Your Guide to Living Cheap
the first steps to take

Frugal Retirement Living is your guide to living cheap. We have done it for 15 years, and we are confident you can too.

We have already shown you 4 specific lifestyles Rving, sailboat, park model and retire over seas...links to the left.

Each of which allows you to live cheaply and very well. None of these are spartan, in fact most people will envy you.

It is sad, but most families are controlled by there lifestyles, their stuff, and must produce more and more to sustain their chosen way of living.

Now I admit I am lucky to have a frugal wife.

The frugal retirement living lifestyle is your guide to living cheap but also very well. Let's take a look at some obstacles that may be keeping you from retiring: I don't have enough money; your house(s); your car(s); your lifestyle. 

I don't have enough money to live on let alone retire

Again this will not be a site promoting investment advice, there are plenty of sites on how to get rich quick, double your money in the stock market, etc. We want to show you how you can make do with what you have now. This guide to living cheap will show you how to reduce your spending rather than increase your income. Some are no brainer's.

If you think about it and you are living a non frugal lifestyle, more money will only make your situation worse by making your stuff more expensive. There is never enough money when you are consuming...never.

When you are keeping up with your neighbors, you are constantly thinking bigger and better everything. The sooner you stop thinking like this the better. 

Your guide to living cheap will help you to identify things you may not be aware of that keep you from retiring. Here's the answer to how much money to retire?

When we moved to our boat the following bills stopped and were replaced by:

• Business suits...a new T-shirt, cover up
• Work dresses/work shoes...new flip flops
• Silk tie or scarf...straw hat
• Car maintenance...rebuild kit for outboard
• Electricity...free solar/wind power
• Entertainment...organize a beach cookout
• Golf expenses...play dominoes
• Cable TV...read good books
• Lawn up keep...go snorkeling
• Go to movies...read Shakespeare
• Buy magazines and books...go to library
• Gas, car insurance, tolls...take the bus
• Exchange gifts...go to potluck
• Club dues...???
• Buy riding lawnmower...take a nap
• Take Caribbean vacation...you are already there

Fine, we understand, that lifestyle is not for everyone...Just take a look at the column on the left, personalize to fit what you spend money on and guess what it would cost for the replacement items on the right.

No matter what frugal retirement living lifestyle you choose , this exercise is for you to honestly list where your money goes. This where you start to change your mindset and start to focus on whats important to you.

If you need to know what to do after retiring...

The easiest ways we save money today 

The importance of research before buying anything

The saving strategies for the big 3 spending areas 

Frugal vacation tips

4 best ways to save money

My frugal wife versus Michelle Obama

In 1989, I wrote down a list of things I never wanted to do again and what I hoped to do when I retired , go here to take a look and see how we did.

Best ways to retire early...ask yourself two questions

Your House could be an obstacle for you to retire

If this applies to you fine if it doesn't or you can't think the thought of selling the family home fine. Just take what you use in the concepts we have experienced and integrate them into retiring and keeping your home. This is still your guide to living cheap and well.

Consider what all the costs of home ownership are on an annual basis. Go ahead, pull out your credit card slips,tax returns and check stubs.

They should include:

• Mortgage payment
• Home insurance
• Property tax
• Garbage pickup
• Electricity
• Gas
• Sewer
• Water
• Phone
• Cable
• Loews, Home Depot expenses
• Furniture

Don't include things like medicine, household items, linens, and groceries. You will have those expenses everywhere, no matter which way you chose to retire.

Once you determine what living in your house is costing you lets take a look at transportation and your lifestyle. If you need help with budget ideas, here is a good resource.For additional money saving tips visit saving money and more

Your guide to living cheap...your car

The lifestyles we have experienced including the one we live now calls for 1 car. Think about it, how many cars do you take or need on vacation?? 

Only one, you are doing things together, going one place at a time and that's the way you live (frugally) when you retire.

The car we drive is 10 years old and has 147,000 miles on the odometer. It was also our RV tow car and that put another 43,000 miles on it not recorded. It runs fine. Would I like a new one, sure, would I like to part with the money, insurance, sales tax and license fees, a new car would entail...no thank you.

You can save thousands by not trading in every 3 to 4 years. You are smarter than your neighbors who fall into this wasteful trap. Follow the guide to living cheap and live frugally and retire earlier than them.

Does your car pose a obstacle to retiring early?

A biggie...your lifestyle

I am not saying you do all these things, just take the following list, personalize to fit you and identify the lifestyle items that may be keeping you from retirement:

• Your clothing costs for work
• Your commute costs
• Other items required by your job
• Club dues
• Green/Court/gym fees
• The type of car you drive
• The type of house you live in
• Dining out Here are some great tips for eating out cheaply
• Vacation costs

There are lots of hidden extra costs associated with working. These are costs you incur by maintaining the right "image and appearances", they may be necessary...or you think they are necessary...all are costly.

Use the guide to living cheap to identify them just so you are aware.

Conclusion

The guide to living cheap is not set up to judge you or criticize how you spend your money, it is certainly your business.

However, when we decided that the most important thing in our life was to be together...work and earning money had to go. We examined our expenditures just like we ask you to evaluate yours.

Completing the exercise above woke us up to the areas in our life that we had allowed to control us... our stuff and lifestyle.

Neither one of us has earned a penny in the last 14 years...the best 14 years of our life. Let this guide to living cheap be the start of you living out your dreams.

Do you have a story about Cheap Living that you will share?

Penny Pinchers we want to hear from you! If you have a certain method of saving money share it with others. Today every little bit helps...do us a favor and share your techniques for squeezing the last bit of value out of your dollars. This is your chance to help others.

What Other Visitors Have Said about cheap living

Click below to see cheap living contributions from other visitors to this page...