Frugal February has been around for years in the finance blog community. The idea is that you use the short month of February to recover from your holiday expenses, hence the name Frugal February. I challenge you to reduce your overall monthly expenses by 50% this month. Here are 6 ways you can meet this challenge.
- Track your spending – This is easy to do with one of the dozens of expense tracking and budgeting apps or websites available. Try NerdWallet.
- Cancel your subscriptions and memberships – Cancel for this month. If you want to re-join in March, you can. Even better, you could realize that you did not miss having those subscriptions and memberships and continue saving past February.
- Save Energy – Take short showers, do laundry once per week, only use lights if you are in the room, keep curtains or blinds open to let the sunlight in, and wear appropriate clothing so you can reduce your heater/air conditioner usage.
- Don’t use your credit cards this month – If you use cash, you will spend less. It’s psychological. The convenience of credit cards makes it easier to buy goods and services. Cash is not as convenient and therefore will cause you to spend less.
- Don’t go out – If possible, only go out if you really need to. If you need groceries then stop by a store that is on your way home from work or school. This will save you in gas or public transport costs. You should also avoid social gatherings with friends that would cause you to eat out. This brings me to the next tip.
- Cook at home – Eating out is twice as expensive as eating home. Buy a week’s worth of food and cook. Don’t know how to cook? Watch YouTube step by step videos.
Thinking of taking the Frugal February Challenge? Comment below to share your results. Were you able to reduce your expenses by 50%?
