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Unless you're rich, you're probably aware that it's getting very difficult to make ends meet. No matter who's in charge of the country, prices keep rising, companies keep paying less, and saving for retirement keeps getting harder. In fact, most people under 40 have given up on the idea of retiring.
As difficult as things are, they still aren't nearly as bad as they could be. Because most Americans grew up in a time of relative luxury, they don't know what it's like to live without power, skip meals to save money, or put cardboard in their shoes instead of buying a new pair. But during The Great Depression, these things were the norm.
Now, the cycle of history is repeating. It appears we're about to enter a second Great Depression, and most people aren't ready. In order to survive what's coming, people are going to have relearn the extreme frugal living methods their ancestors relied on.
As it says in a popular meme, “Y'all are about to find out why your great grandmother washed her aluminum foil and saved her bacon grease.” In this article, you'll find 40 extreme frugal living ideas that will help you save money and get by as the economy gets worse.
Note: For each tip, I added one or more resources where you can dig deeper if you want to.
Food and Cooking
1. Buy a Whole Chicken and Use Every Part
Back when money was tight, my mom would buy a whole chicken instead of breasts or thighs. She’d roast it for dinner, then use the leftover meat for sandwiches and casseroles.
After that, she’d throw the bones into a pot and make a big batch of broth for soups or rice. She even saved the chicken fat for frying potatoes.
These days, people pay extra for bone broth and specialty fats, but you can make all of that from a single bird.
Here's how to cut up a whole chicken.
2. Save Bacon Grease for Cooking
People used to keep a jar of bacon grease by the stove, but today most people throw it away. Instead, pour the grease into a jar (strain out the bits if you want it cleaner) and keep it in the fridge.
Use it to fry eggs, season cast iron, sauté vegetables, or add flavor to beans, cornbread, and gravies. It's basically a free cooking fat with a smoky punch that makes everything taste better. Why would you throw something like that away?
Here are some other uses for bacon grease.
3. Turn Stale Bread into Breadcrumbs, Croutons, or Bread Pudding
If your bread goes stale before you can finish it, don’t throw it away. My grandmother used to cube stale bread, toss it with oil and seasoning, and bake it into croutons for salads and soups. Or she’d dry it out completely and grind it into breadcrumbs.
If she had a sweet tooth, she’d turn it into bread pudding with a little milk, sugar, and cinnamon. It’s basically a dessert made from leftovers. Modern households throw away old bread all the time, but a little effort can turn stale bread into tasty foods.
4. Regrow Vegetables from Scraps
You don’t need a garden to start growing food. In fact, you can grow vegetables right on your kitchen counter by using kitchen scraps.
Green onions, for example, will sprout in a cup of water. So will romaine lettuce, celery, and even garlic cloves. Just place the root end in a shallow dish of water near a sunny window and wait. It’s an easy way to stretch your grocery budget and get fresh greens for free.
Here are 41 foods you can regrow from scraps.
5. Save Vegetable Scraps for Homemade Broth
Instead of throwing away onion skins, carrot ends, celery tops, garlic peels, and mushroom stems, save them in a freezer bag. Once the bag is full, dump it all in a pot, cover with water, and simmer for a couple of hours. Strain out the solids and you’ve got a rich vegetable broth—for free.
You can use this broth in soups, stews, rice, or anywhere you’d normally use store-bought broth. This used to be second nature in frugal households, but today most people don’t even think about it.
Here’s how to make vegetable broth from kitchen scraps.
6. Dehydrate Food Scraps for Homemade Seasonings
Most people throw away tomato skins, herb stems, celery leaves, or mushroom trimmings without even thinking about it. But if you dehydrate those scraps and grind them into powder, you’ll end up with a tasty seasoning you can use in soups, sauces, and rice dishes.
Think of it like homemade bouillon mix, only it’s free and made entirely from stuff you were going to throw away. With how expensive seasonings are getting, there’s no reason not to do this.
Here are 10 ways to turn cooking scraps into seasoning salts.
7. Batch-Cook and Reuse the Same Ingredients All Week
People always say that you should cook from scratch to save money, but most of us don’t have to do this every day. That’s why you should try batch cooking instead. The idea is to make big batches of staple foods and find different ways to use them all week.
A pot of beans could become chili, tacos, or soup. A tray of roasted vegetables can be used in wraps, omelets, or mixed with rice. It’s far more efficient than preparing multiple ingredients every time you cook something.
Here’s the ultimate guide to batch cooking for beginners.
8. Use Every Drop: Rinse Out Bottles and Jars
My dad used to get every last drop of ranch dressing. When the bottle was almost empty, he’d add a tiny bit of water, shake it up, and pour it on his salad. He’d keep doing this until the bottle was completely clean. He did the same with ketchup, mustard, pasta sauce, and pretty much anything else that would cling to the sides of the bottle.
One time, I glibly asked how much money that was saving, and he said it wasn’t about saving money, it was about not being wasteful. He respected the fact everything takes time, effort, and resources to create, and wasting even a little was like saying that none of it mattered.
Here’s how to get every last drop out of the bottle.
9. Reuse Pasta Water for Soup or Bread
Most people pour pasta water down the drain, but it’s actually loaded with starch and flavor. You can use it to thicken soups, make sauces creamier, or even replace some of the liquid in bread dough.
It’s an easy way to get more mileage out of something you already paid for. In hard times, nothing should go to waste—not even cloudy water from a pot of noodles.
Here are 10 things you can do with leftover pasta water.
10. Freeze Everything to Extend Shelf Life
The freezer is one of the most underrated tools for frugal living. You can freeze almost anything including milk, bread, cheese, cooked rice, overripe bananas, and even eggs (just crack and scramble them first).
If something’s about to go bad, toss it in the freezer instead of the trash. People used to treat the freezer like a food bank, stashing away leftovers for the future. But nowadays, most people just use it for ice cream and frozen pizza.
Here are 20 foods you didn’t know you can freeze.
Cleaning and Household Basics
Things like paper towels and store-bought cleaners are usually a waste of money. If you want to clean your house, you only need a few things, and you likely already have what you need.
11. Clean Your Entire Home with Just Baking Soda, Vinegar, and Castile Soap
Back in the day, people didn't have a different cleaner for every surface. They used a few basic ingredients to keep their homes clean. With just baking soda, white vinegar, and castile soap, you can clean practically everything in your house.
- Baking soda is mildly abrasive and great for scrubbing sinks, tubs, and deodorizing carpets.
- White vinegar cuts through grease, dissolves mineral deposits, and leaves glass streak-free.
- Castile soap is gentle yet effective for cleaning floors, walls, and countertops.
Mixing these ingredients in various combinations can replace most store-bought cleaners, saving you money and reducing the number of harsh chemicals in your home.
For more info on how to use these things for cleaning, check out this article.
12. Don’t Use Paper Towels; Make “Unpaper” Towels
My mom once told me that as a kid, her family didn’t use paper towels. Instead, they wiped up everything with homemade dish cloths, which they then threw in the wash. It made me realize that paper towels aren’t a necessity. We’ve only been told they are by advertising agencies.
To save even more money, you can make your own reusable towels by cutting up old flannel shirts, towels, or T-shirts into squares. Keep them in a drawer or roll them around an old paper towel tube. Use, wash, repeat.
Here’s how to make unpaper towels.
13. Use Newspaper or Scrap Paper for Cleaning Glass
Before fancy sprays and microfiber clothes, people cleaned their windows with vinegar and yesterday’s newspaper. And guess what? It still works. Just dampen the glass with a wet rag, then use newspaper or even junk mail to wipe it dry. It leaves glass streak-free and lint-free. Some people add vinegar to cut through grease, but plain water works fine for everyday cleaning.
Here’s a guide to cleaning windows with newspaper.
14. Use Soap Sparingly and Make Your Own
Most people use way more soap than they actually need. A pea-sized amount of dish soap or shampoo is often plenty—anything more is just going down the drain.
Back in the day, people made their own soap from kitchen grease and wood ash, and they used it carefully because it was precious. You can still make basic lye soap at home with just a few ingredients.
Here’s how to make old fashioned lye soap.
15. Save Soap Slivers and Melt Into a New Bar
When a bar of soap gets down to a thin sliver, most people throw it away. But if you save those slivers, eventually you can melt them down and press them into a brand-new bar.
Just grate or chop them up, add a bit of hot water, and mash the mixture into a mold. You could line a cup in a muffin tin with parchment paper, or you could use ice cube trays for smaller soap bar.
Let it dry out for a few days, and you’ve got a new bar of soap for free. It’s a little thing, but as my dad used to say, every little bit adds up.
Here’s how to turn old soap slivers into new bars of soap.
16. Use the Last Bits of Bar Soap as Liquid Soap
Instead of turning soap slivers into a new bar of soap, you could turn them into liquid soap instead. Just drop the pieces into a jar, add hot water, and let them dissolve overnight.
The next day, give the jar a good stir or shake, and you’ll have a soapy mixture you can use in a pump bottle by the sink. It won’t be as thick as store-bought liquid soap, but it works just as well—and it’s practically free.
You can make an even better liquid soap from your soap slivers by using a bit of glycerin. Here’s how.
17. Turn Citrus Peels into Homemade Cleaner
Instead of throwing away orange and lemon peels, put them in a jar, fill it white vinegar, and let it sit for two or three weeks. Then strain out the peels, and you’ll have a powerful all-purpose cleaner that smells a lot better than plain vinegar. It cuts through grease and leaves counters and sinks sparkling.
Back in the day, people made their own cleaners from whatever they had on hand because oftentimes, buying a bottle of spray wasn’t an option.
Here are some more cleaning products you can make yourself.
18. Reuse Zip-Top Bags
Ziplok bags are one of those things people treat as disposable, but they’re actually pretty durable. Unless the bag held raw meat, you can wash it out with hot soapy water, rinse it out, and hang it to dry. My mom used to clip them to a coat hanger over the sink to dry overnight.
You can reuse Ziplok over and over for snacks, leftovers, or even soup . It might not seem like much, but every bag you reuse is one less you have to buy. Plus, you can use them for lots of other things besides storing food.
Here are 40 creative ways to reuse Ziploc bags.
Clothing and Personal Care
Instead of tossing worn-out clothes or buying more toiletries, get creative with what you’ve got.
19. Cut Up Old Clothes for Rags, Quilts, or Yarn
Before people threw out worn clothes, they found ways to repurpose them. T-shirts became cleaning rags, flannel shirts became quilt squares, and old sweaters were unraveled for yarn.
I remember my grandma had a whole drawer full of rag scraps that she used for dusting, washing windows, and wiping up spills. Clothes that were too worn to donate still had value, just not as clothes. Remember, old fabric still has plenty of life left in it if you know what to do.
Here are 50 ways to upcycle old socks and T-shirts.
20. Scrape Every Container (Yes, Even the Toiletries)
Earlier, I talked about how my dad scraped food containers clean, but he didn’t just do that with food containers. He did the same thing with shampoo, conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, and even toothpaste. When the tube seemed empty, he would cut it in half and scrape out enough toothpaste to brush several more times.
Growing up, we didn’t toss a bottle until we’d added a little water or cut it open to get every last drop. Again, it’s not just about saving money; it’s about refusing to waste what you already have.
Here are some more ways to get the most out of your toiletries.
21. Mend, Patch, and Darn Instead of Replacing
There was a time when people didn’t throw out clothes just because of a hole or a tear. Instead, they actually fixed them. Socks were darned, jeans were patched, and buttons were sewn back on. Most clothing can be repaired with just a needle, thread, and a little patience.
Repairing clothing is a skill that saves money and keeps clothes out of the landfill. Even if your sewing isn’t pretty, it’s functional, and there’s no rule that says every piece of clothing has to look brand new.
Here are 10 clothing repair techniques everyone should know.
22. Learn to Sew by Hand (Or with a Thrifted Machine)
While learning to sew by hand can help you repair clothes or adjust the fit, you could take it a stp further and learn to make clothes from scratch. First, find a used sewing machine at a thrift store or yard sale. They’re often built to last and can pay for themselves quickly. Then, get a good book on sewing basics and start with simple projects like aprons, handkerchiefs, or pillowcases.
Here’s how to start sewing for beginners.
23. Use the “No-Poo” Hair Method
Shampoo and conditioner aren’t just expensive, they also strip natural oils from your scalp, which can make your hair more dependent on them over time. The “no-poo” method skips the shampoo entirely.
One popular version is using a baking soda rinse followed by diluted apple cider vinegar. Others simply use water and scrub well. It takes a few weeks for your scalp to adjust, but once it does, you’ll need fewer products, and your hair may actually look healthier.
Here are 4 ways to wash your hair without shampoo.
24. Make Your Own Toothpowder
Toothpaste is convenient, but it’s not the only way to keep your teeth clean. Before commercial toothpaste was common, people used toothpowder, which is a simple mix of ingredients like sea salt, baking soda, activated charcoal, and sometimes herbs or essential oils.
You can make your own toothpowder for pennies and store it in a small jar. Just dip a damp toothbrush into the powder and brush like normal. It might not foam like store-bought paste, but it gets the job done.
Here’s how to make homemade tooth powder.
Gardening and Outdoors
These tips will help you produce more, spend less, and even feed your garden using kitchen trash.
25. Compost in a Bucket for Garden Fertilizer
You don’t need a fancy compost bin or a big backyard to start composting. All you need is a bucket with a lid. Toss in vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, and a bit of yard waste like leaves or grass clippings. Stir it now and then and add water if necessary, keeping it at the dampness of a wrung-out sponge.
In a few months, you’ll have rich compost you can use to feed your garden or houseplants. It's free fertilizer made from stuff you were going to throw away anyway, so why not use it?
Here’s a beginner’s guide to composting.
26. Forage for Wild Edibles (With Caution)
During the Great Depression, many people fed themselves by paying attention to what was growing around them. Dandelion greens, wild onions, chickweed, purslane, and even acorns can be foraged for free food, as long as you know what you’re doing.
This is one area where caution is crucial. Remember that some plants are toxic and look similar to edible ones. But with a good guidebook and a little experience, you can start identifying safe, nutritious plants right in your yard or local park.
Here’s a beginner’s guide to foraging.
27. Grow Herbs Indoors from Cuttings
Instead of buying a fresh bunch of herbs every time you cook, grow your own herbs from cuttings. Many herbs such as basil, mint, oregano, thyme, and rosemary will sprout roots in a jar of water. Just snip a healthy stem, remove the lower leaves, and place it in a sunny window. Once the roots form, transfer it to a pot with soil.
It’s an easy way to have fresh herbs on hand all year, and it saves you from spending money on overpriced herbs at the grocery store. If you grow more than you can use, just dry them out and store them in a jar.
28. Use Banana Peels as Fertilizer
Banana peels are packed with nutrients like potassium and phosphorus, which are both great for plants. Instead of throwing them away, chop them up and bury them near the roots of your garden plants. Or, you could soak them in water to make a natural liquid fertilizer.
Here are 10 ways to use banana peels in the garden.
29. Use Coffee Grounds in the Garden (and Elsewhere)
Instead of throwing away coffee grounds, sprinkle them around acid-loving plants like tomatoes, blueberries, and roses. You can also add them to your compost pile for a nitrogen boost. Just don’t overdo it. Used coffee grounds are best mixed with other materials so they don’t compact the soil.
The garden isn’t the only place you can use coffee grounds. Here are 40+ practical uses for spent coffee grounds.
30. Make Vinegar from Fruit Scraps
If you’ve got apple peels, cores, or overripe fruit lying around, you can turn them into homemade vinegar with some sugar and water. Put the scraps in a jar, cover with water and a spoonful of sugar, then loosely cover and let it ferment for a few weeks. Stir it occasionally and strain when it starts to smell like vinegar.
People used to do this sort of thing all the time—nothing went to waste, not even the scraps. Homemade vinegar is great for cleaning, pickling, or even cooking.
Here’s how to make vinegar from fruit.
Miscellaneous Ideas
Frugal living goes beyond the kitchen. These old-school habits can save money in unexpected ways.
31. Hang-Dry Clothes Year-Round
Clothes dryers use a ton of electricity, and they wear out your clothes faster. Hanging laundry to dry is one of the easiest ways to save money on your power bill, and you can do it even in the winter. Just use a drying rack near a vent or heater, hang clothes on the shower rod, or install a ceiling-mounted rack that pulls down when needed.
Before dryers were common, this was just how people dried their laundry. It takes a little more time, but it’s better for your clothes and better for your wallet.
Here’s how to hang dry laundry (inside or outside).
32. Use a Solar Oven or DIY Rocket Stove
Cooking without gas or electricity might sound extreme, but it doesn’t just save money; it’s also a good backup plan in case of a power outage.
A solar oven uses sunlight to slow-cook food, and you can build one yourself with cardboard and foil. A rocket stove uses twigs and small branches for fuel and burns hot with very little smoke. Both are perfect for emergencies, camping, or just cutting your utility bill.
Another option is a DIY haybox cooker. Instead of using a plug-in slow cooker which draws power all day, you bring your food to a boil then place it inside the haybox cooker. It retains the heat and cooks your food for free.
Here’s the ultimate guide to cooking food without electricity.
33. Use Envelopes from Junk Mail
Most people throw away junk mail without even opening it, but there’s usually a perfectly good envelope in there. Instead of buying notepads or sticky notes, use the backs of those envelopes for grocery lists, reminders, or to-do lists.
You could also use them to organize receipts, store seeds, or even send letters if you get creative with labels. This might sound extreme, but it means never buying notepads or envelopes ever again, so why not?
Here are 13 ways to repurpose junk mail.
34. Line Dry Plastic Wrap and Foil for Reuse
Most people treat plastic wrap and aluminum foil as single-use, but in a frugal household, nothing gets used just once. If it’s not greasy or torn, you can wash plastic wrap and foil with warm soapy water, then hang it up to dry, just like dishes or laundry. Foil especially holds up well and can be reused several times for baking, wrapping, or freezing.
And remember, you don’t just have to use them for covering food or lining pans. They have many other uses as well.
35. Barter and Trade Instead of Buying
Money isn’t the only way to get what you need. If you bake, sew, repair things, grow food, or even have extra supplies lying around, you can trade them. Offer homemade bread for eggs, swap extra garden produce for firewood, or trade childcare for help with a project.
Bartering builds community and helps everyone stretch their resources. It might feel old-fashioned, but when money’s tight, trading skills and goods makes a lot more sense than spending money. And nowadays, you can find people to trade with online.
Here are 40 sites where you can trade and barter for what you need.
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