10 Frugal Living Ideas

1. Eat In More and Eat Out Less Eating in can save upwards of $2000 per year for the average household.  Be frugal and buy groceries that will feed you for up to a week, like bread and meat for sandwiches or past, instead of splurging on those $30 after-work dinners.
2. Buy Generic Prescriptions Why is this frugal living? According to the FDA,  “Generic drugs are less expensive because generic manufacturers don't have the investment costs of the developer of a new drug. New drugs are developed under patent protection. The patent protects the investment--including research, development, marketing, and promotion--by giving the company the sole right to sell the drug while it is in effect. As patents near expiration, other manufacturers can apply to the FDA to sell generic versions. Because those manufacturers don't have the same development costs, they can sell their product at substantial discounts." 
3. Shop Second Hand Second hand shops only take gently used and/or new items. At some locations you can find designer clothes and accessories and shoes that still have price tags on them saving you up to hundreds of dollars a year on your clothing budget.
4. Change Your Car Insurance With the economy down, insurance carriers are more competitive than ever. Use companies that offer multiple rate quotes to get competitive quotes on major car insurance carriers. Also, bundling car, health and home insurance can add extra discounts to your policy saving you even more money.
5. Use Grocery Coupons Coupons are probably the easiest and most accessible frugal living idea. Checking the Sunday paper for coupons can save you money. How much? Well, that depends on what you shop for. You can supplement your grocery store coupons with manufacturers coupons, saving you even more at check-out. Just remember not to stray from your list, stores count on you spending more than is necessary.
6. Lose Those Extra Channels When you're trying to live frugally, you don't need HBO. Premium channels can cost an extra $15.00 a month or more depending on how many premium channels you have ordered. By losing the extra channels you could save up to $180.00 per year.
7. Get A Library Card Library books are free. For avid readers you could save hundreds a year by renting the books instead of buying them. Most libraries even have movies you can rent…For Free!
8. Cancel Subscriptions With so much information on the Internet, is there really any need for a monthly prescription to a magazine? On average popular magazines can cost about five dollars per month. Multiply that by how many subscriptions you have. If you have multiple subscriptions you could save over a hundred dollars per year.
9. Avoid Trips to the Corner store, or gas station Why is this frugal living? Buying something like a gallon of milk could cost you up to a dollar more than it would at a chain grocery store. Also, these stores are full of snack foods tempting you on your way to the check-out. Impulse buying is bad enough, but when you do it in a store that has high mark ups you could over the course of a year spend hundreds of dollars on junk food that you don’t even need.
10. Quit Smoking Smoking is expensive and it can cause serious health problems thereby increasing your overall medical costs. Medical insurers charge more for smokers than non-smokers on the monthly premiums. Between the cost of the cigarettes and the increase in health premiums you are spending thousands of extra dollars per year. I know it can be hard to quit, but the long term benefits are well worth it.

Resources:

FDA