Embracing Frugality (Again)

Note: I wrote this article in April 2020, during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Lockdowns are long gone, but money is still tight for many households. UK inflation was 3.1% in August 2026, above the Bank of England’s 2% target, so the ideas below are just as useful today.

As I write this, the world is in the middle of a crisis. COVID-19 has changed life as we know it, and everyone has been affected in some way.

The financial damage is huge. The economy has ground to a halt. Businesses have closed their doors, non-essential work has stopped and many jobs have been cut or put on hold.

Faced with so much uncertainty, my family, like many households, is living frugally to make sure we can cover our bills. And you know what? Frugality isn’t that bad.

In this post, I share how I’m rediscovering my love of frugality, and why it may be the silver lining in all of this.

First, I’m in no way making light of the real financial hardship and emotional strain many people are going through. My only aim is to add a little optimism to a grim situation.

My past frugal experiences

I’m no stranger to frugality. Around 2012, I came across a blog called Early Retirement Extreme. Its author, Jacob, used extreme frugality to save 75% of his income and become financially free in five years.

Most people who read ERE think Jacob is a nutter. I thought he was a genius.

I tried to copy his methods so I could save a similar share of my pay. There was just one problem: my wife didn’t share my love of penny-pinching.

My ideas of a diet of mostly porridge and beans, cutting our own hair and only shopping in charity shops didn’t go down well. Looking back, my wife puts up with a lot.

But I was set on achieving financial independence. What’s not to love about having enough money to do whatever you want all day? So I insisted we at least make some changes.

We stuck to a budget, ate out less, bought all our furniture second-hand, let our spare room on Airbnb and spent most weekends doing up investment properties.

These choices, plus having two incomes and no kids at the time, let us save 50% of our income. We were moving quickly towards financial independence and never felt we were missing out by not spending like our friends.

Once we reached “lean FI”, where investment income covered our basic living costs, I relaxed on the frugality front. Or, as everyone else saw it, I stopped being such a cheapskate.

Rediscovering frugality

With our income and the economy uncertain over the coming months, we’re doing everything we can to make our money go further. So I’ve reconnected with my old friend, frugality.

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Traditional frugality motto

I never really stopped being thrifty, but I had loosened the reins. Now I’m much more aware of what I spend and what I waste.

Here are some of the things we’re doing to save money, some by choice and some because of the lockdown rules:

• Not wasting food: we plan meals around ingredients we already have, batch cook and stretch each meal as far as it will go. Charlie the dog helps with any leftovers.
• Cooking every meal at home: restaurants are closed, but takeaways are still open. We’re choosing not to order. To cut costs further, we’ve swapped chicken for tinned tuna in our pasta bake, partly because panic buyers have cleared the meat aisles.
• Not using the car: I drove once last week, to the supermarket. When we ran out of bread and milk, I walked to the local shop.
• Home workouts: I’m not a fan, and I’ll be back at the gym as soon as it reopens.
• Mending old clothes: I’ve sorted my wardrobe and decided not to buy new clothes for a few months. I’ll make do and mend instead.
• Reusing plastic bottles: empty spray bottles are refilled with diluted disinfectant. Old plastic bottles have also become skittles for bowling in the garden.
• Cutting my own hair: I was starting to look like a mushroom, so I’ve had another go. I stopped doing it in the past because my wife wasn’t a fan of the results.

Final word

Being thriftier during lockdown has reminded me what I like about frugality.

Saving money is great, but I love the efficiency. Using only what you need and cutting waste appeals to my engineer’s brain. Frugality also makes you think: how can I do this without spending money?

Perhaps the biggest benefit is contentment. You can be just as happy with what you already have. If I’ve relearned anything this week, it’s that you don’t need to spend money to be happy.

With a roof over my head, food in the cupboards, clean water from the tap and my family safe and well, there’s a lot to be grateful for.

What about you? Did you become more frugal during lockdown, and have you kept any of those habits?