I’ll be honest….I’m high maintenance. Since Marmot left his job, I’ve given up acrylic nails, high-end makeup (*sniff* I love you Sephora!) and those $100+ haircuts/colors. I’d love to say it hasn’t been that bad, but its sucked.

There have been a few things that have helped me on my journey to frugality, and none of them involve diluting the morning OJ.

-Man Vs. Debt’s article, 42 Ways to Radically Simplify Your Financial Life It goes beyond the run of the mill and includes some things that I found incredibly useful such as #29, Create a List of Everything You Own (which I’m still trying to do, which suggests I may have a slight problem) and #16, Insure Adequately in case you ever considered cutting insurance as a way to cut costs. We’ve all done that, right? No? Well, uh, me either. Ahem.

-Simplify Your Life {affiliated link} I read this book when I was probably 11, it was sitting on my Mom’s bookshelf and I read the entire thing in a day. I vowed that I would use all the suggestions when I grew up and while I have to some extent (the majority of my wardrobe is black and grey- I don’t own a single item in navy blue!) its a book I like to re-read. Oftentimes it helps just to have the concept of simplicity in the back of my mind as I make decisions that would contribute to (or detract from) overall simplicity in life.

-Salvation Army, Goodwill, and the like- my Mom was the Queen of the Thrift Store, and I think its genetic. I’ve found more awesome name-brand stuff, some still with tags, for a fraction of the retail price. Yesterday I wore an amazing long dress coat to work and got so many compliments on it….and no one was the wiser that it was $8 at the Salvation Army- with tags. For a half hour of searching the racks, Marmot walked away with three Brooks Brothers non-iron dress shirts for $3 each, they’re normally $80 new. Never ever again will I mock my Mom’s thrift store habits!

-Keeping track of the savings! Everytime I do something that saves money, I transfer that money to our savings account (or as of right now, our closing costs account!) and watch it grow. We changed to a cheaper satellite TV package, so every month I transfer the difference to the account. As much as we think we don’t have room in the budget, its amazing how the little deposits add up.

-And any number of other painless little things that really add up….the thermostat down a few degrees, going an extra weeks between hair cuts (does six weeks really matter compared to seven?), using sites like PaperbackSwap instead of buying books, and going with store-brand groceries.

What are your favorite painless frugal tips….?