When you’re just starting out, you fill your time with finance blogs like 50 Frugal Living Tips, videos about debt journeys, and investing advice. Let’s keep things simple for my fellow squirrels.

Here are 50 frugality tips for ADHDers

1. Cut Your Sponge in Half

Bam. You just got sponges for 50% off.
Buy 1 Get One. Congrats, savvy shopper.

2. Dial Your Setup

This is advice from early on in my skateboarding days. Lots of longboarders get caught up in the quiver That is, trying lots of different setups. Figuring out your bushing set up is the best and cheapest place to change your experience though lots of people will decide they need a whole new board which costs 10X the bushings, the thing that makes the most difference in your experience of the ride.

In not skate terms, I attribute this to your regular consumables.

What socks do you wear? Underwear? Shampoo? Toothpaste? What part of your life can you go through a season of figuring out what works for you and then spend the rest of your seasons knowing the answer to without question.

3. Invest your Paycheck

Deposit your paycheck into a Fidelity Cash Management Account instead of your bank account. $1000 earns about $0.17 for every day you can leave it in there.

If you get paid on the 26th but don’t pay rent til the first, that’s a dollar. It’s a dollar you didn’t earn through work.

4. Use Your Stuff

Read a book you already have.

Finish your shampoo.
Eat the can of Split Pea soup.

5. Blog about Books.

I read 50 books this year, I should write a blog about each of them. I like books. It would make some easy YouTube vid ideas. **shrugs**

6. Practice a Skill Toy

Learning something new is fun and challenging and creates new connections in our brains. It’s good for us. One fun way you can learn this is through skill toys. Skill Toys are like complicated fidget spinners that you can learn tricks on instead of just fumble around mindlessly with. Both have their place. Kendama, Yoyo, Hula Hoop, Poi, Skateboard, Tech Deck, Knex? Throwing Clay … What else?

7. Pause Your Audible

Every 12 months you can pause your audible membership for up to 90 days. I have 3 credits at the moment since I can’t really eat books alive on audible right now, so I’ve just entered my dark audible months. Maybe I’ll actually write that book.

Pausing audible is on the easier side of the 50 Frugal Living Tips we are sharing with you today.

8. Join a free online challenge like NaNoWriMo.

Need something free to do. Attempt to write a book. It’s a hellscape of self torture, but totally worth it. Spiritually, if not financially.

9. Propagate Plants

Instead of a swift little trek to the plant store, open your eyes to propagation opportunities.

Plant Girlies will resonate with the urge to splurge. There’s just something so calming about foliage.

foliage

foliage

**turns into a zombie**

foliage

>>

It’s hard.

Friends let friends propagate.

Plus if you’ve never tried propagating plants before, you’ve got something new to try this month!

10. Take Away Decision Fatigue by Category

I wear short black socks.

This is my toilet paper.

Viva paper towels.

Hanky Panky Underwear

Pizza on Friday

Stuff like that.

11. Read a Book

Read a book you already have.

Borrow a book from Libby or your local Library

12. Learn About Finances

When there’s a will there’s a way is not always the way. Sometimes you have to SEE the way, to know it exists.

13. Use Stuff Creatively

Look around your house with wide eyes. Use your imagination to use something for a different purpose.

14. Use Berry Containers

Berry Containers as drawer dividers. It’s a favorite sustainable hack.

15. Find a New Happy Place

It can’t be a store. If your happy place is a store, you will go there when you are sad or stressed and buy things you don’t need on impulse.

There. I said it.

Your mission is to find a new happy place that is free and/or natural. And is preferred, of course.

16. Toy with the Habit – Work Up To using all 50 Frugal Living Tips

Some people are great at going all in, but not me.

Each new habit is a stranger I must get to know. I find it easier to do things if I already know I can do it. I train things like a suicide run. Forward, back, forward a little more, back forward even more, back, and so on.

When I first committed a month to practicing the hula hoop every day, I learned one new thing each session. Practiced the rest. But first I ignored it, then I tried it one time, then I stopped, then I tried it another, then I stopped.

17. Use the Power of Because

Our brains are wired for stories, and we remember what we tell ourselves we remember, not what happened. We remember what we SAID we remembered more than what actually happened. A funny little phenomena of us humanoids.

Quit drinking alcohol because it will help you with your finances.

Do laundry on Saturday because you’ll feel more free on Sunday.

Ride your bike to work because it will help reach your health goals.

We are sharing 50 frugal living tips because it helps us stay in the mindset we need to fix our money.

18. Get Your Money’s Worth

Make it a ritual to get all of the product out of the bottle before discarding in the recycle or refilling.

Face Primer, moisturizer, conditioner, toothpaste. Don’t leave a any product in there. They win if you do.

19. Cook at Home #1 of 50 frugal living tips

It’s better.

20. Coffee at Home

It is also better.

21. Put the Keys in the Same Place

I’m not going to go so far as to expect adhders to have place for everything. I am going to urge you to put your keys in the same place every day.

We get flustered when we have to leave. Knowing where the keys are is self-care.

22. Find your uniform / wardrobe.

Don’t spend your adult life wearing clothing that doesn’t suit you, please. We do not suffer for fashion. I mean if you do, fine. If that’s your thing, fine. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.

23. Know your Sauces

As an ADHDer, I sometimes go through phases where I’m very epicurious on my shopping trips. Not at home though. Truth is, if left to my own devices, I want the same things.

Ketchup on my french fries.

Boyfriend wants BBQ on his chicken.

One of our 50 frugal living tips is not to try 50 new sauces per year. That’s not a frugality tip. Want to MAKE 50 Sauces per year? That sounds like a challenge! Or perhaps try making one new sauce every month?!

24. Bake Some Cookies.

Cheap & delicious. Try to ration yourself and you’ve got sweats for DAYS.

25. Hang Dry Your Clothes

They last longer. It costs less. A twofer.

26. Compile Your Change

Use it. My favorite thing to buy with spare change is quinoa. It feels like the best bang for my buck.

27. Go For A Run

Tbh, this is a note to self. But yeah, do something healthy. A run, a swim, a walk, hike, bike, skate, you know the type. Row or volley, golf or tennis or the gym. Something. Follow a YouTube vid. Do Yoga with Adrienne.

28. Don’t Own Pets

Eep, yeah, I know. It’s harsh. Pets cost money. They’re not very frugal. They don’t pay rent!

Don’t Own Pets is likely my most controversial idea out of these 50 frugal living tips. What do you think is the biggest gut punch?

29. Enjoy Slow Resets

Learn to love the process. Search for the joy in the bottom of the laundry basket.

30. Celebrate the Moon

The Full Moon is my favorite holiday. It brings joy and awe and respect monthly. Spend time with the moon.

31. Sleep Outside

Not all the time. Use your discretion. It’s cheaper than a hotel. Go somewhere you can see the stars.

32. Swim with Nature

Find a way to get in natural water. River, lakes, ocean. It’s good for you. Use caution, and only swim where swimming is permitted, please, Darlings.

33. Simplify Your Soaps

Figure out what you use. Soap doesn’t need to be experimental. You can just go with what works.

34. Compost Food Scraps

Composting can save spring garden soil purchases. It also cuts down on how often you take out the trash. And it keeps your trash from smelling bad.

We use 1 pint yogurt containers to hold our day’s scraps and have an actual compost outside.

We have 3 steps. Daily on the counter, holding bin that lives on top of the compost, we turn it in every few days.

35. Trade with the Neighbors

Share Sugar.

Watch the kids.

Pass along a lemon.

Plant a tree.

Bring them some soup.

Have you ever had persimmon bread?

Sharing is caring as well as a community-orientated tip included in our 50 frugal living tips.

36. Snack Packaging as Trash Bags

It’s up to you how often you want to use this idea. You can die on this hill or just use if for gross stuff in small quantities.

37. Track Groceries in Notion

Make a data base of what you buy. It’s weir, but I can’t budget unless I build from each transaction. Collect the data points of what you actually eat. You will plan easier and Notion is as handy as you want it to be.

38. PBJ Weeks

Sometimes you go on a diet for your body, and sometimes a diet for your brain.

PBJ Week is a small way to lower your lunch cost, give in to a guilty pleasure, and head back to reality after a week.

39. Celebrate Small Things

Life is what you make it. How you tell yourself to remember it. Look for little rituals you can create to honor the moment.

40. Chia Seeds

A Most Frugal of the 50 frugal living tips

Sneak them in there. Where you can. Smoothies, cereals, salads. Even if it’s just a few. Trick yourself if you have to. Chia Seeds are better for you than they look. Let’s just try it.

41. Drink Water

Just drink water. Don’t get drinks out. Water. Some exceptions may apply.

42. Don’t Drive Every Day

Leaving my house costs a minimum of $2. Just the gas. Add the $1 / week from #3, Invest Your Paycheck, and you’ve got $3/week. $156/year. Money Invest $156 one time and in 12 years it will be double. $312. Divide $312 by your current hourly wage. For me, it is 13.5 Hours I would have to work THIS WEEK to have $312 in an account in 12 years. But we don’t HAVE to work 13.5 hours later. We can choose to not leave my house ONE time per week, AND Invest Your Paycheck instead of deposit it into a no-interest account.

43. Reframe Your Mission

Saving dollars today is buying you time later.

44. $100 Per Year = Passive Income

Our first financial goal is $100 per year in passive income.

45. Steady Paycheck

I know the deal. Entrepreneurship is hot. “Do What You Love” Blah blah blah. There’s something calm and gentle about knowing where your next 100 paychecks are coming from. It could be part time. Full time. Regular or Seasonal Gig Work. Get something you can count on. Something that suits your life.

46. Bet on Yourself

You’re smart. You can do things. Take on Challenges if that helps you. Do a 12 Week Year. Read books on Finance. Become an Engineer. Invest 10% of your first paycheck and never look back. Learn something. Try something. Do something.

47. Learn About Psychology

Knowing is half the bottle, they say. Learn a bit about yourself and the humans around you.

48. Baking Soda + Vinegar

Best of 50 frugal living tips

Buy it regularly. Use it for cleaning. Don’t fall for the trap. 9/10 times, it’s just baking soda and vinegar.

49. Rit Dye Old Clothes

Give some old clothes a new look with Rit Dye. I’m all in on black updates, but you do you, Boo. There are some directions to follow. Only like 3-5 but there are a handful.

50. Splurge on Necessities

The force of the splurge is strong. When you’re still in the trenches and crawling out, satisfy your urge to splurge by purchasing more of something you need that will last.

Laundry soap. Rice. Quinoa.

Sponges.

First thing you do when you get your sponges home? Cut them in half.

Which of These 50 frugal living tips will you try using next?

Will you clean with baking soda and vinegar instead of buying soaps in fancy packaging? What if you set up a brand new Fidelity Cash Management account. You would start learning about interest. The good kind.

Submit your own frugality tips in the comments!

LFG.