I wrote a little piece on how being lazy and frugal can go together. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that people in my life think that my thriftiness takes a lot of effort.
Lots of frugal things might take more time; hanging laundry, or being crafty, or baking bread from scratch. When I have some energy, I do the active stuff, and prepare for those times when I won’t be up to it.
I admit I have a lazy streak. Some people aren’t lazy, but the complexity of their daily lives might lead them to think they don’t have the time to be frugal. It was a critical turning point for me when I realized some frugal activities are low effort, and could frankly be easier than costlier solutions. Here are ways in which laziness has worked for me.
Meals at home
When I do cook, I cook simply, and I cook a lot. Cooking one night can cover many meals. For most of the time when I don’t feel like cooking, I’m prepared. If I make pasta and sauce with some vegetables, I put a couple big tubs in the freezer and some smaller ones for lunches. I just have the regular freezer in the fridge, but I can sure get a lot of loaves of bread and tubs of food in there. Crockpot meals can be as simple as three ingredients. Bulghur, broth, canned tomatoes. Whole chicken, can of coconut milk, piece of lemongrass (from Asian foods store) makes Thai chicken. It may not be as good as a restaurant meal, but it is low effort and frugal and I’m not picky.
If I make muffins, it’s as much time to make a triple batch as a single batch. I can make muffins once every two weeks, taking advantage of an energetic moment. That’s breakfast and snack food for pennies.
Take out
To fight the urge for takeout when I can’t deal with cooking, I try to keep a couple low (no) effort but tasty things at home. I have a nice frozen pasta & cheese concoction in the freezer I made a while ago. In a normal mood, I’ll just use the lentils and stew and plain stuff. But when I need comfort food, and have the takeout urge, I can bring out that sorta special dish, which was the result of a simple recipe tripled. Even when bone tired I can press the microwave button. We’ve also used canned soup as Take Out-not much effort to microwave or heart on stove. Even when we splurge on a fancy $1.75 canned soup for these moments, we’re still saving big bucks. It’s less time for me to open a can of soup than to go to a place for take out.
Morning Routine
I’m not grumpy in the morning, but I don’t like to get up and do too much stuff. So I prepare the coffee the night before. I’ve even put cereal in a bowl on the counter the night before, which My Guy found funny, but I do what it takes. If I was even lazier, I swear I’d stick instant coffee in a cup with water in the microwave the night before. Having my coffee made for me, at a Java Store, would take much more effort. If I make oatmeal, three or four tubs go in the microwave. When energetic, the night before I’ll stick some fruit, yogurt and milk in the blender and stick the blender in the fridge. I have no excuse to not eat breakfast. Even if I’m running really late, I can grab the ever-present muffins, or a tub of oatmeal to microwave at work. I get out of bed at 6:45 and I’m at work at 7:30. Yes, that’s forty-five minutes including commute.
Housecleaning
I like simple and plain. My house lacks clutter. It’s very simple to clean, because not too much is in it. Living room is a couch, a book case, a TV, and a coffee table. That’s it. Cleaning means folding the blanket on the couch and taking coffee cups from the table to the kitchen. The less I take time to buy, the less I need to clean. A Laziness Bingo.
Lunch
I always have my tubs (see above) and my muffins. Sometimes I’ll hard-boil a few eggs, and stash those. It’s hard not to find time to grab some combination of these, plus maybe a vegetable or piece of fruit. If I still manage to not grab a lunch, I have an emergency stash in a drawer at work. On a more energetic day, I brought in a bag of nuts, canned sardines, canned veggies. If I didn’t have a desk drawer I could stash it in my car.
Grocery shopping
I don’t like grocery shopping. So I don’t do it very often. Our ideal is one run to the main store with good deals and bulk foods, then one trip to the outlet/seconds store, in a month. Sometimes we might go twice, but never even close to weekly. We stock up a lot on non-perishables. Some fresh foods are pretty hardy: eggs, carrots, apples, cabbage. If we run out mid month, oh well. It’s easier to get up the oomph to shop once a month than once a week. Yeah, I might miss a loss leader special -maybe I'll make that special trip, but if not, I can live with that.
People just starting out being frugal, peeking out from behind their credit cards at the promised land of No Debt and Growing Savings, should know that there is a form of frugality that fits everyone. Thrift is a mighty big tent. Those of us who aren’t on the go-go-go all the time are welcome in it.
Laziness and Frugality: How?
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We got our coffeemaker at Goodwill for five dollars. Best purchace ever.