It’s possible to live better by truly spending less. Have you ever found yourself juggling between what you want and what you actually need? In life, we find ourselves trying to keep up with the Joneses even if it cost us our life.

OK! I’ll admit it! There was a point in our life where I was literally chasing down the Joneses. I want it all of the designer handbags and shoes. I literally would not pay my rent and utility bills in order to save up for a designer bag. It sounds outrageously silly, however, I am being completely transparent here.

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Here’s What I Learned to Live Better

It is totally possible to live a better life however, you have to change your entire mindset on what you believe is possible. I have learned that in order to live better I have to change my mindset on what my perception of a good life really is.

For example, one might believe that a good life means that one has to have many brand clothing items and other expensive materialistic things. However, in reality, this is not true. In fact, many wealthy people don’t follow the trends of this world. They actually live frugal lives by living below their means.

Start Changing Your Life for Good

• Stop shopping brands only: This is super important, in order to truly live a better life you have to stop following top brands. When you follow top brands you are literally following a name. You’re not following the quality of the product but literally a name. Stop it now!
  
• Start shopping based on necessity only: In order to live better you have to change your perspective of what you actually need. Stop shopping based on what you want but only on what you need at that moment. The average American overspends and buys more than they actually need and waste money this way.
  
• Look for opportunities to gain free items: Look, there aren’t too many people in this world who do not like the word free. There’s just not many. Therefore, it’s safe to say that the majority of people truly enjoy receiving free items. Luckily we live in a society where there are many big establishments who are looking for people to try out their products. Start looking for opportunities to earn free products.
  
• Use coupons wherever you go: Yes, I said it. Coupons are good as cash. If you’re not using them, then you are seriously losing out on big savings. I never used to use coupons because I thought that’s what extra people did. You know the kind of people who causes the line at the grocery store register to get backed up because they have a million coupons. Yes, I never wanted to be that person. Until I realized that the cashier was giving the customer money back! At that moment, I realize that I was missing out by not using coupons. Therefore, I urge you to start reaching out to local coupon is in your area and take a class if you need to learn free information right online

• Shop the thrift stores for everything non-perishable: If I need anything in my home, the first place I shop is the thrift store. I go to the thrift store for housewares, appliances, utensils, kid’s clothes, and everything else that is literally non-perishable.

• Get paid to shop at your favorite stores: This is literally the easiest thing you can do to start earning money back on the items that you use anyway. If you shop with some of the major retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Amazon then you can truly earn money back on items that you were going to spend anyway. You can earn rewards from shopping at these retailers.
• Get paid for spending money on essentials: For any other kind of online shopping that you do, check out Ebates for the opportunity to earn cashback. On their side, they literally have products at the lowest price that you can pay and you still have the opportunity to earn money back on those purchases.
• Cut bills that are non-essential off For the last four years we have literally cut our cable completely off. All we pay for is Internet services every month. We have an Amazon fire stick in each of our rooms throughout our house that allows us to watch unlimited TV shows without having to pay for them.

• We also are prime members with Amazon and get to watch tons of TV shows on there. If you are not a Prime Member take advantage of this free Trial Offer now!

• Stop racking up all of those credit card fees: We are big credit card users. Just hear me out. At first, we were totally against credit cards until we realized that we needed them. We have zero dollars of credit card debt. This is because we use credit cards like debit cards. Whatever we spend on our credit cards, we then pay them off entirely each month.
• With all of our bills, we use our Chase rewards credit card that allows us to earn rewards on every purchase. So purchases that we were going to make anyway such as the Internet, utility bill, insurance payment, and groceries we put that all on our rewards credit card. Therefore, we are earning rewards on each purchase that can be cashed into gift cards or either cashback. We also earn free travel deals. If you are not using your credit card like a debit card then you are seriously missing out! You should definitely check out the Chase Sapphire Credit Card for top travel rewards on every purchase!
  

• Stop wasting money on food: You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who spend money each day on takeout. The fast-food industry is making bank each day from consumers who are lazy and don’t cook. Look, I have always been frugal when it came to takeout. I don’t eat it! I prefer cooking my own food knowing the ingredients I put into it. Even with that said, there were times that I would run into McDonald’s for french fries for my kids. This was only if we had a long day and we were on the road for hours. However, I realize that at the rate that we travel, 90 days a year going into McDonald’s every time they were on the road is not cost-effective nor healthy. Therefore, I started becoming more prepared and proactive. Yes, I started packing my children’s lunch for the road. Therefore, I encourage you to get back to basics and start cooking your own food.

Keep in mind that it’s possible to truly live a better life by spending less and breaking the cycle of consumerism that has been instilled in us as a society. There is life aside from name brand high priced products. Learn how to make the shift. If you have any specific questions on how to get started or if I missed any pertinent information please leave me a comment below.

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