Having studied the topic of personal finance and the extremely frugal for a few years now (I even make all my calls for free), I have compiled a list of what truly frugal people who are trying to save money would never pay for. In this recession we are experiencing, even those who have never considered themselves frugal might now think twice about their budget and running the personal finances like a business will use this list.
Extremely Frugal People Never Pay For Someone to Clean Their House
A frugal person who is concentrating on building wealth and getting ahead will not pay someone to clean their house. There are countless tips on the web to help you save the most time and spend the least amount on cleaning products for your home.
Paying someone to do this for you is a true luxury and is something you can easily do yourself, considering that you are in good health.
Extremely Frugal People Never Pay For a Landscaper
During the day I see dozens of landscapers roaming around the suburbs of New Jersey. There is no shortage of landscape companies in my state.
However, the cost of hiring a landscaper (or gardener) on a weekly basis ranges from $50 to over $100 per week, depending on the size of your property. I am lucky because my husband takes care of mowing the lawn each week.
If you don’t have a wonderful husband to do this for you or if you don’t wish to do it yourself, I have an alternative solution to avoid the high cost of commercial landscaping services. Hire a high school student to mow your lawn once a week.
Possibly even supply the lawnmower so that you have more of a choice of who to hire. This way, you will avoid the overhead costs that are built in to the commercial landscapers’ fees.
A local student would love to earn some extra money and you could offer him or her half the price of what the big companies charge.
Extremely Frugal People Never Pay for New Consumer Goods
A truly frugal person would never buy brand new books, DVD’s, video games or CD’s. There is a huge market for used consumer products that are still in good condition.
Many video games stores, such as GameStop, take trade ins on old video game consoles and on the games themselves. You can then use the trade in credits toward other new or used games.
Good places to purchase used books for 50ยข to $1.00 are local book sales held at public libraries. The website www.booksalefinder.com has a searchable database of book sales in the United States and Canada. After purchasing and reading the used books, you can resell them on Amazon.com.
There are thousands of ways to save money if you know where to look. Being frugal can be thrilling and fulfilling. It’s only as difficult as you make it