How to Lower Your Cost of Living & Save Money Right Now - Hello Brownlow (2024)

The 2020s have already proven to be years of financial struggle for many. With inflation at 7.7% and mortgage interest rates at 7.63% currently, it’s not hard to see why so many of us are feeling the squeeze of tighter budgets and increased debt. I’ve looked at dozens of blog posts, articles, YouTube videos, TikToks, and more for what we can do right now to make a measurable impact on our finances. And honestly? I found a lot of the content only capturing the low hanging fruit (i.e. stop eating out, buy cheaper stuff, look for better bargains). But is that really going to help you lower your cost of living and start saving money right now?

The answer: probably not – unless you eat out for every single meal or have a luxury goods habit. My goals is to show you what I would personally do (and have done) to lower your cost of living. I have loads of posts on how to save money and be frugal and I’ll link those throughout this post – but think of those as extra credit 🙂

Consumer goods, electricity, water, gas, everything could be consumed less.

This seems like a “duh” thing, right? But stopping shopping or slowing your rate of consumption is hard to do and is potentially the biggest impact you can make when lowering your cost of living. We’re all so used to this way of life as consumers. We shop for fun or to improve our mood, we like the A/C low in the summer and heater high in the winter, eating out for meals multiple times a week is normal, and everyday we’re told we need newer, better things.

During what part(s) of your day do you think you could consume less?

Shorter showers? Adjusting the thermostat a few degrees lower/higher? Doing all the errands at once to avoid driving more? Put your phone in airplane mode to use less data? Pack your meals instead of eating out?

Once you have written down in front of you what you consume on a daily basis, it’s hard to ignore the fact that it’s probably a LOT more than you expected!

Focus on two or three of your list items that might be indicating that you’re consuming too much. Small efforts like making coffee at home (~$5 saved each time) or adjusting your thermostat (~$10 saved each month) have a compounding effect. Once you see how easy these small changes are and that you are actually saving money, you’ll want to figure out what other areas of your life you can consume less in in order to lower your cost of living.

Just because you are consuming less to lower your cost of living doesn’t mean you are depriving yourself. You’re simply allocating your assets (money and time) to what matters more.

While lunch out a few times a week or a new shirt once a week may not seem like much, if you avoid making those purchases going forward, you now have funds to put somewhere else. This could be paying down debt or putting into savings for a larger, more important purchase or for your emergency fund.

Think: I’m not buying this new shirt, because I already have a dozen perfectly good ones AND this $20 can be used to pay down my credit card balance.

Every time you actively choose to consume less, celebrate! Write it down: the date, what you didn’t buy, and the money you saved. From now on you can go back to this list and know that you can keep on consuming less than you used to.

Now that you’re buying and consuming less so you can lower your cost of living, you might be thinking “Well what do I do now?”.

You use up what you already have!

Don’t be afraid of wearing something out (like your favorite sweatpants or favorite wooden spoon)! They’ve lasted you this long, they’ll likely last a while longer with proper care. And if a favorite of yours is on its last leg, you can plan ahead – make a budget and maybe start a sinking fund for it if it’s an expensive item. Or maybe you’ll find a new favorite to use that you already own!

When you want to “refresh” your home decor or your wardrobe at the change of the seasons, sort out your current and stored away items before adding something new to your cart or going DIY crazy with $97 in craft supplies.

Have you ever bought something because you could have sworn you had already had one but now it’s disappeared only to find the item you’ve already replaced just a few days later?! Hopefully this isn’t just me!

To really get a handle on using up what you already own, you need to see it all first. You need to declutter.

No, decluttering doesn’t mean that you get rid of everything except for your favorite sweatpants and wooden spoon! It means that you rid yourself of the excess stuff you don’t like, won’t use, broken things, and straight up trash.

Once the excess is gone, you’ll find a joy in a space reclaimed. You might take more pride or comfort in using the things you already have. It’s even possible you can make do without buying anything new for a long, long time! Bonus points if you sell what you declutter and turn that money into a debt payment or put it towards your savings.

Picture this: you’re minding your own business, wearing your favorite sweatpants and you bend down to clean up your kids’ toys from the floor for the thousandth time today when you suddenly hear “rrripppp!”. Yikes. Your favorite sweatpants now have a hole in a not-so-wonderful place. What do you do – trash them or fix them?

10 points if you said to fix them!

Repairing and mending items so that you avoid buying new is a skill and you’ll certainly learn it when you start to learn how to live below your means.

Some basic things to have on hand for when you need to repair things:

I’m sure my husband could add to the list as he does a lot of repairing of stuff and things, but we aren’t needing to make home repairs here – just “stuff” repairs. So simple tools, a needle and thread, and some duct tape should do.

Repairing things does take time and it probably isn’t something you already know how to do. This is where YouTube and patience comes in. You can find practically anything you need to know how to do on YouTube. With a little bit of patience and watching the video multiple times, you’ll likely be able to make the repair yourself. If not, ask your friends, family, or neighbors – someone within your circle probably has the knowledge.

An emergency savings account allows you to rest easy knowing you have the funds to cover a true emergency (medical bills, auto repairs, etc.).

What was your total of essential expenses?You should have 6 months worth ofessential expensessaved in your emergency fund. NOT 6 months of income saved.

For easy math, let’s say it is $2000 monthly. Multiple $2000 by 6 = $12,000. That’s the total for your emergency fund.

Identify all debt payments and total the payment amounts.

Debt payments can include:

These are just some of the things that add clutter to your home and to your budget. They’re often sneaky purchases, too! The auto-debit feature is great for subscriptions, but do you actually use it?

Question all of these purchases.

Make a list, check it twice. Gonna find out who’s over budget or not … Just kidding. It’s almost Christmas at time of writing and I can’t get catchy holiday tunes out of my head.

In all seriousness, making a list helps you get your thoughts out of your head, onto paper, and into action.

My favorite example is the 72 Hour List. Not only does it teach you delayed gratification, it also saves you a boat load of money! What’s the fabulous money-saving list? It is a list in which you write down an item (a want, not a need) you’d really like to buy, like concert tickets, a new shirt, etc. You note the date, the price, the item and then you wait three days (72 hours). At the end of those three days go back to your list and see if you still really want that item. If you have room in your budget and can afford it, go ahead and purchase it if it makes sense for you. Often you might find that you write something down and then completely forget that you want it.

Curbing impulse spending with the 72 hour list is a must-have tool when it comes to learning how to live below your means. You put a pause on that purchase to see if it is really worth the money.

If you grocery shop without a list and only buy what you need… I’m in awe! But if you’re anything like me, you might go to the grocery store without a list and leave with bunch of food that doesn’t make sense.

Before you head out to the store, take inventory of your pantry, make a list of meals you can make mostly from the food you already have (meal planning), and then make a grocery list of the ingredients you need.

Need help meal planning? I’ve got you! Check out the Complete Guide to Minimalist Meal Planning below! When you subscribe to our email list (free) you’ll get my eBook (also for free)! Who doesn’t love a freebie??

Pinterest, where you might have found this article, is loaded with yummy looking meals… that probably have 20 ingredients. My simple brain cannot handle prepping, measuring, cooking, and serving a dish with that many ingredients. The tough truth when learning to lower your cost of living is that things might get simpler – the most obvious place is in the kitchen.

While I would love to be a gourmet chef (JK. It would be my husband!), I just don’t have the budget for that!

Instead we opt for simpler meals. It looks like: grains, protein, veggies, seasoning. For protein, we often choose a plant based protein like beans or choose meat that can be incorporated into the dish rather than being the star or “meat on the side”. When learning how to lower your cost of living, finding alternatives to costly cuts of meat at the store can help whittle down your grocery budget.

When you’ve used things up, made do, and mended all that you can, you’ll likely need to buy a replacement. Shopping new all the time can be quite costly! Choosing to shop secondhand will help you lower your cost of living.

We have found so many wonderful things gently used either for cheap or for free!

My favorite secondhand finds have been: