Can you consider embracing a stingy lifestyle to better your financial position? Here is an in-depth exposition of how to live stingy so you can decide whether it’s worth trying.

Is it Worth it to Start Living Stingy?

Living stingy is a lifestyle that can better your finances. But how many have embraced it? In this article, we will try to explore whether living stingy as a way of life is worth adopting.

One constant desire for almost every individual is to become financially free. That means being able to afford anything and being financially stable for the rest of their life. Sadly, only a few are there yet. According to a recent report by MarketWatch, half of American households are currently living paycheck to paycheck.

If you’ve ever wished to buy something or go for a vacation but didn’t have the cash for it, then you’re not yet financially free. An adage says that “if you can’t pay cash, then you can’t afford it.”

Use a free tool like Personal Capital to monitor your spending and net worth over time. It’s free and is a great way to understand your personal cash flow.

Therefore, to be able to afford things later in life, it’s good to start saving for it as soon as now. That means that you need to deny yourself some instant gratification and accumulate cash to afford something bigger and better later.

If you keep your costs and expenses low, then you can start increasing and building your wealth gradually. Also, if you find new ways to improve your wealth, you will create extra wealth, and you’ll be on your way to being financially free.

After you attain financial independence, then you’ll manage to raise the cash to afford that thing that you long for so much.

A lot of people use the term stingy and frugal interchangeably. But what does living stingy mean? Let’s find out in the next section.

What Does Stingy Mean?

Living stingy means being on a tight budget or spending the least amount of money to meet your daily expenses. In essence, it means delaying current spending to save for a future goal.

Living stingy doesn’t mean scraping every penny you get for the rest of your life, but tightening things up a little bit until you bounce back financially. It is frugal, which means watching how you spend your finances or living below your means to save money. You don’t need to skimp to hit your personal financial plan.

That leads us to our next topic of how you can live stingy.

You never want to be known as the person never willing to buy something. There's a fine line to living stingy and saving. Click To Tweet

How to Live Stingy – 12 Ways to Start Saving More

There are many ways to stingy living. Here are a few ideas to start living stingy and save more money.

1. Have a Plan and Set Financial Goals.

The first thing you need to do is to plan and set some financial goals. You can identify a few specific, measurable, achievable, and long-term goal that will set you on the path of living stingy.

If you have goals, then you are more likely to stay focused. Therefore, with target financial goals, you will be able to stay on course until you achieve your financial objectives.

Financial goals that can include becoming debt-free, going on a dream trip, starting a business among others will require you to put in more effort and change your spending habits.

2. Have a Zero Dollar Budget

Living on a budget is one way to start living stingy. A budget is one of the most important aspects to have for directing your financial future.

Zero dollars budgeting can help you place every dollar somewhere. That means that you can plan for every penny that you receive. The plan can help you analyze and adjust where necessary for future improvement.

Also, a budget prevents you from spending your money on unnecessary items. Assess your needs and wants and scrutinize every purchase to know what you’re fulfilling. Consider buying things that you need and cannot do without and not wants.

3. Create Daily Spending Habits

If you have a daily routine, you could reevaluate your daily expenses and reduce some unnecessary costs. Create a daily spending amount and stick to it. You can also create a weekly or monthly spending budget, and stick to it. With that, your spending habits will change slowly.

You can live stingy by altogether avoiding spending opportunities. That can include finding ways to keep your daily spending down by avoiding some few items that can be avoided.

For example, if you usually buy a large latte that costs around $5 daily, you can stop.

Here is where using a tool like Personal Capital can be helpful for cutting your expenses to increase your cash flow.

See Related: How to Become Financially Literate

4. Set Subscription Plan Limits

If you have subscribed to several plans automatically, you need to cancel some of them. Most online stores today have lured us to keep ourselves subscribed to different plans, and some we never use.

You need to review and cancel some of your subscriptions and remain with only those that address your basic needs and wants. Also, you need to commit yourself to avoid automatic subscriptions until your finances stabilize.

Use a free tool like Trim to start saving money on all your subscriptions. You can cut unnecessary recurring costs to build a better financial future.

5. Get Rid of the Unwanted Household Items

Sometimes we buy household stuff that we end up not using, or we use it for a while and stop. If you peruse the things at your home, you’ll be surprised at the number of unnecessary items that you still keep.

How about you declutter every room, including your kitchen, closet, and garage? That will not only leave your home spacious and neat but also put an extra coin into your pocket.

You can participate in the garage sales to sell some of your unwanted stuff. Alternatively, you can use apps such as LetGo, OfferUp, and Facebook, and more. Some local retail stores also trade-in used items for money.

Though they may buy the items at a lower cost, at least it takes the hassle off your shoulder, and you don’t have to list or sell items yourself.

See Related: Why Your Debit Card Declined (And How to Fix)

6. Save On Your Cable Bills

Living stingy can also involve saving on your cable bills. Today, you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg paying for a cable package to watch your favorite TV programs. You can opt for one of the numerous streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video and still access TV entertainment with less money.

Alternatively, companies such as SlingTV and DirecTV NOW can also stream live TV for a fraction of your cable cost and no need for a contract in most cases. Consider not just canceling your Cable TV but also other subscriptions such as promotional mailers, radio subscriptions, movie subscriptions, games in app stores, and more.

Use a free tool like Trim to start saving money on cable. The app will automatically recommend areas for improvement on your bills. I use Trim as well as Arcadia Power for my utility bill.

I love Arcadia Power since it is completely free and you even move to clean energy without installing anything.

If you use my link, you will get $20 credited to your electric bill when you link your account.

7. Do Thrifty Shopping and Take Advantage of Grocery Deals

One area where you can easily overspend is in the grocery store, especially when you shop while hungry. Luckily, you can take advantage of the local ads and get incredible deals offered in the stores, which can reduce your bill significantly.

You can easily view all the deals at your local grocery store using a website like MyGroceryDeals, which has it all in one place. Then, you can create your shopping list from the site, and then benefit from all the deals available to you at your nearest grocery store

8. Do Bulk Buying

If you buy your stuff from retailers, you are probably going to spend more money than if you were to buy them in bulk from a wholesaler. Buying from wholesalers can save you a considerable amount of money.

Therefore, you can consider bulk buying to get more items for less money.

For example, instead of paying that $3 to buy your daily energy drink, you can purchase many of them at $2.50 or less in bulk, which will save you a lot of money.

See Related: 16 Helpful Pieces of Financial Advice

9. Carry Packed Lunch

If you carry packed lunch to the office, you won’t have to buy from fast food. Packing your lunch is not only an excellent way to eat healthily but can also be a unique way to save.

Do the math, for example, an average price for lunch might cost around $8 – $12 per day or let’s say $45 – $60 per week, but cooking a similar lunch at home will cost you much less than $8.

10. Join Cashback Websites

Discounts and cashback can also help you make extra money and so you can save more. Join cashback websites such as iBotta, Ebates, and Drop for free to access the cashback deals. You can make money by making referrals.

These websites earn a small commission for referring customers to their major retail stores. Then, the sites take those commissions that they receive and offer them back to the consumers in the form of cashback while retaining a small portion of it.

Therefore, that creates a win-win situation for everyone.

11. Find a Part-time Job or A Side Hustle

Finding a new way to make money can be quite rewarding. You can sacrifice a few hours of your leisure time to do a part-time job or a side hustle that can earn you extra cash of even up to $200 per day.

You can try online freelancing tasks like content writing, virtual assistance or social media management, and more.

Also, you can create a passive income by investing your savings in other income-generating tasks. With the extra income, you could pay off a debt or increase your retirement savings.

12. Find Free Fun Activities to Do

Just because you’re living stingy or operating on a tight budget doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun or participate in fun activities. If you love doing some fun activities, you can still enjoy them for free. There are numerous free events around you that you can participate in at any time.

You can consider events such as Eventbrite where you will enjoy free local summer concerts, day trips, free outdoor movie nights, outdoor sports, carnivals & festivals, and hiking & national parks and more.

Also, you can use Groupons to get more affordable fun activities or take advantage of the free fun activities by different companies, especially during the holidays.

Would Doing All that Be Worth it?

Living stingy can help you achieve your financial goals. If you wanted to pay off your student loan, start college savings account for your kids or afford a beautiful house, then you may manage to do it.

When you sacrifice a little bit and save more, then you are placing more value on things that matter and that you truly desire.

Saving more will help you invest faster or pay down debt.

Conclusion on Living Stingy

Living stingy means delaying your gratification to save money for a particular reason. Now you can choose whether to live stingy or not. I believe this article can help you weigh your options and decide whether it is all worth it.

Consider using Personal Capital to improve your personal financial situation for free.

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Can you live stingy to achieve a particular financial goal?

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