Frugal living does not have to be about a life of depravation. The frugal life is one of thrifty shopping, careful choices, and a saving mindset. Making just a few adjustments in five areas of your normal life will help you become a frugal person.

Consistently, every month, the grocery bill is a massive expense. Making a grocery list at home before you ever get to the store and then making sure you stick to it will help you prevent impulse buys that you don’t need to waste money on. If you find grocery shopping to be an especially difficult time to control spending, shop with a friend and exchange lists with each other. Using coupons requires an investment of time, but is well worth it.

Make smart vacation plans. That means find ways to manipulate travel prices in your favor. Shop for off-season discounts, making sure that any fun attractions in the area you plan on vacationing in are still open during the slow time of year. You can save money by using vacation time to visit family members. Staying with them will draw the family closer together and, at the same time, save you from needlessly spending money on a hotel.

Being frugal doesn’t mean that you have to stay home all the time. If you do a little looking around, you are sure to find that many of the museums, zoos, botanical gardens and other places offer free or discount days. For those that don’t offer the free days you can check to see if a group discount is available and then call up your other frugal friends for an outing. For movie nights, check with the local library to see if they have movies available to check out. There are lots for you to do, and you can do much of it without ever spending a dime.

We all have to spend money on clothing, but there are certainly some ways to spend as little as possible. Buy winter clothes in the summer and summer clothes in the winter; you will find great off season sales that will maximize your savings.

Instead of buying new, check out your local thrift store or second-hand store where prices are a fraction of the retail (and sometimes the clothes still have the original tags). An even better way is to just trade with friends. Hand-me-downs are the frugal person’s best friend.

One item that it is not always wise to buy new is the automobile. While there is nothing wrong with having a nice car, if you can’t pay for it with cash then it is probably not worth it. Drive what you have while you save up, and then purchase with cash.

Just having the money in hand will give you a lot of negotiating power. Today, many of the used car dealers include some type of warranty with their cars, making the purchase even more secure.

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