11 Amazing Benefits of Frugal Living That Can Make Life Easier

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To many people frugality doesn’t seem that appealing. Between couponing, pinching pennies, and budgeting, some people might view it as a restrictive, burdensome lifestyle. But, frugal living isn’t about being stingy; it’s about being resourceful and intentional with your money. And truthfully, frugal living has all sorts of benefits that can make your life simpler and easier.

Most people confuse frugality with being cheap and living a life of deprivation because they believe the more money they earn the more they should spend. Well, honestly – when you take your first steps into frugal living, you can find it a difficult lifestyle to adopt and adjust. When you have spent years overspending and living beyond your means, without thinking about your financial future, frugality can be a shock to that mindset.

But once you start experiencing the amazing, life-enriching benefits of a simple, frugal life, I can safely say that you will never want to go back to your previous lifestyle.

What Is Frugal Living?

The word frugal is often misconstrued into a negative one. However, although a frugal lifestyle can seem like a sacrifice in quality, it doesn’t have to be. Instead, you can choose to be frugal in ways that will add more value to your life.

Frugal living means being conscious of your spending and focusing on a few financial priorities. A person who wants to live frugally should think about their important life goals and how changing their finances can help them reach that goal. A businessman who dreams of retiring at 40 can consider living in a more modest home instead of buying a $1 million fancy house. A banker struggling to pay off her student loans can look into getting a second job, reducing her monthly expenses, or living in a low-cost city.

There is no one path to frugal living. It’s a general lifestyle that encourages people to give up what they don’t really care about to have more for what really matters to them. It all depends on what your personal priorities are.

Amazing Benefits of Frugal Living

Living frugal is not as extreme as it sounds to some people. It may even amaze you how you can change your life by adopting frugality. Here are some of the benefits of frugal living:

1. More freedom

Frugality gives you more freedom and options. You might be thinking that spending less money would mean less pursuit of fun and enjoyment. However, with each frugal choice you make, your financial situation improves little by little. And the better your financial situation is, the further you move away from a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. That certainly means more freedom!

2. Early retirement

An intentional frugal life will allow you to carefully plan for your financial freedom and achieve your financial goals much quicker. Every time you choose to spend less money on something that doesn’t add much value to your life, you can put that money towards things that matter to you. The best part is that you get to decide what matters to you most.

If early retirement is one of your top financial goals, you need to build up enough wealth in order to provide for yourself in your retirement years. Being able to save more money for retirement is definitely one of the great benefits of frugal living. If you allocate more money towards retirement, you may be able to retire early. Think about something specific you’d like to do when you retire and put some extra money away, your future self will thank you.

Also, consider this: if you and your family live comfortably on $3,000 per month, then in order to make ends meet in retirement, you will not need a lot of money in your retirement savings.

But if your lifestyle isn’t so frugal, and if you need $5,000 a month or more to live comfortably, you will need a lot more money in your retirement savings. That would also take much longer to build up.

Here is the best part, if you live a frugal lifestyle before retirement, and make a point to get out of debt, live within your means, religiously save and invest, not only will your retirement expenses be very low, but also your investments will be large. So, if you choose to live a more lavish lifestyle in retirement, you can do so.

3. Flexibility to walk away from a stressful job

People with large monthly expenses mostly get stuck in their job. They tend to keep working a job they are not happy with because they have little to no savings to fall back on.

When you intentionally choose frugality, your living costs are low, and you have got an emergency fund in place. You probably have a survival budget and you know you can stretch your dollars when needed. If you don’t have a ton of payments to make, life can be pretty easy!

You have a mean boss? Hectic hours? Just flat out negative environment that makes you feel mentally and physically sick? If you’re frugal, you don’t have to stick around and tolerate that. With low expenses and enough savings, you can quit your stressful job whenever you want for a better fit without much difficulty.

4. Extra money for saving and investing

If you live a frugal lifestyle, you will have more money for saving and investing. Adjusting your spending habits will allow you to save more money over time. After cutting your expenses, it may amaze you how much extra money you can come up with for saving and investing for a better future! This can help lead you to financial stability, so you can pay for emergencies or other unexpected expenses.

Saving and investing for the future is something not everyone is able to do, mostly due to overspending. But, when you’re frugal, there is always a little extra you can stash towards yours and your family’s future.

The concept is really simple: the less of your money you spend, the more of it you get to keep. That means more savings, more investments, and a healthier financial situation.

5. More contentment

One of the best benefits of frugal living is you get to experience more contentment.

As you know, frugal living is all about learning to live on less, improving your own financial situation, and not comparing yourself to others. When you embrace frugal living, you realize that your journey is different than theirs. You have different priorities and goals. So, when your friend gets a brand new car, you don’t feel bad about your 10 year old, pre-owned car. When you go to somebody’s house that’s bigger and nicer than yours, you don’t feel uncomfortable about your little three-bedroom house that needs some renovation.

Once you have a new perspective, and learn to live within your means and focus on what truly matters, it removes the envy from your heart that you might normally feel when you see somebody wealthier or better off than you.

Besides, when you practice frugality, your eyes will be open to how often other people spend beyond their means. Seriously, just because somebody has a nicer car or a bigger home than yours, doesn’t mean they also have more money than you. In fact, in many cases, it just means they are drowning in debt up to their eye-balls.

6. You feel more grateful

When you have everything you need and you’re no longer living from paycheck to paycheck, life is no longer a struggle for survival. Living a frugal life makes you truly appreciate the resources you have and allow you to be grateful and content with your choices. Not having a materialistic mindset may shift your point of view and increase your gratitude.

By taking a step towards simplifying your finances and your life, you start to see and appreciate the blessings in each day in a way you might not have been able to do before.

7. Less financial stress

A person’s financial situation has a significant impact on their mental and physical well-being. WebMD lists finances as a major stressor that’s capable of triggering long-term diseases – causing you more stress and busting your budget even more.

Being frugal can help you reduce some of stress associated with debt and living beyond your means. As you make a plan to get out of debt and put it in action, you will start to feel the weight of the world lift off your shoulders.

It’s not easy, and sometimes you’ll wonder if its worth the effort, but in the long term, the benefits of frugal living cannot be denied.

8. Peace of mind during financial storms

Frugal living really helps you breathe easier and sleep better when times are tough. If you are living a low-cost life, with an emergency fund in place and low or no debt, losing your income isn’t so scary.

When you deliberately choose frugality and live a simple life, it’s easy for you to get out of debt and build a cash cushion to fall back on when time is hard.

9. Ability to give more generously

If you can be content with a simple, frugal life, you don’t really need much to have a good, fulfilling life. When you can live on less, you will have more money available to save or give generously to others when needed, or you can donate more to the causes you believe in. Not living from hand to mouth or paycheck to paycheck means you can share the fruits of your labors as you choose.

10. Setting good examples for your kids

Being frugal with your money will not go unnoticed by your young children. If you are a good money manager, you will set a positive example for the younger people in your life. For example, if you improve your financial health, in turn, you can help improve your child’s financial knowledge leading to a better life.

Even though they may complain that they don’t get every little thing they want all the time like some of their friends, you are giving them a more powerful gift – financial knowledge.

Raising kids who are frugal and financially responsible can add so much value to your family’s future generations. Every frugal living benefit you read here will be carried on through the ages, where your children are mindful of their money and resources, and encourage their children to be the same way, too.

11. You feel happier

Last but not least, living frugally increases your happiness. When you don’t have to struggle to make ends meet each month, you realize that you have little to worry about. When you are financially confident, you worry less, sleep better, and enjoy life more which, in return, increases your life satisfaction and happiness.

When you look at your achievements – a debt-free life and the amount of money you have saved for your future – you feel accomplished and happy.

Living a frugal can be easy and fun when you form some good money habits. Then, it won’t be difficult to maintain this lifestyle, and you’ll enjoy all these great benefits for many many years to come.