Although many people assume practicing frugality means cutting out all extraneous expenses and pinching the pennies, I provided a more nuanced perspective that includes personal finance strategies I learned as I shifted from starving graduate student to thriving independent contractor.
Strategy 1: Start the housing search early and aim under market value.
While I was working as a teaching assistant half-time, (20 hours/week), I managed to live alone in a modest studio walking distance to campus. The major challenge is finding affordable housing. Since I valued my privacy during my dissertation years, I started the housing search as early as 6-8 months before the following academic year. With the lead time, I found a unit at cost 50% below the market price.
Since I was living alone, I opted for a much smaller unit and led a monastic life with minimal material belongings. Not only did I have my own space to work on my research, but I also saved thousands of dollars by renting a more affordable unit. Although these conditions may not be suitable for everybody long term, I could say living alone allowed me to complete my dissertation and move forward with freelancing.
Strategy 2: Cut back on underused subscriptions.
In the last couple years, streaming services and subscriptions inundated my everyday life. I had several different streaming services to watch tv shows and movies on-demand. I loved having my magazine issues sent to the house and the services continued with automatic payments.
As I reviewed my banking statements and categorized my monthly expenses, I realized hundreds of dollars were quietly funneled as entertainment expenses. I even forgot which subscriptions I still had since I accumulated several sets of subscriptions at different times. When I cancelled 80% of my previous, underused subscriptions, I saved over $1000 worth of entertainment expenses last year. More importantly, I reinvested that money into other services such as online classes and seminars.
Strategy 3: Pay myself first.
With my modest teaching assistant stipend, I had to find ways to stretch my dollars as far as I could without compromising my quality of life. Saving money can be difficult after paying for all the bills. Instead of trying to save money at the end of the month, I experienced a mental switch and prioritized saving a significant portion of my income before putting the rest towards bills and entertainment.
When I paid myself at the beginning of the month, I started building on my savings within 6-12 months. If I stashed $1000/month, I had enough funds to take a sabbatical from teaching and write full time in the summer without taking out personal loans.
With these three strategies alone, I managed to reinvest my funds into my wellness by reducing my financial burden with less rent, and redistributing my entertainment budget towards enrichment, and building a financial foundation by front loading my savings.
Lilly C. Lew Ph.D. 