Frugal Living Tips For
The Thrifty Home Owner

Find here frugal living tips to look after your home without breaking the bank and keeping everyday bills and household costsdown. Trying to look after the home is a very expensive everyday outlay and it never seems to get any easier.

When we first bought our home we had no idea just how much everything cost. We knew that it would not be cheap furnishing and decorating our home but we just hadn’t really spared a thought for all those every day items that are required to maintain home, like cleaning products and general DIY.

Cleaning and still more cleaning

One of the big questions in life is “Why does every item need it’s own special cleaning product?”. Have you ever noticed when scanning the shelves in the local supermarket how there is a cleaner especially designed to clean one item, the oven, the sink etc. and how expensive they all are. I’ve never actually sat down to work out just how much it would cost to buy all those products they say we need but I know for certain that it would blow my budget out of the water.

However with a little experimentation and speaking to older members of my family I soon discovered that there was no need for all these different products and they were simply a ploy by the big manufacturers to get their hands on your money.

Frugal living tips for the home No.1 is – Make your own cleaning products. It is easy to make your own perfectly good cleaning products cheaply.

Decorating and furnishing your home

I’m one of those people that every six months or so want to redecorate a room in my home. I get bored very quickly with things and love that new fresh feeling of fresh paint and new looking furniture. But of course it is impossible to be frugal when decorating if you go down the normal route of visiting the DIY stores and furniture shops.

Frugal living tips for the home No2 – Mix and Match for home decorating items. Hunt around for second-hand furniture and paint it or cover it yourself to match your room. Leftover Paint can even be sourced with a little time and effort.

Frugal Home Maintenance and improvement

The worst thing you can do is to leave home repairs undone because you think you can’t afford to fix them. The outcome is usually a much bigger problem and therefore bill at the end of it all. Leaking roofs, peeling render and cracking plaster are just some of the problems you might come across and in a perfect world I would simply pick up the phone and get a man in. But over the years, we have realised that with a little research we have been able to fix most problems ourselves at a fraction of the cost of hiring someone.

Frugal living tips for the home No3 – Do It Yourself if possible.

"Recycle or reuse" : your new mantra

The world is a changing place and where as in the recent past we would think nothing of throwing everything away, we have learnt that this no longer acceptable and is in fact destroying our planet. However recycling also equates to money saving for us as well.

Frugal Living tips No4 – Don’t throw it away, reuse it. There are many everyday items that can be used for other things other than their intended use. So why not help save the planet and yourself a few pounds at the same time.

Every day bills and household costs

Heating and lighting your home has become a far more expensive day to day cost then it ever used to be. Utility bills are rising almost monthly it seems whilse the climate seems to be getting colder during the winter and hotter during the summer making it even harder and more expensive to to keep our home comfortable.

Telephone Bills can be anouther big expense, especailly if you like to use your phone every day or rely on a mobile phone on a daily basis. making sure that you use your phone econmically and being on the lowest tariffs for your needs is a must for the frugal living budget.

Frugal Living tips No 5 - There are energy saving ways to reduce the cost of heating and utility bills without changing the way you live. Save money by making a few alterations to your home.

Pest control for some people is a yearly cost to their budget and something that can't be ignored. there are natural pest control measures that are not only cheap but also very effective for ridding your home of unwanted pests.

Using a car everyday is one of most people's largest weekly outlay, I know it is mine. However i have come across some very clever fuel saving tips which has reduced my fuel consumption dramtically.

Owning a pet is something that more and more of us are doing and so is something that we have to take into account when we are budgeting our finances. Providing affordable pet care for your pet can be achieved with a little planning and shopping around, but is perfectly possible.

As part of your new frugal living lifestyle some people like to go that little step further and downshift their life into a very self realient and simple life. Downshifting as it has become known is not for everyone but it is often a choice made by some families and older people who just want a very easy clutter free life. It is worth thinking about if you are really looking for that calmer clutter free lifestyle.

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