Are you looking to for the cheapest way to live? If you’re anything like most Americans, you’ve felt the pinch of inflation and the rising cost of living. While there are many factors out of our control with regards to the cost of goods and services, there is one major area of our lives that we can control: how much we spend. While most people focus on cutting out non-essential spending, why not get creative with savings and take it a step further? Finding creative, alternative ways of living and saving by aiming to find the cheapest way to live can help you get ahead with your finances.
Finding cheap ways to live can be part a frugal minimalist lifestyle – where one only lives with what they need and what brings them joy. If you’re completely new to this movement, don’t worry! In this article, I’ll cover some great ways to practice frugality and save money without being cheap.
Read on to learn about finding and practicing the cheapest way to live .
Make Super Cheap Meals
What’s the cheapest way to live in terms of what you eat? Easy: avoid all restaurant dining and instead, make super cheap meals. When you hear the term ‘super cheap,’ what comes to mind? Surprisingly, super cheap doesn’t necessarily mean low quality. You can create nutritious and delicious meals for a fraction of the cost you normally do and save money by implementing the following steps:
- Swapping out meat for plant-based protein
- Weekly meal planning and making a grocery list
- Comparing prices at different supermarkets
- Doing meal prep for your weekday breakfasts and lunches
1. Swapping Out Meat for Plant-Based Protein – Cheapest Way to Live, Cook and Eat Healthy
Are you someone who regularly includes meat in your family’s meals? Here’s an easy way to save: focus on plants! Beans and lentils are a lot cheaper than meat and just as (if not more) nutritious. These delicious meal addition options are rich in fibre, protein and minerals.
Don’t know where to start? Why not focus on simple meals and swap out some meat for beans? Here’s an example: instead of making a meat-based six-bean chilli, remove the meat completely and add another can of beans or two. Chilli is hearty enough without the meat!
If completely removing the meat is too much for you, cut down on the amount of ground beef you put in the recipe by half. You’ll enjoy the taste and will still reduce costs.
Want another easy way to add beans and lentils to your diet? Sprinkle a cup of chickpeas or lentils on a fresh green salad for your appetizer. When you start your meal with a fresh, healthy and filling option such as a protein-packed salad, you’ll have less room for the main course – whether there’s meat in it or not. Added bonus: you’re automatically adding more greens to your diet! A win for your wallet and your health.
2. Weekly Meal Planning and Making a Grocery List
Think about the last time you went grocery shopping. Did you make a grocery list? If you didn’t, that’s completely understandable! However, if you don’t make a list on a regular basis, it’s a good idea to start doing that now. If you create a grocery list, you’re a lot less likely to deviate from it and mindlessly spend on items you don’t need – think snacks, beverages and makeup. Once you’ve made a grocery list and have gone one a shopping trip, think about which items you bought. Did you buy a lot of meat and snacks? An important part of integrating super cheap meals into your life starts well before the cooking begins. In fact, it starts with making a plan. If you truly want to find the cheapest way to live, you’ll need to plan before you go shopping!
Taking Inventory of Your Pantry and Fridge
Each week or time before you go grocery shopping, set aside an hour or two to undertake weekly meal planning. Before you meal plan, take a look in your fridge to find any items you can use before they expire. Additionally, sift through your pantry cupboards for any items you already have that you can use for your meals. Why do this? If you don’t look in your cupboard regularly, you might spend months without digging out a can of beans or a jar of applesauce. Months – if not a year or two – passes, and the item is expired.
By taking a look in your pantry and fridge and using items in your weekly recipes, you’re automatically saving money because you’re making use of what you already have in your fridge. Easy!
Meal Planning
After you’ve looked in your fridge and pantry, it’s time for the fun part – deciding what you’re going to eat this week! Personally, I like to keep my breakfasts and lunches simple. I like to buy cereal and fruit for breakfast and vegetables, lentils and beans to make healthy salads for lunch. For simplicity’s sake, let’s focus on meal planning so you can make super cheap meals for dinner.
First, decide on 3-4 meals you’d like to make for the week. Why 3-4 meals instead of 7 for 7 days? Another way to make cheap meals is to make enough for leftovers the next day. When you make more of one dish, you’re saving money because you don’t need to buy ingredients for every single dish. Another tip: why not choose 2-3 staple vegetables to use in all your meals for the week? The cheapest way to live and eat doesn’t mean that you’ll be sacrificing your health – it just means you’ll be smart with what you buy and how you use ingredients.
For example, you can choose to use tomatoes, potatoes and green beans in all your recipes for the week. For this example, you use these three vegetables for:
- Potato salad with sliced tomatoes on the side
- A fresh green salad with tomatoes and green beans with baked potato wedges served on the side
- Vegetarian chilli with potatoes, green beans and tomatoes
Once you’ve created good dinner meal planning habits, you can apply these routines to planning breakfasts and lunches.
3. Comparing Prices at Supermarkets
Once you’ve gone through your fridge and pantry and have made a smart grocery list based on a few meals, it’s time to go shopping! But wait – don’t just go to one supermarket and buy everything – practice frugal grocery shopping to save money! If you can, use an app or check out a flyer to price compare supermarkets. Some grocery store may generally be the cheapest, but another grocery store might carry a lower-priced item. If you have the time and the grocery stores are close to each other, you can easily pop over to another grocery store to buy any staple items with a lower price.
While this may not seem like a huge deal or important, let’s do some math to show you how small amounts saved in the short-term can add up to a significant amount in the long-term.
Example: Price Compare Bread
Let’s say you’re a family of five who goes through a lot of bread. Your family loves toast for breakfast and making sandwiches for lunch, so you buy 4 loaves a bread per week.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that one grocery store you frequent is generally the cheapest for most items. However, this grocery store’s bread is more expensive than a store down the street.
Regular Grocery Store
4 loaves of bread x $3.79 per week = $15.16 per week
$15.16 per week x 52 weeks in a year = $788.32
Cheaper Grocery Store
4 loaves of bread x $3.25 per week = $13.00 per week
$13.00 per week x 52 weeks in a year = $676.00 total
$788.32 – $676.00 = $112.32
Therefore, by price comparing bread, this person saves over $100 just on one item! While this may not be a life-changing amount for most, what if you did this for 4 or 5 items? By taking a few minutes out of your day to pop over to another store, you could save hundreds of dollars per year!
One more note: to keep on track, be sure to make a grocery shopping list budget and stick to this amount when you go out. Personally, I have a range that I work with. For example, you can set your weekly spend to $100-150 to give you wiggle room in case some items cost more on one particular week. Again, planning ahead by creating a budget will help you in the long run!
4. Doing Meal Prep – The Cheapest Way to Cook
Once you’ve prepared and shopped for ingredients, time to get cooking! As I touched on earlier, to save money and make cheap meals, prepare 3-4 meals a week for dinner and use a few of the same ingredients for each meal.
Meal Prepping Steps
However, there’s one other way to practice the cheapest way to live in terms of what you eat: daily meal prep. To practice even more frugal living, you can choose to make the same meal every day. Personally, my weekend routine involves prepping on Sunday nights, but choose the best night that works for you. On this designated evening, create a big batch of one meal. Get out six reusable containers. Once the meal is ready, portion out the meal into six servings. Stick each in your fridge. Each day, you’ll have a meal ready to eat!
If this is too extreme and you like variety most days, you can stick with planning 3-4 meals a week. However, meal prep is a great option to consider. If eating the same thing for dinner every night is too boring, you can always make a big batch of salads for lunch. For variety, try different salad toppings every day. You can stock your pantry with different nuts and keep 3-4 vegetables in your fridge to use on different days. You’re still meal prepping and doing frugal cooking, but you’ll have more variety as opposed to making one large dinner and eating the exact same food every day.
Saving More with Cheap Filling Foods
Another way to save money with meal prep is to stick with cheap filling foods such as peanut butter, eggs, potatoes and frozen vegetables instead of fresh. A lot of these foods are on the ‘broke meals’ grocery shopping list for college students, but they’re tasty options for anyone on a budget!
Cooking your own meals is one of those essential living skills that everyone needs to have. Why? You’ll enjoy making delicious foods that not only taste great, but you’ll save money!
Practice the Cheapest Way to Live by Learning How to Get Free Clothes
If you’re aiming to find the cheapest way to live and want more frugal hacks to try out, you can focus on another major part and expense of your life: what you wear! While the most obvious way to save money on clothing is to frequent thrift stores and buy secondhand, there are some other creative ways to save money. In fact, in most of the following cases, you can get clothing for absolutely free! Again, you’ll need to invest some time to try out these methods. However, once you’ve tried out some of my tips, you’ll be addicted to saving money!
Go to a Clothing Swap
Ever gone to a clothing swap? This is an event where people bring their gently-used clothing and trade them for items that other people bring. Clothing swaps are a great way to find new-to-you fashion. All you need to pay for is the transportation costs to get to the event! Clothing swaps are a great way to meet new people who share a common interest with you: saving money and mixing up their style!
One downside to a clothing swap: the need to give away your clothes and exchange them for new ones. Of course, you could be a cheapskate and show up with nothing, but that’s not a good way to live! The whole purpose of a clothing swap is to recycle old clothing and allow other people to benefit from your used goods. Just because you want to find cheapest way to live by saving money on clothing doesn’t mean you’re being cheap! Cheap means inexpensive, but when you’re being cheap, you’re cutting corners in areas you shouldn’t. Some things are worth the money.
Repurpose Old Clothes
Got some old clothes that you love but are a little worse for wear? Repurposing clothes is technically a way to get free clothes – when they’re mended and repurposed, they’ll be like new! Get even more thrifty by taking old clothing and making something completely new. For example, you can take old jeans, cut off the bottom half and make shorts out of them. Or, you can take an old dress and sew a cute tote bag!
If you want to take it to the next step, you could turn your repurposing adventure into a side hustle by selling your wares on Etsy or another online platform.
Get creative with it and have fun!
Hand-Me-Downs from Family and Friends
Last but not least, why not ask your family members or friends for any used clothing they may have but are not wearing? While you might think asking for clothing is a negative form of stingy living, it’s smart. Why? You’re helping loved ones clean their closets while saving yourself tons of cash. You can either wear the clothing as-is or repurpose it. In exchange for their clothing, you can offer some of yours to them as well.
Cheapest Way to Live – Frugal vs. Cheap with Free Clothing
While the three methods I’ve explained are all great ways to save money in addition to thrifting, don’t get too frugal. There’s a balance between being frugal vs cheap. Remember – some clothing items are worth the investment. If your entire wardrobe is hand-me-downs, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it may be difficult to find staple items. For example, everyone needs classic pieces in their capsule wardrobe, like a white blouse, denim jacket and black shoes. If you can’t find the item used or handed down, don’t be afraid to invest the money in purchasing these items new at a high-quality store. If they’re good quality and you take care of them, these items will last you years.
Personally, I like to purchase my staple items from retail stores, then buy special pieces (trendy or seasonal pieces) used or handed down from friends or family. This allows me to find fun items for cheap. If I get tired of wearing them after one or two years, I can hand them down or donate them to a charity without having lost too much money.
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Learn How to Get a Free Car
Learn how to get a free car and drastically reduce your monthly expenses by not having to make monthly payments!
Cars: a huge expense for most. For many people, unless you live in a major city with a solid transit system, you’ll need a car to get to and from work, the grocery store and many other places. If you own a car, you probably already know how much one costs – even if you don’t own one, I’m sure you’ve heard that it’s a major expense. In fact, in 2020, the average cost of a light vehicle cost just over $46,000 USD! Even if you choose to purchase a used vehicle, this is no small expense. Many people have to finance their car, making small monthly payments over time so they can eventually pay off their vehicle.
One alternative to car payments? You can buy a used car in cash. Another even better alternative that most don’t think about? Learn how to get a free car.
“Easier said than done!” you might say. Yes, this sounds like a lofty ambition, but it is possible. Getting a free car can be especially accessible for those who fall into specific demographics, such as:
- Single working parents
- Low-income seniors
- Persons with disabilities
Here are some ways to get a free car:
Check Online Marketplaces
Why not check Facebook Marketplace for a free car? Just a heads up: some cars may be free for a reason. Be forewarned that some cars may be completely out of commission – there’s a risk that you’ll inherit a piece of junk.
At the very least, browse these marketplaces to find a cheap car. Be sure to look into whether the car can get properly insured and be sure to get information about the history of the car – for example, whether or not it’s been involved in accidents.
Work At a Company That Offers a Car
Want an easy way to get access to a car? Work for a company that’ll give you a car. While you technically don’t own the car, you’ll be able to use it to get from A to B. Be sure to check company policies on when you can use the car. Are you able to use the car and just pay for the gas, or is the car exclusively for company business?
Ask a Charity That Provides Cars
If you’re struggling financially, there are some charities out there that provide cars to those in need. Should you qualify, you may be able to receive a used vehicle at little to no cost to you. If you’re located in the US, check out some of these websites to get started:
The Cheapest Way to Live Out of Necessity or Want – Do You Really Need a Free Car?
While finding a free car can be an exciting and incredible way to practice frugal living, you need to ask yourself one important question: “Do I really need a free car?” While practicing frugality and finding the cheapest way to live, you’ll want to remember that now everyone has the financial privileges that many of us do.
Millions of people are struggling to put food on the table. Frugal living is fun, but it can come from a place of privilege. Some people have to practice extreme frugal living out of necessity.
If you’re scouring the internet for a free car and find a car that’s cheap or no cost to you, think about whether you really need a free car. If your finances are in check, it may be a better idea to keep that car on the market for someone who needs it – the single mom struggling to pay her utility bill, the recently disabled young adult who’s been out of work for over a year, or the family who just lost their home due to the rising cost of living.
Is a car affordable to you? You can still find many gently-used cars a fraction of the price of retail vehicles. There’s nothing wrong with finding a good deal and even living as cheaply as you can – just don’t be a cheapskate! There’s a difference between being frugal vs. cheap.
Long Term House Sitting: The Cheapest Way to Live on Land
Housing is one of the largest expenses one can have. If you’re a single person or a flexible family with a minimalist lifestyle, why not try long-term house sitting?
Before I explain the benefits of housesitting and how to go about trying house sitting long term to practice cheap and frugal living, let’s define housesitting. Housesitting is essentially watching over the house and any pets while the owner is away – traveling, working, or at another property.
Long term house sitting – when you look after someone’s house for 6 months or longer – can be a great way for digital nomads to live in a place longer-term and for homeowners and renters to save some money while living in a new space.
While housesitting may not appeal to someone with a lifestyle that requires stability – say, a family with small children and no desire to take care of pets – it can appeal to:
- Travellers who want free accommodation while trotting the globe
- Flexible renters who want to save money on housing expenses
- Homeowners with minimal possessions who want to make extra passive income renting their home
Let’s get into each ‘type’ of person who may benefit from long term housesitting.
Long Term Housesitting: Cheap Living for Digital Nomads
What’s the cheapest way to live without sacrificing a roof over your head? Housing is a major expense – not only for when you’re at home! Finding a decent roof over your head while you’re globetrotting can be one of the biggest expenses – especially if you’re a solo traveler who isn’t able to split costs with family or friends.
Long term housesitting is especially great for digital nomads who want to live in a place for several months at a time before moving on to the next location.
Sign up, find a housesitting option, bring your stuff over and enjoy long-term local living! Housesitting while traveling and working as a digital nomad is an amazing way to experience a new culture.
Important Notes About Long term Housesitting
One important note about housesitting: when you’re traveling, if you’re anything like me, you want the freedom to explore on your own time. If you’re housesitting in a place with pets, you have an obligation to tend to the pets – feeding, cleaning and walking the dogs might be part of your routine. As long as you don’t mind a little commitment, long term housesitting can be a great way to cut down on travel expenses! This commitment may even help you manage your vacation time a little bit better. If you have a schedule to stick to, you might be more committed to going out and sightseeing when you can!
Additionally, if you’re working from home while being a digital nomad, it’s crucial to have a stable, consistent internet connection. Be sure to ensure you have a stable connection and always have a backup power source such as mobile data so you can hotspot. When you’re finding the cheapest way to live and work abroad, don’t cut corners. Make sure that the home you’re renting has secure locks, strong internet and is quiet and private enough for you to get work done. One more note: housesitting may come with unexpected cancellations. Maybe the owners are coming home early and don’t need you to sit their house anymore. Be sure to budget some extra funds in your travel savings account in case you need to move locations unexpectedly.
Long Term Housesitting: An Option for Flexible Homeowners
If you and your family members are willing to pack up and move to a different space for a while, long term housesitting is a great way to save money on housing! If you’re renters, you’ll also save money by not paying rent.
Even if you own a home right now, you can rent out your home and try housesitting. You’ll be able to make an income from renting out your house, all while living in different places for free! A win-win, in my opinion.
If you and/or your family are minimalists, it may be even easier for you to do a long-term housesitting stint. Since you only own essential items and possessions that bring you purpose and happiness, you won’t have to spend ages packing up extra items in your home that you don’t want the tenants to use.
Less stuff = less time spent tending to that stuff = an easier time transitioning from your primary residence to a temporary housesitting arrangement!
While there are many pros to long term housesitting, if you’re a homeowner renting out your property while you’re away, there’s one major con: time required to manage your property.
When housesitting, you’ll need to manage your tenant and troubleshoot any issues that come up, like maintenance and repairs. While this isn’t anything out of the ordinary for a landlord regardless of where they’re living while their home is being rented out, it’s an important factor to consider.
However, in general, if you’re flexible, have minimal possessions and are willing to pack up for 6 months or more, housesitting can be a great way to live. If you work remotely, you can even travel somewhere new!
Living on a Houseboat: The Cheapest Way to Live on Water
What’s the cheapest way to live in terms of your housing situation? While long term housesitting is pretty frugal, living on a houseboat is an even cheaper way to live!
Pros of Living on a Houseboat
- Nature – by being on a houseboat, you’ll be a lot closer to nature. You’ll be on the water and you’ll have easy access to trees and forests surrounding the lake you live on!
- Taxes – since you aren’t living on the land, you may pay less taxes. Check with your state or municipality about any taxes you may owe
- A simpler lifestyle – when you have less space, there’s less space to furnish and clean! You’ll reduce living expenses (no need to buy copious amounts of furniture) and will have more time since you won’t be cleaning a huge space every week
Cons of Living on a Houseboat
- Hidden expenses and taxes – there may be association fee for registering your boat or other taxes that come with owning a boat on public land.
- Maintenance and repairs – if your boat breaks down, you’ll have to front unexpected costs for repairs
- Reduced living space – houseboats are generally a lot smaller than a conventional apartment. This may cause cabin fever. How to remedy this? Spend time on shore, swimming and getting some exercise, rather than spending large periods of time sitting
- Hosting capacity – since your boat is likely a lot smaller than the average dwelling, you may not be able to host large gatherings. However, if you’re not a super social person, this might be a good thing for you! It all depends on how you look at it.
Conclusion – Cheapest Way to Live
There you have it – a list of practical tips on the cheapest way to live. While this list is non-exhaustive, I hope it gives you a good starting point on how to significantly cut down on your housing, grocery and vehicle expenses.
Frugal living can be fun – just don’t get carried away finding the cheapest way to live. Remember to treat yourself every once in a while and don’t be afraid to invest in high-quality items that will last you longer! Have fun with frugal living and get creative with different strategies.
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Janita is a frugal living expert and owner of Frugal Fun Finance. With over five years of personal experience finding and trying out the best ways to make and save more money, she's eager to share her knowledge. Janita's strategies have helped her save thousands of dollars for funding investments and traveling to over 20 countries.
Janita completed training in personal finance at The University of Western Ontario and McGill University, two prestigious Canadian universities. Her expertise has been shared on GoBankingRates, Yahoo Finance, and NASDAQ.com.
