Frugal Living

Retirement Housing in India At Bhiwadi - Jaipur - Lavasa
Long before the Green, eco-friendly, earth movement came along the frugal had been quietly doing things that have recently been made popular by the Green movement. So – what exactly is frugal and what were these activities? The definition of frugal is "avoiding waste" and "being economical" and although that may not sound particularly "green" it is in practice.

How does a person become frugal? The frugal do many of the same day to day things that a "Green" person might. Remember the old slogan, reduce, reuse, and recycle? Add one more r and you've pretty well summarized how to live frugally. The fourth R is "repair", but let's review each R to see how it applies to the frugal.

Reduce – The frugal reduce by downsizing their homes, reducing clutter (yard sales, tax deductible donations or selling on eBay or craigslist). They reduce their outgoing monthly expenses by buying only what they need and often at a reduced price from yard sales, discount stores or second hand stores. Adopting this R is the foundation of frugality.

Reuse – Reusing will also save you money and there are many simple things that you can do to reuse things and thereby extend their life and value. For example, re-use your teabags, save those plastic containers that cottage cheese or margarine comes in and re-use them as storage for leftover food or small objects like buttons or nails. Think creatively. Are there objects that you can re-use or re-purpose lying around your house?

Recycle – Some states will pay for the return of glass bottles and aluminum cans, so there is a direct cash incentive to recycle - but there are other ways to save money by recycling. Composting is a great way to recycle your food scraps into fertile new soil if you enjoy gardening. If you are creative and have a hot glue gun, there are many objects that can "live again" as art. Folk art often makes use of old objects. For example, colorful bottles can be added to trees or old shoes become planters, broken glass can be used for mosaics. Crafters make use of old scraps of paper and fabric to make handmade, beautiful paper. But frugal recycling isn't limited to crafters. Cooks can recycle water by re-using the water from boiled potatoes for soup the next day (keep refrigerated, of course). Turn worn out blue jeans into cut-offs, a skirt or a handbag. The bottom line is that there are many, many ways to recycle the objects that you use, all you have to do is think a bit.

Finally, the fourth R is repair. Instead of tossing something and buying a new one, is there a way to repair it? For example, shoes are a common thing that we toss aside when we think they're worn out, but have you thought about repairing them instead? A good shoe repair store can be found in most any city and they can repair stitching and replace heel lifts very easily. Can the lamp that's not working, be rewired? Can you patch a hole, mend a sock or shave those little fabric balls off your old sweater to breathe new life into it? It's very easy to start to live frugally; you just have to start to look at things in a different way.