ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Frugal Living for Families: Large or Small

Updated on June 13, 2015
Living simple can help you to save a lot of money
Living simple can help you to save a lot of money | Source

Can You Live Simple and Enjoy Life?

When you think of the word frugal, what comes to your mind? Perhaps you think of low cost, cheap or thrifty. These terms all fit in the category of what is considered frugal. Because of the economy, so many individuals and families have been experiencing hard times and are keener to having a frugal lifestyle. Especially is this true with families, big and small. Living on a budget and being mindful of spending habits can keep families afloat, despite hard economic times. Just how can families accomplish this? Here are few ways families can live frugal and save, despite hard times.

Avoid Being a High Tech Family

In this day and age, technology has soared. What used to be considered the basics are nothing of the sort these days. In a typical family home, you may find that not only do the mom and dad have cell phones, but all of the children do as well. Not only does the whole family have cell phones, but they have other costly gadgets that require paid services as well. While it may be nice to have, the cost of technology isn't cheap. Some studies show that many families with more than one smartphone spend close to $4,000 a year one services.

If you are trying to cut down on your spending, this may be an area that can help reduce your monthly bills if you cut down somethings. Perhaps using less data or ending unnecessary services. To cut cost, you could ask yourself: Does my family really need these gadgets? Could we limit how many cell phones and tablets we own? Or could we at least invest in cheaper cell phones, perhaps going prepaid?

Shop Smart for Clothing

Shopping for clothes for a large family can get quite expensive. Therefore, it is ideal to shop either on clearance racks or at secondhand stores. With these two options, you can still get quality clothes, but at a cheaper price. Some have even been successful with buying clothing lots off of eBay at a rather fair price. A good reminder concerning children's clothes is to do your best to keep them in good condition. Why? Because once you are done with them someone else can use them and you could make a profit by reselling them yourself.

Cut Down On Eating Out

It is not only healthier for you to eat at home, but in the long run it could save you a lot of money depending upon your dining out habits. Some families spend hundreds of dollars weekly; this money can be put to better use for healthier food and other more important things. It may be hard for busy families to cook a meal each day, however, setting a side a little time to plan your meals in advance will make it easier to avoid the temptation to eat out.

Another wonderful thing about eating at home is that it draws families closer together. When families eat a meal together it promotes communication and stronger bonds.

Get rid of Your Home Phone Service

Most people these days have at least one cell phone. Is it necessary for your home to have a cell phone and a house phone? Cutting out the house phone could save you a few hundred dollars a year. For those who aren’t ready to let the home phone go, you can also cut down on the monthly phone bill by using services like magic jack or VoIP services. There are several others to choose from, just be sure to do your research first.

Extreme couponing could save you lots of money
Extreme couponing could save you lots of money | Source

Don't Forget to Use Coupons

So many people are finding that using coupons can save you a lot of money. The idea of couponing may sound daunting to some since it does involve a lot of monitoring, but no worries. There are many bloggers out there who enjoy “extreme couponing” and share their findings online so that viewers can know where to go to find some good deals. So if you aren’t really ready for the whole “extreme couponing” thing, find a good blogger who have already done the work for you.

Buy products in bulk

Buying in bulk and initially save you some money as well. Of course, you want to be wise about picking the right products to stalk up on. Products like shampoo, toilet paper, paper towels, and soap are all good examples of items you can buy in bulk. Foods that have a long shelf life is ideal versus foods that have to be consumed in a short period of time. This is a great way to save some dough especially if you couple it with some coupons.

Make Your Own Products

There are many things that you can save money for in the long run if you just make it yourself. For instance, there are many recipes online for making your own natural deodorant. Once you buy the products, you will have them on hand to make more batches when you need too. You can also make your own toothpaste, facial cleanser, soaps and even shampoos. Many of these are created with simple ingredients that you may already have in your kitchen.

Don’t Throw those Leftovers Out

Instead of tossing your leftovers from last night, why not reheat it for lunch or dinner? Get creative and have leftover chicken or turkey with a salad or as a sandwich. Leftover rice makes a great fried rice meal or could be stuffed in a burrito. Unless last nights dinner was just a plain disaster, refrigerated it have it again later. This will lessen your chances of spending money on takeout food.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)