Old Money Saving Ideas That You Should Use Today

Trends change with time. It’s true for every aspect of life. Fashion, music, food, everything changes with time. Spending habits are not immune to change as well. A lot of the spending strategies from the olden days might be out of date now. However, some advice from the olden days are relevant and useful today as well. In this post, we will look at a few old money saving ideas. Let’s get started.

Old Money Saving Ideas That Are Still Relevant

Make Your Own Things

Before the industrial revolution, people had to create a lot of things by hand, and albeit they might have bought some things from a store, many chose to make their own versions to economize (and it’s healthier as you have no additives or preservatives). If you would like to save lots of money, you should start doing this. Start out slow and simple so it’s not overwhelming. Instead of buying every time, make your own gifts, beauty products, toys etc. Not only will you save money, but you will also learn some very useful skills.

Grow Your Own Food

In your grandma’s time, buying packaged fruits, vegetables and herbs from the grocery store was highly unusual. Instead, people kept herb gardens, or just small pots of herbs on their kitchen windowsills. And whether or not they were growing food inside their kitchen garden, or simply growing food for the fun of gardening, most people usually had a significant amount of fruits and vegetables in their backyard. Eating home grown food will also help you stay healthy by avoiding GMO food products and crops grown with harmful fertilizers. This is definitely an old money saving idea with additional benefits.

Preserve

If you’re something of a wasteful person when it involves food, your grandma likely would be pretty shocked if she ever saw you you throw away scraps of food or let a lot of food expire and become inedible. In the past, people were very careful about using everything up. And if they couldn’t spend all of an ingredient directly, they’d dry it or can it. Nowadays you can do the same, or you could just put things in your freezer (much easier, but just as effective) or use a dehydrator. This is definitely an old money saving idea for you to consider.

Cut Your Own

This is definitely one of the most important old money saving tips that you should follow, cut your own food. Have you ever noticed how an entire watermelon may be a less expensive purchase than a cut quarter of a watermelon? How an entire chicken may be a better value than chicken parts? The minute a grocery worker cuts food with a knife, the value of that food goes up because that person’s salary or doing the cutting needs to be added to the price. Pre-cut food is extremely convenient, but it definitely costs a lot more money. So save money, and cut your own produce and meat when possible.

Use Cash

Some of the simplest quaint money saving tips could also be the hardest to adapt. One of those tips is using cash instead of credit cards. Credit cards were not in fashion until the 1950s, so you’ll bet your grandma’s family wasn’t using them in their day-to-day purchases. And while buying on credit in one form or another has just about always existed, people weren’t so dependent on it until the credit card was introduced. Instead, people mainly paid with cash. If they didn’t have the money for something, they just didn’t get it. If you would like to be frugal and economize, you ought to do the same.

Repair or Upcycle

Just as you shouldn’t let food go to waste, you shouldn’t waste clothes as well, or throw away damaged furniture. That’s where the next old money saving tip comes in the picture. Years ago, people did all that they could to make things last as long as possible. Now while you don’t need to be patching holes in your shoes, you should try your best to find new uses for old things, or repair damaged furniture. You’d be surprised just how much some hot glue or wood glue can fix. And you’ll turn all kinds of things (even old tin cans!) into something new and useful. Be creative, use it up, make it work, or do without and you’ll save money

Used vs. New

If you’re considering using old money saving tips in your life, one among the better ones to embrace is the idea of shopping for used things more often than new. Years ago, people didn’t look down on used goods. Any car, used or new, was good enough for most people as long as it ran. And clothes were clothes, whether or not they were fresh off the rack or handed down from a sibling. So have the frugal mindset of the people from the “olden times” and begin buying more used things than new. You can buy a lot of good clothes from thrift stores for very little money. In case you are looking to buy a guitar, instead of buying a brand new low end guitar model, you can get a used high end guitar or less money (as long as you check it thoroughly before buying).

Do Your Own Work

Convenience is great. It’s part of what defines this era. It’s also part of what defines most people’s debt problems. That’s why this is our next old money saving tip. Convenience saves time, but costs money. So if money is tight or you need to save up, you need to do more of your own work and pay less for other people to do it for you. This means skip getting your furniture delivery and transport it inside your own car. Or rent a big enough vehicle and rive it yourself. Cut your own lawn, clean your own gutters. Rent your own power washer to clean your driveway yourself. If you can, paint your own home. You’ll spend time doing the work, sure, but you’ll save money and get the pride of knowing that the great job you’re admiring was accomplished by you.

Don’t Overuse Disposable Items

The amount of waste generated by us is immense these days. Back in the times of the Great Depression, people wouldn’t dare buy rolls of paper towels that they had to replenish weekly. And they definitely wouldn’t use paper plates when they barely had the money to put food on the table. Instead, they’d use reusable things. You should also try to do the same. You’ll save a lot of money in the long run, and it’ll also be better for the environment.

Research What You Buy

We will round off our list of the best old money saving ideas with this tip. People tend to go on a shopping spree very often these days. They will go online and shop for hundreds of dollars at a whim. The value of money seems to be lost among a lot of us these days. Before buying a certain product, compare prices, research different models, try things on, etc. When it comes to buying things that you want and not need, try to restrict that.

So that was our list of the best old money saving tips that you can use today as well. Try a few of them out and you should definitely be able to save a lot of money with them.