5 Rewards of Living a Frugal Lifestyle

You might be a natural at making frugal choices when it comes to spending or perhaps you are slowly easing your way into the frugal lifestyle. Either way, know that your efforts result in additional benefits that go beyond the immediate impact of cash savings.

You might not notice these nonmonetary rewards at first. That's because in the beginning stages of adopting a frugal perspective, you're usually focused on reaping the primary benefit, which is saving money. What I have discovered and what many others report is that living frugally encourages a heightened level of awareness. Here are five positive rewards that can be obtained as a result of your commitment to minding your money.

Improved health:

When you're worried about having enough money to pay the bills, you're likely to lose sleep over it. It is crucial that our body and mind gets sufficient sleep in order to live our lives at optimal levels during the day. Living within your means helps you to rest more soundly at night and feel less stress because your finances are in order. Saving money can also save you time and with that, your overall health.

As opposed to spending excess money and hours watching cable television or shopping at the mall every week, you can instead dedicate more of your time to activities that inspire you and that are good for your psychological and physical well being. Leaving the car at home more often and biking or walking to wherever you need to go is not only good for your wallet but also your waistline.

Better relationships:

Whether married or in a relationship, if both people are not on the same page financially, it will amount to arguments. Once a couple decides to commit to a frugal lifestyle, it's likely that disagreements and stress about money will decrease and their success as a frugal couple will strengthen their bond overall.

For the single folks, you can appreciate having real friends and loved ones around who respect your financial choices and even better; share your penchant for fiscal prudency. You know you've got good friends when they prefer a potluck style supper at your home over dishing out money on entertainment every week.

Greater appreciation:

When you choose to live with less, you begin to respect what you do have. You take better care of the things you own and this attitude extends to being more appreciative of the important people around you and the beauty of life itself.

I often experience this increased level of thankfulness for those I love, the wonders of nature and the items I value thanks in part to my frugal mindset. It sounds cliché, yet the more grateful I feel, the less I want.

A sense of accomplishment:

I don't know about you but when I score an item that I'm after, for little or nothing, I feel pretty good about it. The feeling of satisfaction that occurs when you get things you want for less or seeing the results of your efforts such as a 30 percent reduced utility bill or a growing garden of vegetables can't be denied.

Being frugal will also lead to increased creativity and resourcefulness. Instead of dashing to the store to replace something broken, you develop a reflex of first trying to fix it yourself, finding a low cost alternative solution or realizing that you can easily make do without.

Financial security:

There is no doubt that living frugally can result in increased savings and financial comfort. With each dollar saved and invested, it keeps you that much further away from the financial cliff.

A frugal lifestyle can help you to accomplish events such as building an emergency fund, comfortably affording your yearly expenses, being well on your way to funding your retirement goals, helping family and others in need and assisting your child with future higher education expenses. Other possibilities include deciding to switch careers, working less and living life the way you envision it.

The above list is just a sample of personal and financial benefits that can be attributed to deciding to live with less. Those of you who feel like you're going against the grain of our consumerist society because of your frugal lifestyle are right, but the rewards are worth it.

Kassandra Dasent is a freelance writer, business consultant, wife and stepmom. She writes about personal finance, investing, self-employment and education.