How living frugally has changed my life

A complete guide to a low-buy year in 2024

Hello, I’m Molly and I write about my slow and simple life in the Scottish Highlands. Subscribe for free to enjoy occasional posts from me. Or, better yet, join our slow community of kindred spirits to unlock ALL my content, including exclusive writing, videos and resources, to help you live the life you REALLY crave. We’d love you to join us for a cuppa…

Frugal living has given me my dream life. And this is just the start…

I’ve written before that, for much of my childhood, we didn’t have a huge amount of money. This meant I learnt the basics of frugal living from a young age. I understood the importance of setting myself a budget and sticking to it.

This came in handy when I went to university. Rather than falling into the stereotype of a skint student, I came out of my studies with savings.

These skills were crucial when it came to forging my career in wildlife conservation. A notoriously competitive and underfunded industry, my early positions were unpaid, or low-paid, often for short contracts. Although I scraped by on the skin of my teeth, I managed to fund this entirely alone.

Although it was tempting to abandon these habits when I started to earn better money, I held firm. Resisting ‘lifestyle creep’ so that I always managed to squirrel some money away for the next venture.

This meant that we were able to fund building our Tiny Home in our dream location of the Scottish Highlands and I was able to pivot my career, so I could pursue my own business full time.

With the cost of living crisis, more and more of us are feeling the pinch. Research has indicated that almost one third of adults (31%) felt anxious by their financial situation when surveyed in November 2023.

Frugal living can get a bad rep as being overly restrictive, but I think this is unfair. In fact, science has even demonstrated that living frugally can be positive for our mental health.

I’ve found that there are so many upsides to this way of living, including -

• Reduction of stress - having savings means that I feel prepared for those unexpected costs that life throws at us (I’m looking at you, car…)

• More balance - with lower costs, I’m able to work less and have more time for my personal life

• Kinder to the planet - being intentional with what I buy means I waste less, which is a win win for my wallet and the planet.

• Improved problem solving - I took the increase of food prices as a personal challenge. I used my creativity to scrounge meals with next to nothing and made food stretch even further. This means I’ve managed to keep within my monthly food budget AND still have a well-rounded diet that I enjoy

• I can shop my values - as I buy less, I’m able to afford higher quality items, that last longer and align with my values e.g., buying my clothing from sustainable brands (watch my video on how I’ve built my sustainable wardrobe HERE).

• More gratitude - I’ve learnt to enjoy the smaller, ordinary joys of life. A warm hug, a spring wildflower and a well-thumbed library book. These are my foundations and are worth more than the next shiny thing the internet tells me I ‘need’.

Note - I sell a Frugal Living Notion Planner on my Etsy store, that I’ve designed to simplify your finances and help you consistently save towards your goals. Its been fundamental in my own frugal journey and you can check it out HERE. You can also check out my eBook on simplifying your finances HERE.

A low-buy year

I completed my first low-buy year in 2022. This was after I made the decision that I wanted to make my creative business my full time job and knew that I needed plenty of savings put aside to support me.

This was such a success that I continued it through 2023 and now into 2024.

A low-buy year is a more flexible and less restrictive version of a no-buy year, as you are still able to make purchases, but it restricts unnecessary spending. This process has been my most successful frugal living strategy by far.

Below, I’ve laid out my own step by step low-buy method, so you can follow along and embrace frugal living in 2024.

Trust me, its a gamechanger.

Your low-buy year guide