A simple, economic lifestyle doesn’t necessarily require sacrificing your quality of life, in spite of people often mistakenly believing that one is almost synonymous with the other. It is perfectly possible to combine minimalism with intelligent indulgence, and live well for less. In regard to how that can be achieved, we will now discuss some of the easy to adopt methods next.
Rent, Don’t Buy
When you rent instead of buying, you save more money, since you do not lose out on the depreciating cost of real estate in the US and there’s nothing holding you back from moving when you need to.
Don’t Pay High Rent Unnecessarily
Renting is a better and cheaper option than buying, which is a financial and practical truth, but you can save even more by moving to a low rent section of the city. If you like the location, just move to a smaller apartment and you will be paying less, without sacrificing the location.
Sometimes, we make the mistake of paying more money for space we hardly even use, which is common, but unwise nonetheless.
Don’t Give Up on the Coffee, but Save on the Pods
The coffee machine is a little bit of luxury that some people won’t likely be willing to give up. Even if they do give up on the coffee machine because of the exorbitant prices of the original coffee pods, it won’t be a sacrifice that will make you feel like you are living well for less!
As this list is all about finding cheaper and sometimes better ways to live well by spending less money, we have a brilliant solution for you. If you have a Nespresso machine, for example, just choose to buy Nespresso capsules from a third party instead, and you could be saving about 40% on the pods!
Gourmesso makes espresso, lungo, decaf, and flavored coffee pods for the Nespresso machines (except the VertuoLine models), which will save you a fortune in the long run, but you won’t have to sacrifice on the quality of your coffee at all.
Don’t Shop from Expensive Brands
Gucci, Prada and Ralph Lauren products are exorbitantly expensive, but do not provide any real additional value to the customer, aside from vanity.
You would be surprised to know that almost all of the products which these brands release with their stamp on them are actually made in tiny sweatshops that you will never even hear about. The same products, without the customizations exclusive to those brands are often sold by their suppliers at a tiny fraction of the price!
You don’t have to buy rags and unbranded clothing of course, but by simply avoiding the big brands, and supporting some of the local, less popular ones, you will be able to shop more for less money.
Shift to a More Practical Car
The muscle cars and the sports cars have their appeal, so to say they are pointless would be a lie. Unlike branded clothing from luxury brands, you do actually get better performance and the wow factor from these beasts for sure.
However, in a practical scenario, these cars are definitely more about vanity than practicality. It’s okay when you have that mindset and the money to spend on a car that will burn through fuel like hot knife through butter, but as we are talking about living well for less, why not shift to a more fuel-efficient and comfortable car instead?
They cost less to buy, maintain and refuel, immediately making them a better choice for living with less, but without really sacrificing on anything practical.
There’s just so much more you can change and adopt to save money, without having to let go of your favorite things in life. These were just five, but they should be able to give you an idea of how to do the same in any other sphere of your lifestyle as well.
