First of all, I want to thank my daughter, Ally for contributing some of her photography. I’m very proud of her talent and will feature her photos often. 

People new to frugality always ask, where do I start? Or How do I get back on track? How do I stay on track?

This guide serves as a road-map.

tip

To go directly to the daily guide: http://frugalsos.com/365/

 

In 365 Days to Frugal Living, the purpose is to offer a starting point to adopting a life of frugality through daily money-saving tips.

When you read 365 Days to Frugal Living, you will:

  • Have a starting point for frugality. January starts you on your way with a foundation of frugality.
  • Have an insightful guide toward making life-changing choices for frugal living.
  • Be inspired, motivated and challenged with a daily at-a-glance reminder to implement strategies and tips that can be modified to fit your life.
  • Feel confidence and enjoyment by simply going to each day and passing on information to friends or family.
  • Have a way (by looking at the current day) to jump right back on if you fall off the frugal wagon.

 

365 Days to Frugal Living will:

  • Give homemade recipes for cleaners, cooking a quick meal on a budget and organizational solutions.
  • Deliver ways to reduce, reuse and recycle many common household items.
  • Offer many frugal tips and solutions that are simple to adopt.
  • Share how to use various appliances to their advantage such as blenders, pressure cookers, food processors, slow cookers, grills, dehydrators and bread machines and how to freeze meals, and use leftovers.
  • Give tried and true budget recipes, homemade mixes and copycats of their favorite restaurant and pre-packaged convenience foods and use various spices.
  • Provide stain guides and seasonal shopping guide.
  • Offer holiday and special occasions planning, gift wrapping, homemade gifts and toys and  decorating on a budget.
  • Present years of the best collective information and inspirational tips and funny tidbits from my column e-mail and postal mail tips from my readers.
  • Share grocery shopping tips such as stocking a pantry, preparedness tips and secondhand and discount shopping tips.
  • Supply frugal family activities, traveling with kids and low-cost day trips.

 

 

Part I: Winter months

January: Springboard for frugal mindset. Frugal basics to get readers started.

Remaining months categorized as follows:

  • Week one: Home
  • Week two: Family
  • Week three: Food
  • Week four: Leisure and lifestyle

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Part II: Spring months 

  • Week one: Home
  • Week two: Family
  • Week three: Food
  • Week four: Leisure and lifestyle

 

Part III: Summer months 

  • Week one: Home
  • Week two: Family
  • Week three: Food
  • Week four: Leisure and lifestyle

 

Part IV: Fall months 

  • Week one: Home
  • Week two: Family
  • Week three: Food
  • Week four: Leisure and lifestyle

Guide will include “The best times to buy x, y, z” for the months that fall within that particular season and a stain removal guide for common stains during those seasons, too.
While anyone that loves frugality will enjoy it, it will be especially helpful to people that:

  • are young people just starting out such as college students, newlyweds and new parents.
  • are experiencing a layoff
  • singles and single parents
  • are looking for ways to save for college
  • want to save for retirement
  • want to buy a new home
  • want to afford to go from a two income to one income family
  • want to reduce debt or simply afford a vacation
  • are living on a fixed income

 

Synopsis

Part I: Home

  • Homekeeping and cleaning: Includes topics such as budget gardening, home scents, green cleaners, quick cleaning.
  • Organizing: Includes family routines, finding more time in your day, eliminating clutter, creating a cleaning kit, stockpile storage, creating a frugal notebook, organizing meals, toys, recipes, pantry, coupons, etc.
  • Clothing: Includes clothing inventory, laundry topics, stain guides, how to make clothes last longer.
  • Decorating: Includes budget decorating for the seasons, low-cost luxury walls and tablescapes, growing houseplants, attention to small details.

 

Part II: Family 

  • Family and children: Includes tips such as cure for the gimmes, tooth fairy tips, camp at home, setting the standard for your family, preparing for emergencies, back to school shopping, saving when having a baby and getting your family on board with frugality.
  • Holidays and special occasions: Includes budget holidays tips such as budgeting and planning throughout the year, planning a gift closet, gift buying for all occasions and wrapping, party tips, homemade toys and gifts, hosting a frugality party.
  • Relationships: Includes topics such as keeping the love alive in your relationship, planning a cheap date night, how to mix love and money, house guests 101, be a team to survive tough times.
  • Personal finance: Includes how to build an emergency fund before you need it, planning ahead for life’s emergencies, the small stuff that adds up to big money, working to get what you want, stretching your dollar, spending that saves money, buying now to save later, getting the best value for your money, simple budget system, calculating your options, borrowing that saves money.
  • Money mistakes: Includes ethics and frugality, mistakes you can’t afford to make, focus on your attitude toward money, tackle overspending, watch what you buy at any price, identify bad money habits, dumbest wastes of money, combat spending triggers, stop overpaying for stuff, learn from your flops.                                                                                    
  • Jobs and income: Includes job perks, raising cash quickly, buying to resell, surviving a layoff, supplemental income.
  • Shopping and bargains: Includes topics such as spend less, eat better at restaurants, secondhand shopping tips, top dollar store finds, avoiding buyer’s remorse, lowering your food bills, buying store brands, using a pricebook, haggling, swapping, saving money on meat, cut back on products you don’t need, warehouse club shopping, budget souvenir shopping, negotiating prices.

 

Part III: Food

  • From scratch: Includes topics such as gourmet coffee on the cheap, home-prepared mixes, copycat recipes, frugal substitutions,cooking from scratch such as homemade bread, pizza, cheese, yogurt, etc.
  • Appliances and gadgets: Includes ways to save on appliances, frugal kitchen gadgets and tools, various appliances that are kitchen helpers and suggestions for their use such as sandwich makers, wok, slow cooker and blenders.
  • Frugal foodie basics: Includes topics such as eating at home and avoiding takeout foods, alternatives to cold cereal, produce storage tips, two for one dinners, mealtime fun for kids, meal planning, best time to buy foods, creating a stockpile.
  • Meal planning and leftovers: Includes how to create a menu plan and using up common foods before they go bad. For example using up ripe fruits and leftover sour cream. Will include tips for freezing foods. 

 

 Part IV: Leisure and Lifestyle 

  • Fun and entertainment: Includes topics such as simple pleasures, hobbies, family activities indoors and outdoors through the seasons, saving money at the movies, camping tips, traveling with kids, kids craft recipes and concoctions. Parties, houseplants, re-growing produce, indoor games, seeds, gardening, flea markets, camping, summer reading, garage sales, auctions, hobbies, old fashioned lost arts and crafts, dumpster diving, Travel, boredom busters, homemade kids craft recipes, day trips, Thrift store shopping, trash to treasure. 
  • Eco-frugality: Includes green living topics such things you should buy used, second uses (reusing and repurposing) for many household items such as dish soap bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent and ice cream containers, baby steps to going green, making items last, using less disposable products. 
  • Conserving energy and saving on utilities: Includes how to motivate kids to save energy, beat summer heat on a budget, prepare your home for winter.
  • Health and beauty: Includes homemade beauty recipes from your kitchen, pampering yourself on a budget, home remedies, cut the cost of haircuts, home fitness.
  • Inspiration, motivation and self improvement: Includes core topics such as avoiding frugality burnout, how to combat worry, getting and staying motivated, avoiding negativity, beating winter blahs, slowing down your life, seeking out ways to be kind, meeting challenges head on, benefits to the recession, putting fun into your frugality, saving money by making it yourself, frugal rules to live by, goal setting and accountability.

and more… Coming Soon!