cheese addict (my fiance would sympathize!). My addiction of choice is chocolate. I spend $2 on the nice dark Valrhona brand and it’s worth every penny. I don’t think I can ever cut back on chocolate… besides, dark chocolate is practically a health food. I bet good cheese is too!
[...] American Debt Project announced a few wins in the battle with the frugality resistance gene. Good job, soon you’ll be taking cold showers and buying only Salvation [...]
@WellHeeled: But do you eat a whole bar every day? I bet/hope not
So good to know I’m not the only one embracing Soap Vs. Gel. I thought I was going extreme, obviously I’m not!
Congrats on the frugal living! It’s sad how advertisers have brain-washed us into thinking that we ‘need’ so many ‘wants’.
[...] Wading into the Frugal Deep End from S at American Debt Project. [...]
I never thought of Dove soap as a cheap product. I have sensitive skin and Dove is the only soap I like! We buy it in bulk and on sale if possible so I guess it’s super super frugal. I thought of it as an indulgence, actually.
[...] Debt Project is not going to be buying new bags anytime soon. In fact, she’s Wading into the Frugal Deep End, and enjoying it there. I don’t know that I could live a Spartan lifestyle, but more power to you [...]
I don’t know if life without cheese is worth living… That is an entirely different plane of frugal than mushing together left over bars of soap.
If you prefer shower gel to bar soap, I might actually suggest you buy *more* expensive shower gels. Crazy, I know, but hear me out! I’ve found the cheapish bottles of shower gel (like the big Dove ones you can get for $5) are really poor, and you DO need a lot to make it later. The pricier ones have a lot less filler and are much more concentrated, so I’ve found that they last much, much longer and you really only need to use about a dime-sized amount, if that. I bought a bottle of Aveeno body wash back in early December (I think it cost about $10) and I’m barely a quarter of the way through it. Once I had a tiny 150 ml bottle of shower gel from the Body Shop that lasted a YEAR! Crazy! Anyway, I only mention this because I find that Dove soap really dries out my skin. I’ve wished I could switch to it, because it’s so cheap, but alas!
Also, I commend you for trying to give up cheese. You’re a rock star! I could never do it!
[...] Hitting the deep end of frugal, American Debt Project quits cheese, among other things. [...]
Good to know that you are chosing frugality in the had times, I also use Dove bar soap in my home it works great.
I don’t know if this qualifies or not but I’ve started buying more expensive shampoo…but I don’t wash my hair every day (I’m on an every other day rotation) so the shampoo lasts twice as long as when I was washing it every day.
Apparently you don’t need to wash your hair every day. Who knew?
Yay! Extreme frugality! I’m a fan. And $420 per year of savings (after-tax savings) is pretty cool.
Congratulations on cutting back even more! Cheese and chocolate are difficult for me. I’ve managed to get cheese down to once per day (yep, there was a time when I was eating it with almost every meal, especially vegetarian meals). Chocolate I’ve managed to cut down to a couple of small pieces everyday. I actually water down my shower soap (Dr. Bronner’s) to make it last longer. The health store I go to lets you refill plastic bottles with the soap.
@Thrifty Writer: You use Dr. Bronner’s? That is so cool! I just read an article about the company and definitely want to get it next. The real all-natural stuff. My neighbor just mentioned our farmer’s market has someone who makes soap and detergent and we can bring our own bottles. That is definitely one way to reduce plastic consumption. I would love to see some research on how much plastic we waster as Americans. That’s one area I need to cut.
@Jana: I always wash my hair every 3 days or so, more if I can stand it. My hair is thick and I don’t like blow-drying it. I use cheap stuff though.
@Melissa (BrokeTO): That’s true whenever I have fancy soaps they do last longer! I like Body Shop’s Shea Butter and it lasts forever. But honestly I like the Dove bars. When I get tired of it, I might go for some Body Shop stuff as a treat.
I definitely agree with your statement that a little sacrifice is good for your character. With that said, I try to trim costs by sticking with generic brands, unless there is an obvious difference in quality
I recently wrote a post about how one small change saved me 1k a month. The small change involved me not going to the grocery store more than 2x per month and re categorizing my categories on my spending plan.
Great ideas on saving money. One tip I have regarding powder detergent is to throw it in the washing machine while it is filling up and don’t put in your clothes until just after it stops filling with water. This ensures that the detergent will fully dissolve and be evenly distributed throughout the load.
Bar soap is frugal? Double win!
I always like the stuff because I always feel cleaner after I use it whereas shower gel just feels like I got stuck in an oil slick. Not to mention, there are a lot more anti-bacterial bar soaps than shower gels, which just seems like a much better clean than any old shower gel.
Such a timely post for me – I was looking at our discretionary spending for the first quarter, and we’ve been averaging about $950; I budget for $750. What would I do with the extra $200/month if I could trim our budget like I should? The possibilities are endless…
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