I’m going to be honest here; sometimes frugality can seem as if it is not much fun. In fact, I’ve talked before about how frugal living can make you down right miserable if you’re not careful. When you get to feeling like frugality isn’t worth it, it can help to remember that there are quite a few surprising benefits to living frugally.
Knowing the benefits of frugality is important for more than one reason. The biggest, however is pretty simple; if you know what the benefits are, you are more likely to stick with it.
And, not surprisingly, frugality does not work if you don’t stick with it.
Surprising Benefits of Living Frugally
If you are new to frugality and just getting started, you’ll want to be sure you have a budget in place.
Learning how to create a budget isn’t hard but it will give you the tools you need to live as frugally as possible. After your budget is created, make sure to create a bill payment schedule for your family as well.
Once that is done, take the time to educate yourself and learn a few frugal tips to really get your frugality ball rolling.
You will be glad you did.
Living frugally helps build a bigger bank account
Obviously one of the biggest benefits of living a frugal life is how much money you save.
This in turn helps to grow not only your checking account, but your savings account as well. In fact, building a high value savings account and living frugally often go hand in hand.
Side Note: If you’re looking for a savings account with a higher interest rate or a great CD to save plus invest, I highly recommend the accounts at CIT Bank. You can check them out HERE.
For investing, creating an account with Acorns HERE is a great way to new investors to jump in the game.
Living a frugal life is far less stressful
Living paycheck to paycheck is stressful; especially if you’re struggling to make ends meet.
One of the easiest to recognize benefits of frugality is the reduction in stress. When your money is okay, you feel okay as well.
Frugal living usually means you are healthier
Because you are less stressed, you are generally healthier. According to the Mayo Clinic, stress can affect your body, your mood and your actions in several very negative ways.
We all knew that though, right?
When frugality allows you to release some of the stress you’re holding onto, your health almost automatically improves.
Frugality gives you more financial freedom
If you have more money, you will obviously be able to do more that you want to do.
Whether that means taking a much needed vacation, buying a new home or simply buying a new pair of jeans, being financially free gives you those opportunities.
For those new to working toward financial freedom, Dave Ramsey offers a very easy to follow program in Financial Peace University and his book “The Total Money Makeover.“
Side Note: If you prefer not to read books, you can score unlimited reading for 30-days from Audible right HERE.
Living frugally can teach old dogs new tricks
Most of us don’t start life with the ability to save money. This is why it is so incredibly important to know how to teach your kids to manage money.
I learned a lot from watching my parents live frugally, but the truth is they didn’t teach me the bigger things – like being patient before I spend money.
It turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks.
One of the more subtle benefits of frugal living is that it teaches you those things. Patience, how to be charitable, how to use your imagination and more are all lessons that frugality can teach you.
Frugality is usually environmentally friendly
One of the easiest ways to start living frugally is by making reusable, zero waste swaps to replace the disposable products you purchase.
We did that HERE beginning in 2015 and I am ever so glad we did.
Because you are using more reusable products to save money, you are living a lifestyle that is far more environmentally friendly that most.
If you care about that sort of thing, it is an incredibly important benefit to frugality that you won’t want to overlook.
Frugality can actually save your marriage.
The percentage of divorces that are caused by unhealthy spending habits is ridiculously high and those rates don’t count the relationships that are severely damaged by it but still stay together.
Frugality though – when it is not carried overboard – can help reign in those spending habits and help you to have a smoother relationship that is not wrought with stress and other issues financial stresses can cause.
Living frugally frees up time
One of the big downfalls of not living as frugally as possible is that you often find yourself working – in one way or another – much more time than you would normally.
Overtime hours at work, extra side jobs to make money and the like all eat up your time.
If you are living frugally, however, you are saving money as much as you can which can often free up some of the time you would otherwise spend working to make money.
Frugal living gives you more control
There are huge amounts of people who desire to live a more simple life. Frugality gives you the control over your life to do just that.
Frugality and living a self-reliant lifestyle go hand in hand and a self reliant lifestyle is incredibly simple.
The two line up side by side and give you control over what you eat, wear, use or buy more so than living a more conventional life by society’s standards.
Living frugal helps you to retire early
If you’ve already been living frugally, you should be aware by now of how much it can save you.
One of the other benefits of living frugally is that it enables you to take the money you’re saving and help yourself retire early.
Signing up for an Acorns account can help here too since it will allow you to at least make smaller investments with the money you’re saving.
Frugality can help build wealth
Now I want to make something clear – I do not believe that living frugally alone will make you rich, but it can help build the wealth we are all looking for.
If you take the money you save and either put it into a high yield savings account or investments, that money will help build the bank balances you’re dreaming of.
Living a frugal lifestyle helps to reduce waste
Like I mentioned earlier, frugality can be good for the environment, but that environmentally friendly lifestyle can be even better for your wallet.
Disposable products are wasted money since they are often used only once then tossed. This not only creates actual waste, but is wasted money pure and simple.
When you’re living frugally, you look for things to reuse instead of buying new, ways to upcycle things and how to use the last little bit of something.
Starting a compost pile is a great example of frugality reducing waste and of using the last little part of something.
Frugal living fosters your imagination
The longer I live frugally, the more I surprise myself with the different ways I can come up with to save money.
There are tons of frugal tips that will help you save, but if you’re not always on the lookout for new ones, you will stagnate.
Frugality is the push you need to get over stagnated spending.
Frugality gives you new skills
These days, skills that go hand in hand with frugality, are being lost. Skills like knowing how to fish for food and other common frugal skills you should know.
But, when you commit to living frugally, you commit to using the skills you have and to learning new ones.
Frugality is good for your kids
Children learn what they see so if they see you actively working to save money, they will learn to do it as well.
This is a great thing for your kids! They will learn how to keep their own moneys safe from over spending as they grow into adulthood.
Not only that, but that whole imagination thing applies to them as well – as long as you include them.
If you want to make teaching them easier, you could even get the Financial Peace Junior Kit from Dave Ramsey and have them do it while you do the adult version.
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- 53 Frugal Living Tips from The Great Depression
Living frugal brings your family closer
One of the most hidden benefits of living frugally is how close it can bring your family. Whether it is a frugal family fun day or gathering vegetables together from your garden, you will spend more time together.
This is a great way to foster lasting, open and loving relationships not only with your partner but your kids as well.