Living Frugally - Save Food Money and Pay Off Your Debts

So you’ve decided to live a frugal life but cost cutting and penny pinching has got you nervous? Does being frugal mean that you will be destined to a life of boredom, always dreaming of having things you want but can’t afford? Heck no, it means you are going to stop wasting money on all the stuff that you don’t need and start saving for things that you truly desire. A trip around the world? A fat bank account? A college education for the kids? Whatever you really want in this life you can start achieving it by living frugally. Let’s look at some of the ways you can get there.

Get Out of Debt

One of the first things that should be evaluated is the debt situation. Start by looking at how much debt you have. Spend some time looking at your financial situation and create a budget. You have to know how much money is coming in and then where it’s going. Understand that until you have paid down your debt you shouldn’t be saving for some extravagant items or trips. Paying off your debt first is the smartest way to living a frugal life. It isn’t an easy thing to do and takes lots of self control because it can take a long time, but being debt free is one of the best feelings after being chained down by debt.

Freeing Up Money

Getting extra money on a fixed income is not an easy task. It means making changes and cutting back on things you may be very happy with, like cable TV. Cutting spending is the fastest way to free up money so let’s go through some less painful ways to cut back

Saving Food Money

First, everybody needs to eat food so there will be no getting around spending money there, but let’s look at how the money is spent. Try switching to store brands over name brand items. Doing so will save an average of 30% on your grocery bill. And speaking of groceries, do you shop with a list? Impulse buying is a fast way to waste cash at the store. Make a list of what you need and stick to it.

Next, when you leave the house plan on only spending cash and ditch the cards. Credit cards are a quick way to overspend. Try making a budget and actually putting the cash into envelopes labeled for each item on the list. If you need $300 / month for food then add $300 to the envelope and use it.

While you shop make use of the coupons out there for saving money. There is a coupon craze right now with TV shows dedicated to scoring the best deals and saving huge amounts of money. You may not go as far as some of the people o TV saving 99% on a $500 dollar bill, but clipping coupons can easily save the average couponer %25 percent on the bill.
Some stores double the coupons to save even more. Doubling coupons is when a store will take your coupon and match the value of it. For example if a store doubles a coupon on a $1 coupon then the value of the coupon will then be worth $2. If the price of an item is near the $2 mark you can practically get the item for free. Sweet!

Not all stores will double coupons and those that do may not double them every day so check online before you head out to make sure your store is participating. When you have the opportunity to use coupons take advantage of it and stock up on the items you need.
Saving money on what you eat is a great place to start but it is just that a starting point. There are so many more ways to save money on food we’ve only scratched the surface. Save money with coupons never stop looking for ways to cuts costs and save more money.

Mikkie Mills is a freelance writer for DropDownDeals.com.  Save money with Dropdowndeals.com using best buy coupons and much more.

Photo By 401(K) 2012 on Flickr License By  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en