Learning new skills for frugal living is one of the best things you can do to save money and cut down on expenses long-term.
I belong to the millennial generation. If you were born between ~1981 and 1997, you’re a millennial too. Millennials are notorious for lacking practical skills, especially skills for frugal living. I think Forbes has it right when they say that’s largely because we “don’t mind relying on digital infrastructure for everything.” If you can google it, why bother to memorize how to do it yourself? Whereas older generations tend to be less trusting of technology and had to learn a lot more practical skills for themselves.
Prime example. When I’m at my parents’ house, sometimes I have to go pick my dad up from a field somewhere because he’s a farmer. But when I ask him, “Where do I need to pick you up?” I try to get him to just send me his GPS location. Instead he tries to describe to me where it is, giving me step by step instructions and cardinal directions. It does NOT work for me because I’m terrible with directions. But it’s really hard for me to get him to stop trying to direct me and just send me his location!
There are a lot of skills the older generations have mastered that I wish I had even a beginner’s grasp on. And yet I honestly don’t think that there is anything wrong with being reliant on technology to some degree! After all, it’s incredibly helpful and definitely not going anywhere. But I think there’s a wise way to use technology, to supplement skills we already have. I don’t think technology should replace practical skills and knowledge.
The practical skills I most want to learn are the ones that will help me save money and create less waste. So often I find myself creating extra waste or having to pay other people to do something for me just because I don’t know how to do it myself.
I’ve put together a list of 6 essential skills for frugal living that are really easy to learn! If you’re looking for ways to save money, learning these frugal living skills will help a lot in the long-run.
P.S. If you associate with the Millennial generation (or even if you don’t), Ryan and I found this article on Industries Millennials Are Killing from Napkins to Applebee’s incredibly entertaining.
1. Learn to repair your own clothes.
The more you can learn to repair your own clothes, the less money you have to spend to pay other people to do it for you. And, when you repair your clothing instead of getting rid of them to buy new ones, you save money as well as create less waste. Repairing your own clothing is an essential skill for frugal living.
Learn the basics of sewing.
At my high school graduation party someone gave me a mini sewing kit, similar to this mini sewing kit on Amazon. To be honest, I had almost no idea how to sew. I guess it’s just not something I ever asked my mom to teach me. But when buttons came off my clothes and I tore holes in things, I figured out how to use it. And I found out that learning the basics of sewing is really easy. I’m really grateful to that person (though I have no memory of who it was) who thought to give me such a practical gift. I still use it!
Obviously, all you need to do is a quick Google search for tutorials on any simple sewing task, but here are a few quality articles for the basics of hand sewing:
How to Thread a Needle and Tie the Knot
Learn How to Patch a Hole, Mend a Seam, and Fix a Hem
Learn how to get stains out of clothing.
I have gotten rid of way too many pieces of clothing, simply because they had stains in them that I couldn’t get out. More recently I’ve learned there’s a hack for getting out pretty much any and every kind of stain. The best thing you can do is work on getting the stain out as soon as you can after it happens.
A lot of stain removers can have really harsh and toxic chemicals in them. Often there is an all-natural solution for getting stains out! I love Wellness Mama’s Natural Stain Remover Guide. It tells you how to get out lots of different kinds of stains, using non-toxic products you probably already have on hand.
As a last resort, when you can’t fix clothing yourself, try to get it repaired.
This winter I thought I was going to have to buy brand new leather boots, because the soles had worn down so much on mine. Before I paid $100+ for quality boots, however, I thought to check whether there were any shoe repair places near me. Sure enough, I found a small but quality mom and pop shoe repair shop that completely resoled my leather boots for just $20! Not only did I save myself a lot of money, but I also got at least an extra year out of my boots, rather than throwing them away and creating waste prematurely.
2. Learn to find the best deals when shopping online.
When you’re shopping online, spending a few extra minutes can mean huge savings when you know where to look for them!
My top four keys to finding savings while online shopping are:
- Search for promotional codes.
- Earn cash back.
- Use Google Shopping.
- Shop on Thrive Market.
Promotional Codes
Almost every online checkout will give you an option for entering a coupon or promotional code. I always search for promotion codes before placing an order, and you should too! I probably end up finding one 50%-75% of the time. You just have to know where to look! Check out my post: 3 Best Ways to Find Promo Codes for Online Shopping.
Earn cash back.
There are a lot of ways to earn cash back really easily while online shopping! Usually all it takes to get that cash back is one extra click. Seriously. I personally use Ebates and Swagbucks to earn cash back while online shopping. You can read more about How to Earn Cash Back on Almost Every Online Purchase in my post.
Google Shopping
Google Shopping makes it really easy for you to find several online retailers selling a particular product, and compare them for the best prices. I often use it when I’m shopping for my favorite natural makeup and beauty products, because although Amazon often does have the best price, sometimes a competitor is cheaper.
All you have to do is type what you’re looking for in the Google Shopping search bar, edit the filters if you want to, and click the product you want. Then compare prices at different online retailers. Take shipping costs into consideration.
Something to keep in mind: Amazon does not show up as a seller for products you search on Google Shopping. So I always check Amazon’s prices separately.
Thrive Market
Thrive Market is an amazing online store with discounted organic and natural foods, home products, and health products. Although there is a $60 annual membership fee, most members make back the $60 in savings in just two orders! Plus, Thrive Market gives a free membership to a teacher, veteran, first responder, or family in need for each paid membership.
If eating healthily and buying natural and green products for your home are priorities for you, I highly recommend trying Thrive Market with a free 30-day trial.
3. Learn to be organized.
Being organized is an essential skill for frugal living, because it helps you avoid unnecessary expenses, create less waste, and make better use of what you already have.
The first step to being organized is decluttering.
The less stuff you have, the less time you have to spend managing, organizing, and maintaining it! So if you haven’t already, I would highly encourage you to check out my post, How to Easily Declutter Every Room of Your Home because I break down the hows and whys of decluttering there.
After decluttering, the best three tools you can start utilizing to stay organized are Google Calendar, Evernote, and some sort of Reminders app.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is an extremely helpful tool for keeping track of your schedule and things you need to remember. It syncs between your computer and phone, and you can share calendars with family members to keep everyone in the loop. You can also easily set reminders with events for any number of days or hours before the event.
Evernote
I’m a list maker. The moment I think of an idea or something I need to do, I need to write it down somewhere. Evernote keeps me and all my lists super organized! It’s an app you can use on your phone and your computer. It allows you to create notes or store photos and screenshots of things in a highly organized way. Evernote is a life-saver for everything I need to keep track of for the blog: post ideas, what posts I’ve shared where, helpful information, etc.
Reminders
I just started using the Reminders app on my iPhone in the last year or so, and I kind of can’t remember how I remembered things before that! I use it specifically for the things I need to remember to do at particular times, especially if it will repeat. For example, it reminds me every night at 10pm to take my probiotic. It reminds me on Wednesday mornings that there’s a special share thread for bloggers in a Facebook group I’m a part of. You get the point. If you don’t already use the Reminders app, try it out! It helps so much.
Read my post, 8 Steps to a Decluttered Life, for more ideas on how to organize and declutter your life!
4. Learn to cook.
I think it’s common knowledge that it is almost always less expensive to cook a meal at home than to eat out. Learning to cook at home is a very helpful skill for frugal living.
Plus, cooking real food at home is a lot better for your health in the long run than eating out or making TV dinners all the time. Think about eating healthily as an investment in yourself. If you don’t eat healthily or care for your body all your life, you’ll likely have more expenses like medications and medical bills in the long run!
So, learning to cook, especially learning to cook heathy food, is a frugal living skill in two ways. For one, you save a lot of money when you eat at home instead of going out to eat. And secondly, you can save on medical costs in the long run by taking care of your body with healthy foods.
If you’re brand new to cooking, my best advice is to start simply! With the accessibility of the Internet, you really don’t have much of an excuse to at least not try to cook. If you have to, google each step! I love this post by Greatist: How Anyone (Yes, Even You) Can Learn to Cook.
If your excuse for not cooking is that you don’t know what to cook, or don’t like looking for recipes, check out our Clean Eating Recipes board on Pinterest!
5. Learn to trim your own (and others’) hair.
I’ve had some bad haircut experiences in my life. And if people who are supposedly professionals still messed up cutting my hair, why would I try cutting it myself?
That’s what I used to think. But then I cut my own bangs last week by following a YouTube tutorial. And they look totally fine. (Actually, in my opinion they look better than they did when I got them cut at a salon last time, thank you very much.) I saved myself a lot of time and money. And it was honestly pretty fun! Learning to trim hair is an extremely helpful frugal living skill.
If you have a high maintenance haircut, or if you’re just notoriously bad at things like this, you understandably might not want to try cutting your own hair. But if you’re a girl, trimming bangs and long hair yourself, or trimming your boyfriend’s/husbands’/kids’ hair might be totally doable! There are tutorials on YouTube on how guys can cut their own hair too!
Even if you just trim your hair enough to stretch the time between your haircuts, the savings will add up quickly! Especially if you can do this for your whole family.
I use these inexpensive haircutting scissors from Amazon, and they work great!
6. Learn how to make good friends.
You might not think of making friends as being a skill for frugal living, but it totally is! Here’s why.
When you have a solid community of friendships around you, and you have a need, chances are you will know someone who can help you with it. Maybe you have a friend who is super handy and can easily fix something in your house that you’re clueless about. (And hopefully you can return a favor by helping them out with something you’re good at.) That would save you the money you’d have spent hiring a mechanic! Or, maybe you have kids and so do your friends. Offer to do a babysitting swap – you watch their kids one evening so they can have a date, and they watch your kids another evening so you can. That saves you the money you’d have spent on a babysitter.
Best Places to Make Friends
The best place I’ve found to make new friends when I’ve moved from place to place is at church. But you can also make friends at events in your city – concerts, art fairs, festivals, etc. Or, sign up for a class! You could do a fitness class, art class, language learning class, cooking class… the options are really endless. Be confident, and look for opportunities to start up conversations with people who seem interesting to you.
