Debt free living and the promise of financial freedom has never been more attractive but never more challenging with so many of us struggling financially.
But caught up in the chaos of our over busy lives it’s easy to miss the simple changes we can make that will help us live debt free either by paying off debt or by not getting into debt in these difficult times.
Now obviously there’s all sorts of debt free living advice already out there on how to become debt free using debt pay off techniques such as Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball method. But the key to all of these debt free living techniques is cutting spending creatively in ways we never imagined possible.
So what I’ve got for you here are a whole bunch of practical ideas on how you can massively cut spending to enjoy financial freedom and escape the overwhelming stress of debt.
These simple debt free living ideas really can slash your spending by tens of thousands so you can pay off debt or stop it building up.
I do hope these ideas give you some inspiration for immediate practical steps to help you become debt free. For more ideas do follow me on Pinterest and check out my posts on thriving frugally.
30 Debt Free Living Ideas
Sell Anything You Don’t Love
Reclaim your home and make money by selling any clutter you don’t love or use.
Learn Frugal Life Skills
Learn these frugal life skills so you stop paying other people to do what you could easily enjoy doing yourself.
Slash Energy Use
Reduce your energy bills and help the planet whilst you’re at it.
Stop Wasting Silly Money
Stop wasting money on crazy services you don’t need. Use this big list to cancel services quickly and cut waste.
Go Zero Waste-ish
Going a bit more zero waste smartly is a brilliant way to stop chucking money away on single use products.
Invest A Little In Reusable Products
Some supposedly zero waste products are a big old con but investing in a few genuinely reusable products can quickly save us serious money.
Grow Your Own Greens
You don’t need homestead or huge vegetable garden to grow spinach or collards or salad leaves. A few pots on a patio or balcony will keep you super healthy, money saving fresh greens every day.
Pick Your Own
Pick your own immune boosting summer berries, apples & autumn fruit. Pick your own are typically a quarter of the price of store bought.
Change Tiny Habits
Change the little daily habits that are costing you a fortune and become more eco friendly whilst going debt free.
Upcycle Lovely DIY Gifts
Make your own simple gifts cheaply even if you’re not remotely crafty.
Regrow Veggies From Scraps
Grow your own veg from scraps. This is an unbelievably quick and simple way to start growing vegetables even if you’ve never gardened before.
Do A No Spend Challenge
Do a no spend challenge for a month. It will save you money to pay off debt but also break your addictive spending habits.
Write A Leftovers Plan
Have a leftover plan so you eat everything and stop wasting money on food.
Borrow Before You Buy
Always borrow before you buy – don’t fork out for new gadgets, toys or equipment if you can borrow them. Only buy when you actually need regularly.
Invest in Great Second Hand Stuff
Invest in really good quality second hand products – especially for babies & toddlers – that keep their value so you actually make money selling them on
Cut Out Crazy Cleaning Products
Embrace zero waste cleaning – we don’t need or use most of the cleaning products we buy. Cutting back to basics and using reusable products can save thousands a year.
Slash Laundry Costs
You wouldn’t think it but most of us spend far, far more than we realise on laundry Doing laundry differently can slash laundry costs and easily save hundreds every year by doing the laundry differently.
Foraging Free Fruit In Fall
Every year we fill our freezer with wild fruit that we don’t pay a penny for!!
And foraging free fruit in fall makes a great day out as a family and the blackberries, damsons, sloes, elderberries, crab apples and more keep us in healthy smoothies and puddings all winter long.
Stop Pretending To Meal Plan
Master 10 very basic, cheap recipes as a family and simply loop through them!!
Reuse Everything You Can
Reusing everything we can from paper, envelopes, gift bags, old clothes, plastic bags, newspapers, elastic bands, ribbons, glass jars etc is an easy way to stop paying half so much on stationary, crafts, storage and more.
Buy Vintage Clothes
Buying vintage clothes is the best way to truly follow sustainable fashion and can save us a fortune.
Just Use Less
There are loads of easy ways to use less that save money day in day out. Simply diluting and watering down milk, juice and cans of tomato, fine grating cheese and only using half recommended amounts of household goods e.g. laundry liquid can save hundreds a year.
Get A Second Hand Scooter Or Bike
Get a second hand scooter or bike so you can easily do all journeys under 3 or 4 miles for FREE.
I can easily do 3 miles in 30 minutes on my scooter with very little effort and if like me you live in an expensive city you can be quids in within just a few months and save thousands a year.
Learn To Store Food Properly
Learn to store food properly – we waste enormous amounts of money on food we throw away because it’s not stored properly. Learning how to store basics like potatoes and apples properly and freeze and cold store leftovers, foraging hauls and cheap bulk buys can save hundreds and hundreds every year.
Mend Stuff
Clothes, shoes, gadgets and toys can all be mended and there are loads of free videos around showing how. Getting into the habit of mending changes our mindset so we actually start looking after things and end up saving even more money.
Make Do Without
When things break and can’t be mended try to go at least a month without replacing so you can see if you truly need or if you can just borrow the odd time you truly need it.
Binge Budget
Learning to budget month in, month out is absolutely key to debt free living but lots of us get into debt at key points in the year or of our lives – e.g. Christmas, holidays, birthdays, weddings, a new baby – when we’re particularly vulnerable to binging so laser focus your budgeting energy on these events or any other activities when you’re most likely to binge.
Swap Entertainment With Friends
Swap and pass around with friends and neighbours movies, games and books to help you slash all those cable and music subscriptions.
Embrace Minimalism (A Bit)
It can sound dreadfully dull but embracing minimalism and only buying what we will actually use or enjoy lots can actually make us much, much happier …
Stop Keeping Up With The Jones
… and on the subject of happiness my final debt free living tip is stop keeping up with the Jones as they’re drowning in debt and thoroughly miserable about it too!!
So there you go 30 practical debt free living ideas that can massively cut our spending and kick start our debt free journey to financial freedom.
I do hope they give you some inspiration about all the different ways in which we can transform our spending habits and reclaim our lives. For more simple practical tips for thriving frugally do have a read of these :
- 50 Extremely Frugal Food Tips
- 50 Easy Ways To Stop Wasting Money
- 8 Weird Frugal Living Tips That Work
- 14 Frugal Life Skills
- Debt Snowball Method
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[…] As a newish, single mother I was struggling with parenting, work and even the most basic housekeeping. My immune system and finances were in pieces; I suffered with frequent recurrent flu, shingles and infections and was haunted by the monster that is debt. […]