The start of a new year can be a great time to take a fresh look at your spending habits and start some new habits that help you save. Recently, people on Reddit shared the frugal habits they’re hoping to take into 2026, and reading through them gave me some ideas. Here’s what they had to say:
1.
“No food delivery. I had a very traumatic loss last year, and in the grief after, I used it as a crutch. I’m starting to feel like myself again and have committed to meal planning, using what I have, and having backup plans like frozen pizzas just in case.”
2.
“I’m doing a spending freeze for January! No eating out and no buying clothing, home items, or accessories. Having a limited amount of time makes it feel more achievable, but I feel like the awareness refreshes good habits.”
3.
“One of my goals is to use at least one thing from the freezer each week. I also plan to make one thing for the freezer each week (such as: shredded chicken, ground beef, diced peppers, etc). Hopefully, that will be a time saver in the end.”
4.
“I just called my cellphone provider (had to wait an hour to talk to someone) to negotiate for a better plan and saved about $60 a month.”
5.
“Severely cutting down on our favorite hobby: going to concerts. It’s just too damn expensive. Tickets plus a hotel and drinks often cost $600+ for a few hours of our lives. Even a home show will be $200-400 usually now. We’ll save them for special events and put that money towards travel and investments.”
6.
“I’m closing on a house in January and planning on getting everything second-hand (aside from our mattress and couch)! We’re taking our time to find pieces of high quality for a good price and not rushing to fill the house with items we will want to replace in a couple of years.”
7.
“Net-zero stuff. If I buy something, something else has to go. I have enough stuff; adding more makes my life more complicated, not easier.”
8.
“I’m lowering my monthly budget for eating out, and that means I’ll probably have to monitor my spending weekly. It’s not a huge drop because eating out is one of my very few splurges, but as such, it’s one of the only categories of spending I can bring down.”
“My spouse and I are trying to do weekly meal prep, seeing it as an opportunity to spend time cooking together and take away the daily decision-making.”
9.
“This year was tough income-wise. My goal is to live on our minimum to build up a recession cushion. I don’t want my S.O. to freak out if there’s no work for extended periods while we figure out our next moves.”
10.
“I’m making a budget for my groceries instead of paying without thinking. I need to move out of my apartment, and the new place hopefully has enough space for a small freezer, which will help me save in the long run.”
11.
“Really cutting down on impulse buying or buying for the person I want to be and not who I am now.”
12.
“One of my hobbies is having hobbies. Several of which are expensive. I want to focus on the less expensive hobbies this year. Specifically, reading, video games, walking city trails, and hiking state parks. Maybe get my bike back into working order.”
13.
“I bought a cheapo budget notebook and have started hand-entering every individual expense as I go. It’s tedious, and I know there are apps that can do it for me. But I find writing it down and tallying it every couple of days helps me viscerally understand how much I’m spending and whether it makes sense.”
14.
“I hate cooking. But I can’t afford to eat out. I would like to find some new recipes that I like and don’t take forever to make (forever being more than 20 minutes).”
15.
“I’m going to try to be online less in 2026; I find the more I scroll or am on social media, the more I get FOMO or get tempted by advertisements. I’m going to do a reading challenge alongside a friend and use library books or my Kindle so I’m not tempted to tab back over to a web browser or app, plus some free music lessons that I have access to, so that I’m too busy to waste as much time.”
16.
“Trying to maximize the bills we do pay. I just got done switching as many bills as possible to credit card payments to my 2% cash back card. Some have a small convenience fee, but doing the math, we’re ahead by a lot on this alone. I should preface this with the fact that I pay off my credit card bill every month.”
17.
“No cocktails out that aren’t better than what I could make at home. I was a bartender for a few years, and it pisses me off to go out and pay more for an inferior version of a drink at a restaurant. There will be a couple of exceptions for bars and restaurants that are using unique enough ingredients and skilled enough bartenders that I couldn’t reasonably recreate the drinks myself. But otherwise, no drinks out.”
18.
“I’m making an actual budget for the first time ever. We had a bunch of vet bills and dental bills that we have to pay off, along with needing to save a certain amount each month for the annual bills that come along, instead of just winging it.”
19.
“Stop buying stuff on sale just because it’s on sale. It turns out ‘saving money’ by spending money I wasn’t planning to spend is not actually saving money.”
20.
“Being more mindful of the why behind when I spend. I have a history of spending to numb pain, but I got a lot better about tracking spending in 2025. I used a spreadsheet and categorized each dollar I spent, and I only had a 43% long-lasting satisfaction rate. So my plan for 2026 is to only spend money on what I categorized as long-lasting’ happiness, things like celebrating others, memories with my kids, etc.”
21.
“I’m keeping a sheet of paper on my fridge, and every time I throw out expired produce, I’m adding it to the list. Essentially, I’m hoping to shame myself into being more vigilant about avoiding food waste!”
22.
“I am doing a Project Pan this year, which is where you use up all the skincare/haircare/makeup/bodywash/etc. before you allow yourself to buy a new one. I am really bad about always looking for the latest and greatest, so I end up with a bunch of different items that aren’t fully used and are just wasted. I am hoping to curb this bad spending habit while also saving money by using the things I have already spent money on.”
23.
And finally, “I’m actively destashing EVERYTHING: deep wardrobe edit, craft supplies, books, decor, etc. I plan to sell as much of it as I can before I donate. Anything I make from selling things is going straight into a high-yield savings account.”
Are you starting a new frugal habit for 2026? Tell us all about it in the comments or via the anonymous form below:
