Let’s explore frugal habits that actually feel doable. For example, try to do a spending freeze for this month. No eating out and no buying clothing, home items, or accessories. Make yourself a “no spend month". This is a great reset for your spending. And for a set amount of time, usually a month, you commit to not spending money on anything that is not essential. So, you're not cutting out everything. You still have to pay the rent, utilities, gas, groceries, insurance, etc. But everything else is gone. No eating out, no clothes, no impulse Amazon buys, whatever it is that you tend to overspend on. Don't choose a month where you know you're going to have a lot of expenses coming up, a lot of holidays or birthdays or trips. Choose a month where you know it's pretty much a standard month and try the no spend month and use a debit card and cash and see how much less you spend and see how much better you feel. It's like yoga for your wallet.

Try to call your cell phone provider and to negotiate for a better plan and you can save even $60 a month. That's hundreds of dollars a year. And a lot of people simply aren't willing to take an hour out of their day. Think about it. You just saved hundreds of dollars, which means your hourly rate is hundreds of dollars for spending an hour on the phone. The average phone bill is now $113 per month, which is insane.

If you buy something, something else has to go. Adding more stuff makes your life more complicated, not easier. It's a good habit to build into your life because we do accumulate so much stuff. And if you've ever moved, you realize, "How did we get here? How did I accumulate so much crap that I didn't even need that has been stored away somewhere and I forgot about it?" Sometimes you're excited. You're like, "Oh my gosh, I love this thing. I forgot I had this. Why did I put it in this random drawer?" But the key is you get rid of something else when one thing enters. So maybe you have your own 300 items, which most of us have thousands. But if you have 301, take something out that you're not using. That way you always stay in the minimalist bubble.

The next one is to try to be online less during this year. You can find that the more you scroll or on social media, the more you get FOMO or get tempted by advertisements. You can do a reading challenge alongside a friend and use library books or Kindle so you are not tempted to tab back over to a web browser or app. Be too busy to waste time. That's a good life motto. Studies have shown that the more you scroll, the more you're going to spend for whatever reason. It’s emotional therapy. You found something you didn't know existed that you now need from Tik Tok shop, which by the way, nothing in Tik Tok shop is needed by anybody. Another option is making everything black and white. You can just go into your phone and go grayscale. It's like looking at your ancestors' newspaper. It's so boring that it makes you want to get off your phone and stop scrolling, let alone buy stuff.

The next habit is to stop buying stuff on sale just because it's on sale. It turns out saving money by spending money I wasn't planning to spend is not actually saving money. I think sales is one of the most genius marketing ploys out there. And you know, all Black Friday is a great example of this.

Most of these habits come down to just taking a beat before you buy something. A little bit of patience, checking to make sure you don't already have it, seeing if you can use what you got before you go spend more money. And if you want to be a smart spender, ask yourself these questions. It spells out the word smart, so it's easy to remember. Number one, self-awareness. Will this really add value to my life? Think back to that identity based spending. Number two, motive. Am I buying this for the right reason? A for affordability. Is this in my budget? Can I actually afford this in full in cash right now? The R is for research. Is this the best option, retailer, and price? Let's take some time, have a little patience, and do the research. And finally, T for timing. Is now the right time to buy it? The answer's probably no to that one. But, you know, opportunity cost. Just think, is this the right time or can I wait a month or wait till it's on sale? So, if you can answer yes to all five of those questions, you can go ahead and make that purchase and be glad about it. No regrets with intentionality. Otherwise, it's a no or simply a not now.