How to Avoid Produce Waste

If you are trying to cut your grocery bill, reducing waste is a great place to start. We waste between 14-25% of the food we buy. Produce is commonly wasted since it seems to go bad in the blink of an eye. Planning ahead can help you to stop wasting the produce you pay good money for.

* If you buy produce in bulk, have a plan to use it. Plan the week's meals around that item, or preserve some of it so none goes to waste. If you buy a huge bag of potatoes, use some to make mashed potatoes, then the leftovers can be made into mashed potato soup or potato pancakes. You can also dehydrate apples for a wonderful snack with a long shelf-life.

* If your garden gives you a surplus, preserve it for later. Can, freeze or dehydrate as much as possible to stretch the harvest. A glut of tomatoes can be made into tomato sauce, salsa and sun-dried tomatoes. Zucchini can be shredded and frozen to use in baking later. Peppers freeze well, although the texture will be slightly different.

* For 1-2 person households, go small when you buy lettuce. At my local grocery store, all types of lettuce sell for $1.99/lb. I buy "little gem" lettuce instead of larger heads of lettuce. It costs the same amount per pound, but since I can easily get through the smaller head, I don't waste any.

* Use the dehydrator to avoid waste. If I buy several tomatoes and they start to get a tad overripe before I get to use them fresh, I slice them thin and dehydrate for mock sun-dried tomatoes that I can use on pizza or sandwiches. If bananas turn black, I slice thin and dehydrate for a delicious snack. When celery starts to get a bit limp, I dehydrate it to use in soups. If there is only 1-2 in your household, it can be hard to eat an entire package of produce before it goes bad (3lb bags of oranges/apples, 1 lb containers strawberries, etc). Dehydrate half of the produce as soon as you get home to use later.

* Dehydrate celery leaves or any vegetables that would otherwise go to waste to make veggie powder. Simply crumble or grind in a clean coffee grinder. Use this powder to add flavor to omelets or bread or to make vegetable soup.

*Zest lemons, oranges or limes and dry them on a tray in a dry, dark place. Use to add flavor to baked goods.

* When bananas turn black, toss them whole into the freezer. Use to make smoothies or banana bread. Just microwave for 30 seconds and peel easily.

* When apples start to get soft, core and chop them. Simmer in a small amount of water with cinnamon and sugar (optional) until soft. Blend for wonderful applesauce.

* Use leftover bits of vegetables or parts of vegetables that would usually be thrown away to make stock. Celery leaves, carrot peels and onion skins can be simmered in water with or without chicken bones for practically-free stock.

* Sometimes you can cut out bad parts and still have a decent amount left, for example, cut out eyes from potatoes. Our grandparents commonly did this and lived to tell the tale.

* Get creative. Make watermelon rind pickles. Make tea from cherry stems. Eat watermelon or squash seeds, roasted with salt.

* Regrow it. While I haven't tried this yet, some people have had good luck regrowing produce such as green onions, celery, pineapple, avocado, romaine lettuce or onions from scraps. Here are some links for more info: How to Regrow Foods, Regrowing Your Produce.

* Bake potato peels with cheese and seasonings for a great appetizer.

* If you are ever making a monster batch of applesauce like I do on my family's Apple Processing Day, you can use the peels and cores to make apple cider/juice.

* Pulp leftover from juicing can be added to muffins for extra fiber. This works especially well if you add chocolate chips or nuts.

* Have a vegetable soup container in the freezer. Whenever you have leftover veggies such as tomatoes, celery, onions, green beans, carrots, potatoes, peas, corn, etc you can toss it in. Once it's full thaw and add veggie broth or tomato sauce and seasonings for an almost-free soup.

* Excess produce can be added to baked goods such as muffins, brownies or breads. Zucchini, squash, pumpkins, apples, berries, carrots, or even potatoes can be mixed in.

* Feed kitchen scraps to chickens, ducks, rabbits, hogs or goats. Get it back as eggs, milk, meat and compost.

* Feed to worms for supreme fertilizer for the garden. If you don't have a worm bin, start a compost bin in a trash can with drainage holes drilled into it.

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Hanging Out With Friends...Frugally

When your budget is stretched thin, it can be hard to come up with extra money for entertainment, even hanging out with friends. Instead of sitting at home alone, try some of these tips to save money while still being social.

Go to the park. Go for a walk or bike ride. Go swimming at the beach. Have a picnic. Be kids again and play on the playground. It's free and you can get some exercise and fresh air.

Cook something amazing. Gather at the biggest/most well equipped kitchen among your friends and make dinner. Or cookies. Or jam. My family has an annual apple processing day where we gather to preserve lots of yummy food and talk.

Get crafty. Meet for knitting/crochet. Have a quilting bee. Scrapbook or make cards and share markers and fun scissors. Try fun new DIY projects such as T-shirt scarves. You can share materials and enjoy snacks and drinks at home.

Meet for coffee instead of a meal. Even meeting at a mid-level restaurant for lunch can set you back $10-15. If you get a basic coffee, it'll only cost $2-3. Do this once a week instead of a meal and you'll save $400-600 a year. For tips on saving money at a coffee house, see Cheaper Cup O Joe.

Have coffee at home instead of at the shop. I used to meet one friend at a coffee house every week for tea and bagels. After tip I was spending $6.50 each week. We started meeting at her house and took turns supplying the tea, bagels and cream cheese. By shopping sales, I could supply everything for $4 or less (considering that I would freeze the extra bagels for the next gathering and one box of tea would supply 10 weeks of gatherings). 

Go to a thrift store instead of the mall. Malls are expensive. It's too easy to completely blow your budget when you walk into a mall, especially if you see a big clearance section (the Achilles' heel of the Frugalite: that red mark-down sticker!). And while you can blow your budget at a thrift store, it's a lot harder to do. I love to dig around in thrift stores with friends. We can look out for particular items for each other and giggle at horrible clothes and wall hangings.

Run errands. If you (or a friend) are super busy, you can get some face time by running errands together. Go to the grocery store and catch up while you walk up and down the aisles.

Make dinner at home instead of eating at a restaurant. I can make a nice dinner for 4 for less than dinner for 1 at a restaurant (thanks to my mad grocery shopping skills). Have the friend bring beer/wine and you'll both save while getting a great meal.

Have a movie night at your home instead of at the theater. One person can bring drinks, another popcorn, and another candy. Watch an old movie from your collection or rent a new release. Either way, it will be much cheaper than the $10 ticket plus $5 soda and $8 popcorn at the theater.

Get in shape. Make a commitment to get fit together. You can keep each other motivated while having fun. Go for power walks around the neighborhood, go for a long hike or do yoga in the backyard.

Go to a free concert. Find a no-cover bar that has good live shows. If you can nurse a drink or two for the evening, it can be very affordable. Ask about specials. If there is a late-running happy hour, you could show up a little early to take advantage. One bar that I used to go to sold $1 PBR. While I'm a bit of a beer snob, if I were really hard up, I'd consider drinking it so I could have a $2 night out.

Go to free cultural events together. Go to gallery openings or to museums on free days. Go to plays, movies or concerts in the park. Go to a poetry slam or open mic night at a coffee house.

Have fun!

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Beginning Frugality

Many people are now living in a new normal. You may be one of them. I know I am. The Great Recession changed things for many of us. We were laid off from high-paying positions when our employers decided to hire newbies for half the pay rate. Or perhaps our small businesses failed. For others, life just happened: illness, deaths in the family, giving birth to children. Some of us finally decided to get out of soul-sucking careers that left us drained of vitality. For whatever reason, many people are living on lower incomes than in previous years and are finding it hard to make ends meet.

Fortunately there are techniques and tricks you can implement that can keep you in balance. Here are some of my favorite tips for embarking on a frugal life. I aim to provide tips that make a difference, but don't take an unreasonable amount of time or energy. Pick one or two at a time and wait until it is second nature before picking a couple more so you don't get overwhelmed.

Keep track of your real income level. Make a list of your monthly income as well as benefits such as annual bonuses, health insurance, life insurance, company discounts and vacation time. Don't forget “little” benefits such as meal vouchers or free services. Now make a list of all work related expenses: second car (as well as all commuting related expenses), work wardrobe, salon services, makeup, day care, lunches out, and taxes. Don't forget such expenses as: coffee on the way to work, alcohol consumed to unwind from work, or take out on days you feel too tired to work. What is your real income level? Many times work-related expenses (not including taxes) can eat up 1/3-1/2 your income.

Look for ways to minimize your work related expenses so you bring more home. Packing a lunch (at $2 per meal) rather than buying at a deli for $10 a meal can save you $40 a week, or over $2000 a year. Making coffee at home ($.25/cup) instead of buying on the way ($2/cup) saves $450 a year. A few of these changes can make a serious impact on your financial picture.

But what if the expenses eat up over half of your income? When I worked in banking, I made $17k a year, but had to spend a lot of money to look nice: suits, salon hair cuts on a regular basis, makeup, a different style of jewelry than I usually wear. These ate up a lot of my money, meaning that I was really making a lot less for my time. Switching careers meant that I didn't have to have a second wardrobe or ever step foot in a fancy salon. Also, for those in soul-sucking careers, if switching careers means that you have less need to drink, smoke or therapy-shop, you could possibly switch to a lower income but more enjoyable career.

Look at your home. Does it fit you? Are you a single living in a 4 bedroom? Do you have a large, fancy house, but spend most of your time out? Many times we buy houses (or rent apartments) to fit some idea of how we are supposed to live rather than how we really want to live. When this means paying higher rents or crushing mortgage payments, it can destroy your life.

If mortgage payments or rents are too high to meet on your new income, consider taking drastic steps. I will admit, this will be easier for renters than home-owners. If you are renting, just consider moving someplace cheaper when your lease is up. For owners, it is harder, but is still worth considering. Consider moving to a cheaper city/suburb/neighborhood. Consider selling your big house to buy a smaller (and cheaper) one. Consider renting out a sleeping room or storage space. If needed, switching early in the game can save you from receiving eviction or foreclosure threats in the mail.

Even if the big changes won't work for you, look for other ways to save around the home. Mow your own lawn instead of paying someone to do it ($20 a week for 6 months a year=$520), avoid running the air conditioner (when you're not home, or during cooler parts of the day, or any time other than when you are asleep), turn down the thermostat (bundle up in warm clothes, keep active or cuddle under a blanket to stay warm), learn to perform maintenance and basic repairs on your appliances and decorate using thrift shop artwork (or your kids artwork!), homemade crafts and simple but affordable furniture. If you ever move, remember than the bigger the house, the more you (typically) pay to buy it, insure it, decorate it, heat it, cool it, in taxes and fill it with stuff.

Cars are another big expense. For some reason, we tend to have our self worth all tied up in some idea of self. Luxury cars announce that we are successful and highly paid. Whether people are really impressed by fancy cars or not, I challenge this idea. A car gets you from point a to point b. Period. It is most beneficial financially to drive the cheapest car that doesn't require regular, large repairs. Buying a late-model used car can be perfect. You don't suffer the huge depreciation that accompanies driving a new car off the lot, but unlike very old cars, you don't have to fix some major problem every month.

Ask your insurance carrier about any discounts: senior, student, married, safe driver, military, multi-plan. Avoid speeding for better gas mileage and no speeding tickets. Don't buy “ultra-special-premium” gasoline; standard will work just fine.

Better yet, abandon the car altogether or whenever possible. If you live in a city with a good public transit system, you can live easily and better without a car. You save on payments, insurance, tags, testing, parking, tickets, meters, and repairs. For much, much less you can buy a monthly pass for unlimited rides. (A car and expense easily cost well over $500 a month, but a monthly pass costs $75-100). Maybe you aren't ready for that step, but you can drive less. Consolidate trips instead of making multiple trips. Run errands on your bicycle or commute by bike or foot. If you decide to keep the car, but commute without it, let your insurer know and you can save $10 a month.

The grocery bill is a prime target for beginning frugality. There are many ways to save on groceries. Eat at home instead of restaurant/take out meals. Don't let food go to waste (The average family throws away 14% of the food purchased). Buy only what you know you will use before it goes bad. Use leftovers for work/school lunches.

You can save an easy 20-30% by simply shopping the sales. When an item on your regular list goes on a good sale, buy a few extra. Even better, you can plan your meals around whatever is on sale. If whole chickens are on sale, you'll have roasted chicken one day, chicken casserole the next, and make soup out of the carcass the next. Peruse the manager's special sections each time you shop; prices are usually 50-75% off.

If you have a scratch-n-dent grocery store nearby, you can save big. These stores buy items that are dented, discontinued, have old-style packaging or are nearing their sell-by date from larger grocery stores. They usually (although not always) sell them at great prices. At one such store, I bought 2-lb bags of lentils for $.19 and I regularly buy whole-grain pasta for $.59/lb.

Grow your own. If you have a yard that gets a little sunlight, you can grow a portion of your food. It is best to start with foods that your family enjoys eating, is costly to purchase, that grows well in your area, and that are of higher quality when fresh. If you plan to be in your home for a number of years, consider planting perennial plants: asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, berry brambles or fruit trees. And renters, don't despair! You can grow herbs or mesclun mix in a sunny window sill or sprout beans seeds in a dark cupboard. Ask your landlord for permission to plant someplace out of the way, or plan a nice edible display for a flower bed. It can't hurt to ask; my previous landlord let me put in a lettuce bed that supplied an entire season's salads.

Whether you live in the city, a small town or in the woods, you can forage. This is great fun to do with friends or with children. Take a hike through the woods and look for edible mushrooms (best to take someone who knows what their talking about and avoid mushrooms that have any poisonous lookalikes in your area) and ostrich fern fronds. In my area, there are several parking lots that have mulberry trees planted along the sides. Dandelions are one of my favorite foods. I also make tea from red clover, mix crab apples into my home-made applesauce and enjoy pears that grow near my favorite coffee house. Foraging supplies a small percentage of my diet, but provides variety and entertainment.

There is no need to pay full price for clothing. Look over the clearance sections or shop during buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) events. Plan ahead for needs so you can buy when you find a low price. One spring I found a pair of $100 winter boots for $20.

Shop at thrift stores or consignment shops for fantastic bargains ($3 jeans instead of $50) Always inquire about sales, promotions or loyalty programs. My favorite thrift store always has half off on certain color tags, and once a month everything is half off (for half off days, go early for the best selection, but be prepared for crowds and long lines). Another store has a text club. They send out texts about once a week to let you know of sales such as “half off all jeans from 4-8 on Friday”. They have a drawing each month; once I won $25 in gift certificates.

Shoes are hit and miss (lower-end thrift stores usually have worn shoes, and good mens shoes are very rare). I like buying used jeans because they are already worn in and more comfortable. Children's clothing selection is wonderful, since kids grow up faster than they can wear out clothing.

A great thing about used clothing is less risk of low-quality goods. When you buy new clothes, you don't know how it will survive that first wash. Especially when buying from cheaper fashion stores, you run a risk of having something fall apart within a few wears. If you buy something at a thrift store in good condition, it is likely to last for awhile longer.

Health-care is immorally expensive in America. Insurance is a huge weight on the middle class family, and for working or working poor families, it is impossibly expensive. Paying out of pocket for medical procedures is no longer possible. Whether you have insurance or not, with vigilance you can reduce your out of pocket health costs.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is cheaper for you to stay healthy than to try to regain health once you are sick. Ask your parents and grandparents about health problems in the family. Research how to lower your risk of those issues. The basics are important for all of us: limit junk food, eat a varied diet of whole foods, maintain a healthy weight, exercise often, quit smoking,avoid meth. You know. The basics.

Brush your teeth three times a day and floss daily. Avoid drinking soda and energy drinks, smoking or eating candy. Excessive toothpaste use is cheaper than filling a cavity or getting dentures.

If you are uninsured, it helps to know that in an emergency, the ER cannot turn you away because of an inability to pay. So if you think you are having a heart attack, or your child breaks an arm, go. For less pressing issues, however, know that the ER will leave you with thousands of dollars of debt. Search online to see if any area hospitals are not-for-profit and will charge a pro-rated fee depending on income level.

Some cities provide free health care for children and pregnant/nursing women. Most larger cities and some smaller ones have free or income-based clinics. These are great resources. They are inconvenient, they do not provide the best care, but they help. Expect to take a day off of work and expect spend most of the day waiting. Many clinics have limits on who they will help (only certain races or income levels); others help anyone who walks in and require no proof of income. If a clinic says they cannot help you, ask for information about other clinics. If you cannot find a free clinic, look for providers who charge on a sliding scale. If you are low income, this can save you a large amount of money. If possible, tell the doctor that you are uninsured, but will pay cash and ask for a discount. The insurance companies never pay the full price, so the doctor may be willing to cut you a similar break.

If you have a severely limited income and have trouble eating a nutritious diet, taking a cheap multivitamin can be helpful to avoid deficiency. A multivitamin is not a replacement for a vitamin-rich diet, but can help. I don't know for sure whether herbal supplements work. I know that many supplements are based on plants that are edible and nutritious, but I doubt the effectiveness of taking a tiny pill stuffed with a bit of dried herb. I prefer to eat my nettles rather than take a nettles pill. Making your own herbal medicine from plants you grow or pick (responsibly!) in the wild is probably more effective and certainly more cost efficient that buying.

Do yourself a favor. Get a good night's rest. When you are chronically under-slept, you suffer. You lose your ability to handle stress, both emotional and physical. Your immunity lowers. You'll get sick easier and have a harder time kicking the bug. You'll feel depressed and probably gain weight. You'll have less energy for the things that matter to you.

Entertainment is usually one of the first expenses to be cut out when a family is trying to become frugal. While I admit that a lot of entertainment options are overpriced, I think that it is very important to avoid boredom.

There are many great ways to entertain yourself that are free or cheap. During the time when my family was at our lowest income level (during the 2008 economic meltdown), we found it very important to get out of the house and have fun to give us the strength and encouragement we needed to look for decent jobs during a time when any job was hard to come by.

The best free form of entertainment is to get out into nature. Nature makes us happy. Studies repeatedly show that we are happier if we exercise outside, get dirt on our fingers or are near plants. So get out there! Go for a walk or a bike ride. Swim at a free beach. Go hiking in a state park. Go mushroom hunting or berry picking. Do yoga in the back yard. Pick wildflowers. Plant a flower or vegetable garden. Watch a meteor shower. Go camping in a tent at a park or in the back yard. Go fishing (and then have a fish fry!). Dance in the rain.

Find fun and frugal things to do at home. Play board or card games. Knit. Crochet. Sew. Make jewelry out of random things that would otherwise be thrown away (broken jewelry, computer parts, buttons from old clothes). Read a book. Listen to music and dance. Bake cookies. Learn to preserve food (it is great fun, educational, frugal and it increases your self reliance).

If your city publishes a free paper, get it. Browse through it for frugal local activities. Most papers publish a list of free or cheap activities. One city's free daily listed three happenings each day. One was a exciting/once-in-a-lifetime event and was usually expensive. One was cheap such as a $5 concert or a buy-one-get-one-free day at a movie theater. The other was for a freebie; sometimes they were small like a free coffee at a coffee house if you brought a travel mug and sometimes they were big such as a free day at a museum. I'm subscribed to an e-newsletter for my city. Each week I get a Mega-Weekend email letting me know of everything that is going on. Usually I can find something affordable or free every day.

Go to the website of museums in your area. Most have free days at some point. Some are free one day a week, some have one day a year, and others are free every day. Museums are usually crowded on free days, but the savings make it worthwhile. Ask your library if they have passes you can check out. Google coupons or promo codes.

If you live in a large city, consider buying an Entertainment Book. These sell for $30, but get you $20k+ value in coupons (obviously you won't use them all, but will certainly save more than $30). Many coupons are buy-one-get-one-free for meals, museum entrance, or cultural events. Some are for freebies such as a free dessert at a restaurant with no purchase requirements. There are discounts for hotels and amusement parks. If you are planning a vacation, buy one for the city you'll be traveling to and use it to plan your activities.

Go to the library often. Check out books. Read magazines and newspapers. Use the Internet. Attend concerts, lectures, classes, movies, and children's book readings. Check out passes to museums. Sign up for adult and children's reading programs to earn freebies such as coupons to museums or sporting events and to be entered into drawings.

Go small and local to save money on cultural events. Rather than going to see a national band at $100 a ticket, go to see a local band at a free or cheap show. Drink prices are often lower at local shows compared to large concert venues. Go to a small theater to see a play written and performed by residents of the neighborhood rather than going to see national, traveling acts perform at the large, fancy theaters downtown.

Learn to be patient. If you have to see a movie the day it comes to theater, you will pay $10-15 a person for tickets. If you can wait until it hits a second-run theater, you will pay $1-4 a person. If you wait until it is at the rental shop, you can pay $3 for the whole family. If you reserve it at the library and wait patiently until it is your turn, it is free. If you have to buy a CD as soon as it comes out, you will pay $20-30. If you wait until it is at a used store, you will pay $5-10. If you wait until it is old and the online market is saturated, you can get it for $2.99 ($.01 plus $2.98 shipping on Amazon).

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Springtime Money Savers

Now that winter is losing it's power and it seems that it may one day be warm again, I'm starting to get excited. I'm itching to get outside and enjoy the long-lost warmth and the longer days. As time goes on, I'll get to enjoy a lot of great springtime activities that are not only fun, but can save money!

• Bike to work/errands instead of driving. I get to save money on gas, get in shape, and really live. I feel that time spent behind the wheel is life on mute, but time spent on a bike is really lived.
• Preparing the garden. This week I'll be digging my new garden beds in my new back yard. I've been sourcing materials to make a couple raised beds (curb shopping) and have compost ready to distribute.
• Plant seedlings. While it's too early to plant my garden (in my zone), it's the perfect time to get some seedlings started. I'm starting tomatoes this week, then peppers, eggplant and okra soon after. Then it's time to...
• Plant a garden. Soon it will be time to plant some cool weather plants such as spinach, beets, peas, radishes and lettuce. I can barely wait to dig my hands into the dirt and start growing some food!
• Clean up the yard. Now that the snow has melted, it's time to make the yard presentable. I'm gathering sticks for a bonfire, which will be a great way to spend an evening with friends.
• Maintain the house. Cleaning gutters, mending cracks in the driveway, fixing siding and other tasks are cheap fixes that prevent big problems later.
• Eat from the freezer. Most of the meals I'm making now are planned around items from the freezer. I'm clearing out space for preserving my harvest or taking advantage of bargain prices on in-season foods later in the season.
• Take a foraging walk. I love to take walks and look for edible food all year around, but in spring, after a winter of preserved foods, I'm aching for something fresh. Dandelions, chickweed, nettles, and wild onions are all great early spring wild foods.
• Get ready for a yard sale. While your spring cleaning, put aside things that you no longer want or need to get ready for an early yard sale. You can simplify your life, clean your house and make a little extra money.

What spring activities are you excited about?

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Book Review: Grow It Build It Save It

Britni Ross of Our Eventual Homestead has written a new ebook called Grow It, Build It, Save It! How one family saves over $11,000 each year and you can too!

Grow It, Build It, Save It! is an excellent book for the newbie to frugal living. Her ideas are not insane, black-belt tips that take hours upon hours to save a nickle. Instead, she shares practical ideas that can work for many real-life families.

She tackles the topics of cable television, groceries, telephone service, auto insurance, buying unnecessary stuff, eating out and miscellaneous ways to save money. Each section offers a variety of ways to trim your expenses and most people will surely find at least a tip or two that will work for them. Each chapter ends with a set of assignments to help you apply what you've learned to your financial life.

If you are just beginning your journey towards frugality and financial  responsibility, Grow It, Build It, Save It! is a great book to help you build a strong foundation. The book was just released today (March 4, 2013) as a Kindle book, and better yet, until March 6, 2013, it's free! Check it out here!

If you don't have a Kindle, you can still enjoy this and other Kindle books by downloading the free Kindle App for PC here.

Free Books!

I love books. In the past, I found great pleasure in browsing used book stores; however, I also spent a lot of money on books that I just didn't get around to reading. Now, I can get the pleasure from shopping for books without spending a penny.

 Amazon has a free PC version of Kindle. I downloaded it. Now as I browse through the collection, I sort by price. There are many free ebooks. I download a few of these ebooks daily. I have learned a great deal from reading these books, but even if I don't get a chance to, I am not wasting any money.




Originally published in The Dollar Stretcher Tips.

How Frugal Living Makes Your Life Better

Many people associate frugality with deprivation. They assume that they'll suffer without the things they want and be miserable. I've found that the exact opposite is the case in my life. I'm what you'd call a "Black belt" frugalista, but I've found that my life is richer because of it. Here's some of the top ways that being frugal makes your life better.

1. Ability to work fewer hours. If you have lots of expenses and debts to repay, you have to make as much money as possible so you can pay everyone. If your debts are minimal or non-existent and your expenses low, you can chose to work fewer days or hours each week. This time can be used for hobbies, fixing up your house, reading, spending time with the kids, time with significant other or friends, or exercising.
2. Ability to retire early. If you keep your expenses low, but continue to earn a higher amount, you can bank that excess in a combination of retirement and other investment accounts. Once the balance is high enough, you can retire, and live off of your savings. You could actually retire while you're young enough to make the most of it.
3. Better health. The cheapest health care is preventative health care. Treating a heart attack is expensive. Preventing one through proper diet and exercise is cheap. Many frugal practices are great for your health. Perhaps you bike to work to save on gas and the cost of owning a car, but a side benefit is that you get a rocking workout twice a day five days a week. Or you want to save money on meat by eating more vegetarian meals, smaller portions of meat or stretching meat with TVP. This will lower your overall fat consumption and help to maintain weight and cholesterol levels. You can garden to save money on groceries, and the side benefit is that your kids get excited about eating vegetables because they grew them.
4. Higher quality time with loved ones. When you save money by going on a picnic instead of a movie date, you save money, but you also get to spend time talking and laughing. If you cut the cable, you can spend more time playing with your kids. I love it when my friends and I get together for cooking (see my post on my family's Apple Processing Day), foraging or crafting. It's much more fun than going to the mall.
5. You own you. Consumers are owned by their stuff. If you learn to want less, you own you. You can still get stuff (I'm still obsessed with books), but you are in control of them, not vice versa.
6. Freedom to switch jobs/careers. If you live a lifestyle that requires a high income, you are stuck in your job, or have a narrower pool of available job/career choices. If you have low expenses and a bank of frugal tips to fall back on, you can quit your job to take something that's a better fit, even if it pays less. If you regularly complain about how much you hate your job, or daydream often of owning your own business, frugality can free you to live your dream. 
7. Freedom from some tough choices. If your wants are in control of your life, you can have some tough decisions. What happens if your favorite band is releasing a CD right when rent is due and your bank balance is low. Do you buy the deluxe edition CD and hope the landlord is understanding? If you are frugal, you know that within a month the CD will be cheaper and eventually you can find it at thrift stores. Or you could check it out from the library. 
8. Option of having more or better. If you spend money as soon as you make it and don't practice frugal tactics, you're limited in options. If you have $25 for a book, that's all  you can buy new. If you have $25 for books, but shop at a thrift store, you can buy 5-10 for that price; a yard sale could yield 25-100 books for that price. If you are willing to buy clothes from the thrift store, you can nicer name brands or even designer apparel for the price of Wal-Mart clothes regular price.
9. Better food. When I was less frugal, I wasted money on fast food and junk food. It tasted like crap and cost me a lot. Now that I'm frugal, I get much better food. The money I used to spend on a fast food meal can make a pretty elaborate meal at home. I shop at farmer's markets and scoop up whatever is in season and cheap, and have thus discovered Jimmy Nardello peppers, dragon's tongue beans, and Sicilian eggplant. I've tried new recipes to use up garden surplus, bargain purchased goods, or trash (roasted squash seeds!). 
10. You get your life, not the Jones'es. When trapped in the consumer mindset, you have to have the latest gadgets, even if you don't use half of the features, the flashiest car even though you hate to drive, and a house in a fashionable neighborhood with impeccably fashionable landscaping and decorating. When you are frugal, you chose what is important to you and put your money towards that. If you want to have elaborate landscaping, you can do that, but if you'd rather live cheap and travel extensively, that's an option too. Your money is not spent on what makes you happy.

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