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Christmas comes and Christmas goes.

AND suddenly we need to think frugal.

We need to write a budget.

And stick to a budget.

And pay off that debt.

Simple, huh?

I mean, there’s loads of budgeting tips around.

Aren’t there? Well, yeah BUT BUT BUT …

But somehow they miss the mark, don’t they?

They’re either blindingly obvious: write a budget, spend less than you earn etc etc.

OR there are just too many of them.

And yes, those tiny frugal tips save money.

BUT it can be hard to see it in the busy, busy of our every, day far from simple lives.

We lose track of our savings.

And suddenly go on a massive splurge AND blow our budget out of the water.

So much for frugal living!!!

WHICH is why I love these 8 BIG frugal tips.

They are simple to follow in a budget because there’s only eight of them.

AND because they’re a bit weird.

They are strangely easier to stick to.

You see, these frugal tips ask us BIG questions about why we buy what we do.

WITHOUT being miserably minimalist about it, they change our whole money mindset. And especially our shopping mindset.

They make simple, frugal living our natural happy state NOT something to battle with.

AND that makes budget sticking easier.

Sounds good, huh?

Well these 8 simple frugal tips certainly saved me money. LOTS of money.

AND made family life MUCH happier.

So here goes … 8 simple frugal tips that can help you stick to your budget too.

8 Weird Frugal Tips To Save Money & Stick To A Budget

1. Give Stuff Away

OK. First things first.

Do you know why we ALL buy so much?

It’s BECAUSE we have neither space nor time to enjoy all the stuff we already own.

We have SO much clutter, we CANNOT get joy from any of the individual items.

So we go hunting new stuff that will spark joy.

BUT the new stuff can’t make us happy either BECAUSE we have NO space nor time to appreciate them.

So we buy more … and more … and more!!!

Endlessly hunting a happiness, our cluttered homes will always deny us.

The answer? It’s simple.

IF you want to stop busting your budget with impulse shopping you need to let stuff go.

Lots of it. Seriously lots of it.

I have decluttered 2 hundred of bags of crazy, why-do-we-have-this, budget-busting clutter.

I am so much happier without it.

AND because I am happy in my own home, I don’t hunt happiness in the stores.

AND am much less tempted to spend money.

Now. 200 bags of clutter sounds scary, huh?

BUT it was easier than you’d think.

I cleared most of my clutter in 5 minutes a day. I’ve shared exactly how here.

OK so onto simple, frugal tip two.

And that is: fork out for new stuff …

2. Fork out for new stuff

You WHAT?!!!

How, can we possibly stick to our budget by spending more money?

I thought these tips were meant to be frugal!!!

Well, it’s like this.

We’ve ALL been conned into buying HUGE piles of stuff to chuck away.

Stuff we HAVE to keep buying.

Cleaning stuff, razors, food wrap, freezer bags, kitchen roll, biros, tampons, diapers … the list goes on AND on.

And a big chunk of our budget ends up in the trash can EVERY single month!!!

You want weird? That’s just downright crazy.

BUT if doesn’t have to be so.

We CAN buy one pack of micro fibre cloths – that last for years – rather than 30 packs of chuck away cloths and 50 bottles of sprays.

We CAN buy one safety razor to last a life time rather than a new pack to chuck out weekly.

We CAN buy handy – pass ’em down to your kids – storage jars rather than packet after packet of cling film, freezer bags and foil.

By gradually investing in a few frugal zero waste products – I’ve got a huge list here – we can CUT this wasteful spend from our budget.

Now onto frugal tip three.

AND another weird way we waste money. And that IS stockpiling.

3. Stop stock piling

I KNOW, I know … loads of money saving gurus tell us to stockpile, don’t they?

BUT it doesn’t help lots of us save money.

And may be busting your budget.

You see, most of us – see frugal tip one – have a clutter problem. A BIG clutter problem.

And that makes inventory management super hard. So the honest truth is we do NOT do it.

We do NOT keep track of our tins and packages and toothpaste and toiletries and the lot.

Our pantry is an unholy mess. We can’t see what we’ve got. We forget what we bought.

And THEN we buy more.

We don’t need it. BUT it’s for the stockpile, don’t you know, so that’s OK. Isn’t it?

NO – because it feeds our shopping addiction.

AND that is the other BIG budgeting problem most of us have: we ARE addicted to shopping.

Stockpiling bargains feeds this.

IF we only buy what we need, we may pay more per item BUT we buy less overall.

AND chuck much less away. Which saves money and makes it easier to stick to a budget.

AND to chip away at our shopping habit.

Although my next frugal tip IS to get addicted!!

4. Get addicted

Sounds weird right?

And nothing to do with frugal budget keeping.

Well that’s where you’re wrong.

BECAUSE most us are prone to addiction. And online shopping is designed to be addictive.

We get an endorphin rush as we click that sale.

And huge numbers of us are – in the privacy of our pyjamas – busting our budget.

Over. And over.

It WOULD be best if we stayed off our screens. BUT successful budgeting depends on honesty.

And we’ll NOT all go screen free any time soon.

So the easiest way to fight our online shopping addiction is to find another healthy obsession.

We need an online alternative to shopping that gives us that endorphin rush.

WITHOUT us paying for the privilege.

My fave has been selling all my clutter online.

Obsessed with keeping our clutter out of the landfill, I have sold hundreds of little things we as a family are happier without.

That obsession protected me from shopping.

AND paid for family treats, so they didn’t come out of our budget.

Right, so we talked about being honest here. And frugal tip five is ALL about honesty.

It’s quit meal planning.

5. Quit meal planning

Or rather quit pretending to meal plan.

BECAUSE if we’re honest, most of us SO don’t do it most of the time. Do we?

We might be goody-two-shoes for a bit reading recipes and writing shopping lists.

And THEN we fall off the wagon.

BECAUSE it’s a faff. And life – the good, the bad and the ugly – gets in the way.

And THEN we bust our budget on far-from-frugal takeaways and ready meals.

So what’s the answer?

It’s simple. It’s called meal looping.

It’s basically what our grannies did:

1. Come up with 10 simple meals
2. We know by heart
3. Based on common ingredients
4. And bits from the freezer (granny didn’t have that luxury did she?)
5. And loop …

Because the meals use common staples, you’ve always got what you need in. AND don’t waste money on use-once-fancy ingredients.

And BECAUSE we know them by heart we use a different bit of our brain than following recipes.

And that’s the calm, in-the-flow part of our brain.

SO putting food on the table fast and frugally – without busting our budget – actually helps us relax, rather than stressing us out.

That’s what I call a frugal tip and a half!!

Now once you’ve ditched meal planning.

(Pretending to meal plan, that is).

The next weird frugal tip you need to follow to save money and stick to your budget is: splash out on expensive meat.

6. Splash out on expensive meat

How on earth can that be frugal?

Well the thing is, cheap meat is all a bit of a con.

It’s cheap for a reason.

It’s NOT packed with all the true energy giving benefits we hear about in the Paleo and the Keto and the Whatnoteo diets.

So we end up having to buy MORE meat.

Spending MORE to make good, what’s lacking in the cheap meat.

IF we want the real benefits of Paleo we’re better off seriously enjoying a few helpings of truly awesome meat rather than cheap cuts in every meal.

Those few awesome meat meals actually make it much easier to stick to a Dave Ramsey style frugal meal budget the rest of the time.

And if we get in the habit of using up ALL the leftovers from that great meat, we can save even more.

BUT you know what? It’s NOT just cheap meat that’s a con.

It’s cheap bread as well.

Which leads us onto my next money saving, frugal trip: always buy fancy bread.

7. Always buy fancy bread

Now what I mean by fancy bread IS real bread.

Risen slowly with ALL the good stuff still in.

BECAUSE very simply, cheap bread leaves us hungry.

We tested this out AND the results were crazy.

We needed 4 slices of cheap sliced bread to fill us up as much as one slice of baker’s wholemeal.

So yes, the cheap bread was a bit under half the price of the bakers, but it was a fake economy.

AND the cheap bread didn’t keep us full.

So we snacked more. And spent more.

I have to be honest and say ALL the cheap is best cons we’re bombarded with get me madder and madder.

So many of us are struggling with money.

We NEED to save. We can’t splash cash around.

BUT buying more AND more cheap stuff isn’t helping.

It’s filling our homes with clutter that causes BIG mental health issues: my clutter made me incredibly unhappy.

AND it’s putting our family and friends and communities out of business.

Cheap clutter &  cheap food equals cheap jobs.

Jobs we can’t raise a family on.

Jobs a long way from home.

SO my final weird money saving, stick to your budget, frugal tip is: break the spell of cheap clutter.

And the most powerful way I’ve found to do that is plan a pilgrimage.

8. Plan A Pilgrimage

And don’t worry if you’re not religious.

BECAUSE your pilgrimage may not be about God or a church.

What it IS about, is you. And your life journey.

Planning your pilgrimage is about taking some time out to think where you want your life to take you.

It could be somewhere you’ve dreamed of your whole life through.

It could be your childhood home.

It could be the mountains. It could be the sea.

It could be a safe space with your family.

It could be the freedom to work with passion and skill.

And helping others do the same.

Hold that place in your mind’s eye.

And keep it there.

Then, wherever it is, reflect on what you truly need to carry with you to get there.

Most often it’s love, courage, imagination, support, forgiveness, determination, humour, patience.

And it’s almost NEVER stuff we gorge on in the store.

So lighten your burden.

Own only what you need for your journey.

And let the clutter and the baggage go.

And that might seem a bit airy fairy.

And it might seem a bit weird.

BUT I promise you, it IS the most powerful frugal tip of them all.

Because it stops us from buying ALL the things that CANNOT make us happy.

I really hope these frugal tips help.

They HAVE been super powerful for me.

If you’re looking for more money saving tips for clutter free living do check out these: 

• 101 Things Frugal People Don’t Buy
• 30 Zero Waste Products That Save Money
• 250 Little Things You’ll Be Happier Without