Froogal Livin'

June 2, 2009 6:32 PM

What are your favorite links for frugal living/frugality websites?

I really enjoy perusing frugal living websites. I've found a few great ones such as, Frugal Dad, zenhabits, Wise Bread...but I want more.

So, what are your favorite frugal living websites? They don't necessarily have to be a strictly frugal living website, it could also be a website that facilitates your own quest for frugality.

A thousand thank yous.

posted by ian1977 to society & culture (26 comments total)

I like www.getrichslowly.org.
posted by val5a at 6:39 PM on June 2 [2 favorites has favorites]

The Simple Dollar
posted by DrGail at 6:49 PM on June 2 [2 favorites has favorites]

FatWallet Finance Forum has some good threads on stretching your dollars.

Creditboards has a Money Management Forum.

Neither of these are all about frugal living, but there are some threads which are gems.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:53 PM on June 2

I like Thirty Bucks a Week, which is about (mostly organic vegetarian) home cooking on a budget.
posted by bcwinters at 7:00 PM on June 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

The discussion boards on the Simple Living Network.
posted by apartment dweller at 7:01 PM on June 2

Gail's Interactive Budget Worksheet can be handy for keeping tabs on things no matter what your lifestyle.

I think you may be on top of the handiest website of them all, though.
posted by Muffpub at 7:09 PM on June 2 [3 favorites has favorites]

Retailmenot.com lets us save on pretty much any online order, even obscure sites like exotic battery replacements.
posted by halogen at 7:13 PM on June 2

Gotta read Hillbilly Housewife. For example, there's a menu of one week's worth of meals for 4-6 people, three square meals a day, for about $45. There's also an article on how to use powdered milk, which costs about half of what fresh milk does on a per-gallon basis, and one on how to turn regular hamburger into the high-quality, 93% lean stuff which costs more than twice as much, with only a minimal loss in caloric content.

They've got various non-food articles as well (1, 2, 3), but the focus is mostly on food.

On the whole though, it's basically a website about doing things the way your grandma who lived during the Depression would have done them: focus on minimal expenditure and minimal waste.
posted by valkyryn at 7:39 PM on June 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

Frugal in Virginia.
posted by yawper at 8:12 PM on June 2

Try the consumerist, with advice on how to get good deals. I highly recommend it.
posted by catquas at 8:17 PM on June 2

Frugal Yankee: Enjoying Life, Spending Less
posted by Miko at 8:25 PM on June 2

For food, Cheap Healthy Good is a must-read. Their weekly link roundup is exhaustive and brilliant, and they also have a weekly vegetarian feature.
posted by padraigin at 8:36 PM on June 2

Frugal for Life
posted by zarq at 8:43 PM on June 2

Tightwad Central.
posted by Grlnxtdr at 9:35 PM on June 2

http://www.cheapskatemonthly.com/
posted by northernlightgardener at 10:38 PM on June 2

If you are based in the UK

Money Saving Expert.

There is plenty there for non-UK peeps as well.
posted by TheOtherGuy at 1:41 AM on June 3

The Fife Diet is one from Scotland. The authors originally pledged to eat only food from local sources and then blogged about their experiences.
posted by rongorongo at 2:17 AM on June 3

Better Times

Mother Earth News

Flight from the City: an Experiement in Creative Living on the Land by Ralph Borsodi (1933)
posted by apartment dweller at 9:50 AM on June 3

I read many of the above, but if you're looking for something that really finds the beauty in living a frugal life, visit Like Merchant Ships. Lovely.

Oh, and also Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

They're more geared to women, if that makes a difference.
posted by mdiskin at 7:09 PM on June 3

it's pretty popular, but deserves mention anyway:
freecycle,

also thriftyfun
posted by fizzix at 7:53 AM on June 4

Oodles of great answers. Thanks everyone! :-)
posted by ian1977 at 12:28 PM on June 4

Frugal living isn't about tips, it is about reducing your needs to a minimum, and getting those needs filled cheaper. Freecycle Craigslist and Kijiji are great for that.

Also, for people who live around Toronto, my Google Maps mashup would be useful.
posted by Chuckles at 10:36 PM on June 5

Early Retirement Extreme
posted by rollick at 5:01 PM on June 6

I dig The Simple Dollar also. Beyond the site, the author actually links to other good websites in the same vein which could be considered his competition.


"Frugal living isn't about tips, it is about reducing your needs to a minimum, and getting those needs filled cheaper."

It is about tips if you don't know how to live frugal. Some people think that cable t.v. is a necessity. Those are the people who need the assistance of a website devoted to promoting the frugal living lifestyle and providing tips along the way to get other folks in the right frame of mind.
posted by Gravitus at 6:48 PM on June 8

"Frugal living isn't about tips, it is about reducing your needs to a minimum, and getting those needs filled cheaper."

I know what frugal living is about, I just like reading the websites. Its a frugal activity. :-P
posted by ian1977 at 6:51 AM on June 19

Also, once you have committed to reducing your needs to a minimum, you can use all the tips in the world to think of ways you haven't yet discovered to meet those needs more cheaply. For instance, bread. I never really reflected on the idea that I was paying $4.69 a week for a loaf of local organic bread until I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle with a chapter on making your own bread at home in a bread machine. I hopped on Freecycle, got a brand new bread machine from someone who never used hers, and now I make all my bread in it, for about $1 a loaf, and just as yummy as what I was buying. "Make your own bread" was a tip that didn't work for me before, because I'm crappy at it and never have time; but "use a bread machime, you can probably get one free" was a genius tip.

Tips and the commitment are two different things. Once you've made the commitment, you want more tips all the time.
posted by Miko at 7:15 AM on June 19 [1 favorite has favorites]