In addition to the frugal habits I mentioned before, here are some additional habits I follow. These ones are fairly new (less than a year old).

1. Don’t buy trash bags. We use grocery bags from the groceries we buy. But since we use our own cloth bags in bagging groceries we usually get bags from other places that are heading for the landfill.

2. We compost. We’ve been composting since June, 2007 so that cuts down on trash.

3. We don’t drink soda. We mainly drink water, coffee, tea, beer and wine. Alcohol is budgeted for. Juices are very rarely purchased mainly because of the bulky containers they usually come in. We’re saving up to buy beer making supplies so that will be a smaller expense soon.

4. I cut my husband’s hair (have been doing it for 7 years we’ve known each other. By “cut” I mean I use a buzzer). I also began cutting (trimming) my own hair recently which used to be a $20 yearly expense previously and somewhat inconvenient (the closest Super Cuts is a pain to get to). I have long hair that I don’t do anything fancy with so its pretty easy.

5. Do my own manicure. Usually I don’t do anything with my nails but sometimes I like to be a little girly.

6. Don’t use fancy pants cleaning supplies. We use vinegar, baking soda, a good scrubber/brush and elbow grease for all cleaning needs.

7. New stuff is purchased at Ross Stores (an off-price retailer where all merchandise is 20 - 60% below regular department and specialty store prices). For example I recently purchased a box set of perfume which came with a mini size perfume + body lotion + body scrub for less than $30. The perfume itself from the manufacturer’s store is over $30).

8. Only use a cell phone (we have no landline) with prepaid minutes. We pay an average of $10/month.

9. Have introverted friends like ourselves. So a good time means meaningful conversation + good meal usually at someone’s home. Not clubbing or drinking binges.

10. Use public transit/bicycle to get around. My employer subsidizes the entire cost of a transit card so my transportation expense is $0.00. Everyone at my job should be taking the bus or train to get to work because it costs them nothing, but few do. An additional bonus to taking the transit, I get a lot of reading done while sitting on the bus and subway train.

Why are we doing all this? What is the end goal? To date we did these things so that we could live within our means while we’ve been in school. But after graduation it will be so we can have more options - on where to live or how to live or retire early and so on.