The news seems to be mostly relentlessly gloomy at the moment. With the highest rate of inflation for a decade and warnings that energy prices may go up as much as £600 a year for the average household, it’s hard to go into the new year feeling positive and optimistic. If this is going to be the ‘year of the squeeze’, then I think I need to squeeze my budget even tighter. I can see a year of extreme frugality in 2022!
I talked about this a bit in my post Extreme frugality: 12 frugal living tips for a budget lifestyle post. It suggested 12 things that most people would consider extreme money saving habits that you might consider doing.
This time, with the year of the squeeze uppermost in my mind, I would I would stick to things that I personally plan to do to get through the year without debt and in control of my finances.
I have already talked about my goals for 2022 in this post. There are things I want to achieve during the year that will cost some money. Another reason for some extreme frugality in 2022. So, here goes!
Extreme frugality in 2022
1# Keeping the home fires burning
With household energy bills predicted to rise by more that 50% in April, this is something that is giving me anxiety. Being on a tight budget already, the thought of paying still more to heat and light the house is not something I am looking forward to.
I am already quite strict about turning off lights in rooms we aren’t using, only boiling the water needed rather than a whole kettle full and restricting how often the heating and hot water are on. I have turned down the thermostats on both a tad and I am not putting the heating on during the day unless the lodger is in.
Instead, I am burning some of the free wood that Mr Shoestring and his brother got from a friend’s enormous garden! We are fortunate to have a wood burner. I know that some people think they aren’t very eco-friendly, but I feel it’s important to have a secondary source of heating. If I can get it for free, even better. I am hopeful that they will find some more free wood as the months progress – I will even be looking into skips for this (dumpsters).
The boiler comes on for just 45 minutes each morning, and again for an hour 45 minutes in the evening. We do put it on in the evening for some of the time, as we can’t expect our lodger to pay rent then freeze half to death when she gets back from work! Otherwise it would stay off a lot of the time.
DON’T MISS THIS POST ON REDUCING YOUR ENERGY BILLS TOO
2# Saving water
A long bath is one of my favourite frugal luxuries. However, I will be swapping a hot bubble bath for a super quick shower as often as possible.
Showering uses a load less water, meaning lower water and fuel bills. Mr Shoestring tends to shower anyway, but I am going to persuade my daughters to do the same when they come for visits too.
If you find you spend too long in the shower, set a timer on your phone. A quick in and out and a vigorous towel down also warms you up if you are trying to keep your heating off!
3# Yellow sticker and freebie hunting
We scored some brilliant yellow sticker food reductions over the holiday period. It’s always a good time to look; 3 pm before one of the rare days a supermarket will be closed can mean finding food at absolute rock bottom prices.
You obviously need to be able to either eat it immediately or to freeze or preserve it in some way. Otherwise it is adding to the food waste we create and you would be better leaving it for someone else.
I recently found a whole salmon reduced from over £18 to £3.88, several packs of chicken with marinade for 20p each (reduced from £4), fish in bread crumbs, again 20p, and a large chicken for £1.80 instead of £5.
One thing to note: please don’t be one of those people who clears ALL the yellow sticker bargains. Personally, I like to take a few and allow other bargain hunters the chance to find some too.
Too Good to Go is another way to get your food at reduced prices, although you don’t know what you are going to get in your Magic Bag. Some retailers are more generous than others (Morrisons are worth looking out for).
You can get completely free food via the Olio app, and I will be using this as much as possible. We sadly don’t have a food pantry locally, but it’s worth asking around to see if you have one locally. They are like mini supermarkets, full of free food near the end of its shelf life.
4# Still buying second hand
Regular readers will know that I set myself a challenge to buy only second hand during 2021. Now that my year is over, my default position will still be to purchase used items whenever I can get them, even if it’s not written in stone. Extreme frugality in 2022 means that I won’t be buying much of anything in any case!
5# Tracking spending
Time was that I wrote down and tracked all of my purchases. This is a habit I allowed to drift a bit, having a general idea of my spending and sticking largely to budget anyway.
However, with living expenses on the rise, it would be very easy not to notice higher spending in certain areas and to go over budget. So, I am back to keeping all of my receipts and writing any money spent in my budget book the same day. This way I can keep tabs on areas we need to cut back on.
I am really loving this Boxclever Budget Planner from Amazon*. It’s well set out and easy to use. There are apps you can use, but I prefer it written down.
6# Having no spend months
Usually I will kick off the new year with a no spend month. January seems like the perfect time to reset your finances and I am always motivated after the excesses of the Christmas period.
However, this year my first no spend month will be in frugal February! I had a few items that I needed to purchase that I hadn’t manage to source second hand, and January has offered some sales and reductions.
I plan at least two no spend months during 2022, possibly three if I need to up my savings game.
7# Meal planning and batch cooking
I can’t stress this enough: meal planning saves you money! A lot of money, actually, if you are the sort of person who strolls around the supermarket with no shopping list and no idea what you already have in your cupboards (I was once that person!).
I have started to plan not just our evening meals, but breakfasts, lunches and snacks too. In this way, I hope not to waste any food and to buy only what we will eat.
With energy prices going up so much, batch cooking is another way to save a bit of money. Cook a large amount of a dish in one go, freeze what you don’t immediately eat in portions, defrost and reheat as necessary. I am also planning to cook more than one thing whilst the oven is on, and make better use of my slow cooker and air fryer. Both use less power than the oven. So, for example, if I am cooking just one item, like a piece of fish, it makes no sense to put the oven on. It will cook in 15 minutes in the air fryer.
8# Remembering that less can still be enough
This one is about money mindset. As a society we are encouraged to work to get everything we want, whatever the cost of ourselves, our finances and the environment.
By making a choice to spend less and have less, you often find hardly any negative effects on your life. In fact you might even find many, many positives. I have found, for example, that spending less leads to less clutter, less stress about cleaning and tidying the clutter, less pressure to conform to what the glossy magazines and Instagram accounts are telling me to buy. On top of those benefits, I find satisfaction in the creativity and thought required to make do with what you have.
We have so much, it is easy to forget those who live happily with so little. Less can still be more than enough. This is something I will strive to remember during my super frugal year.
9# Not buying anything that isn’t essential
I am great at finding bargains, if I say so myself. Especially second hand boot sale and charity shops treasure. However, being super careful with money during my year of extreme frugality in 2022 means that buying lots of stuff cheaply is likely to result in piles of things I don’t really need.
So, bargain or not, this year, if I don’t really need something, my plan is not to buy it. As charity shops are my weakness, this will be a challenge for me!
Do you ever find yourself drawn to all the amazing buys in the pound shop? You go in for a deodorant and come out £25 lighter! Yes, me too. Those bargains all add up, especially if you didn’t need them in the first place.
10# Finding free stuff and activities
If I need something this year, before I even look at the second hand market I plan to put a request in on my local Freecycle and Freegle groups. You can’t get much cheaper than free! I did this recently and was given a freezer in very good condition for my daughter’s new flat, which saved her a couple of hundred pounds.
There are also loads of free activities once you start looking. I have listed some of them here, along with ideas for getting all kinds of things free or extremely cheaply.
So, that’s my blueprint to survive the year of the squeeze. Are you looking at extreme frugality in 2022? What are you tips for living as cheaply as possible?
*This post contains affiliate links, marked with *. If you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a teeny tiny commission 🙂
Beth says
All sound like great ways to save money during these uncertain times Jane! I will be doing the same. In the past few years, I’ve simply just stopped going to Poundland, B&M etc as they are very good at selling you things you do not need. Thank you for your tips for frugal and ethical living. Keep them coming as I love reading your blog!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Thanks, Beth. You might have a point about just not visiting those cheap stores!
Christine Hancock says
The first 2 years after my divorce ,money was very tight so we had an open fire and our main meal each evening was a baked potato with something. And I accepted anything friends offered me. It got me through to better times but I still watch the pennies!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Lots of baked potatoes here this week! Cheap and filling
Frugalnan says
I love your tiles! And your ethical stance on yellow stickers. Look forward to reading more this year.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Thanks! Yes, I love them too