If you find it hard to save money right now, it is not your imagination. It really is harder. We have been living frugally for decades, and we have watched the rules change. These days, it takes a whole lot more detective work than it used to.
That does not mean frugal living no longer works. Far from it. It means we need to understand what has changed, recognize the things we can control, and adjust our strategies accordingly.
Here are eight reasons saving money feels harder right now and, more importantly, what you can do about them.
The Pricing Game Has Changed
The way companies price and market products has changed dramatically in the past decade. Technology, spearheaded by the rise of AI, allows retailers to collect enormous amounts of information about individual consumers. Companies follow your on-line behavior to learn what you search for, which websites you visit, and which products interest you.
When you download company apps for restaurants or stores (I have Kohl’s, Kroger, SAMS, and Chick Fil A), be sure to read the fine print. Generally, you give them a number of permissions, including everything from tracking your internet searches to viewing your movements when you visit their physical locations. You can override these permissions in your phone’s settings.
Then there is dynamic pricing, where prices can change based on different circumstances. When you are online, AI technology detects your geographic location, day of the week, time of day, and how many others are looking at the same product. Consequently, the price you see displayed on your screen in southern California may be different than what your cousin is seeing in Central Illinois.
Many fear that these marketing practices may soon make their way to physical stores, further eroding the trust between consumers and businesses. That’s why several states have passed legislation to ensure that pricing transparency is protected, no matter where the consumer is shopping.
I did a deep dive into these changing pricing practices in a previous post because there is far more to this topic than we can cover here.
READ: How New Store Pricing Trends Are Affecting Frugal Shoppers
What does all of this have to do with frugality and saving money? It makes it far harder to know whether you’re actually getting a good deal. For years, one of the basic principles of frugal shopping has been to know your prices. That principle is even more important today.
The solution is to become harder to manipulate.
Compare unit prices. Compare prices between stores. Know what you normally pay for the products you purchase regularly. Don’t assume something is a bargain simply because a retailer tells you it’s on sale.
The more complicated the pricing game becomes, the more important it is to know what a good price actually looks like.
Saving Money Requires Consistency
It takes a lot more intentionality these days to cut expenses. There is so much competition out there to get you to shop at a particular store that saving money requires paying attention to a lot more details than it did in the past.
One of the things this requires is making sure you’re focusing on the right things. If you’re spending thirty days trying to save $1.72, that’s probably not something you want to double down on. But if you try a new habit or a new area of frugality and realize, “Hot dog, I just saved $50 or $100 in one month,” that’s a habit you want to make sure you put on repeat.
When it’s hard to save money, you need a way to figure out the difference. Don’t waste time on things that make you feel like you are doing something constructive, but don’t move the savings needle. You could wind up inadvertently ignoring some very effective but lesser-known money-saving habits.
There’s an easy way to tell the difference. You need a simple, repeatable system which allows you to plan, implement, and evaluate every thirty days.
We call this system the PIE Method, and we’ve used it for decades to figure out what’s working, what’s not, and what we need to double down on. If you’d like step-by-step instructions for using the PIE Method with your own finances, we’ve put the entire process into a workbook.
Prices Are Rising Fast Right Now
We cannot remember a time when so many household expenses seemed capable of changing so quickly. In November, we noticed that several respected financial sources warned of specific rising bills in 2026. That list included insurance, utilities, groceries and several others.
We put those budget categories on our “watch list” for this year. Some have, indeed, gone up. One of them, insurance, went much higher than expected. These fluctuations have left many people opening bills and wondering, “Now what happened?”
It can start to feel like a weird game of financial whack-a-mole.
There’s a bill. Whack it. Another one goes up. Whack that one.
That is exhausting, and it makes you feel really anxious, leaving you wondering if there is any safe way to manage your money.
The problem is that you can’t control whether those prices go up, but you can control how you respond when they do. Instead, when a bill increases, figure out how much of that bill you can actually control.
Take your utility bill as an example. You owe a base amount before you use a single kilowatt-hour of electricity. You can’t change that portion of the bill. Your usage, however, is completely or partially within your control.
That’s where you focus. When it is hard to save money, knowing the difference between what you can and cannot control keeps you from (literally or figuratively) wasting energy fighting the wrong battle.
Look at the bill. Understand how it works. Identify the portion your behavior can change. Then determine which habits will have the greatest impact on that number.
In other words, plan instead of panic.
We Are Choosing Convenience too Often
We’ll admit that from time to time we’ve fallen into the habit of opting for convenience instead of choosing frugality.
Sometimes you’re busy or tired and doing a task more quickly is higher on your radar than saving money. For instance, when you don’t have much time to cook, pulling a pre-packaged meal out of the freezer and quickly heating it in the microwave gets your family fed in record time and gives you more time together in the evening.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with choosing convenience. The problem comes when convenience gets liberally sprinkled throughout our lives without us realizing how much we’re paying for it.
Ask yourself, “Why am I paying for this convenience? Is it worth what it costs me? Could I do this myself?”
Sometimes the answer will be, “Yes, this convenience is absolutely worth it.”
Great.
The point is that you prioritized it, deliberately deciding the role it will play in your life and budgeting ahead for it, instead of paying for it automatically. The goal is not to always choose frugality. It’s to understand what you are trading it for.
Stuff Is Designed to Wear Out Prematurely
At the same time, some products themselves have become difficult to repair. Items are designed for planned obsolescence. Parts and panels are not meant to last for years. Many items are difficult (or impossible) to disassemble to install new parts. When you compare the cost and hassle of repairing some products with the cost of replacing them, it’s easy to see why most consumers simply give up and buy new.
These issues have fueled the growing public outcry for Right to Repair laws, which seek to give consumers more control over repairing the products they own.
Before buying, ask questions like:
Can this item be repaired? Are replacement parts available? Can we maintain it ourselves? Does the manufacturer support the product? How reliable is it? What will it cost us to own and maintain over time?
Frugality isn’t living as cheaply as possible. It’s making the most of your resources.
We’re Being Sold Financial Shortcuts
If it took you ten years to get into debt, you won’t dig yourself out of that hole in thirty days. But there are people (and companies) who will attempt to convince you otherwise. If you listen to them, you may inadvertently slow or halt your progress.
Here’s the truth: There are no super fast workarounds, shortcuts, or bypasses. Can you shorten the amount of time it takes to get out of debt? Absolutely! But is there a magic pill that works overnight? Nope.
Frugality is low and slow, but it works!
Here’s how saving money acts a little like compound interest.
Suppose you find a way to save $1 a day. Big deal, right? One dollar doesn’t feel like much. But there are 365 days in a year. That tiny change adds up to $365 over the course of a year.
Now imagine finding ten different areas where small, consistent changes produce savings every month. That’s when the math gets really interesting. Suddenly, you realize you could potentially have thousands of dollars to put toward paying off debt or reaching your next financial goal. The more areas of savings you find, the bigger the numbers.
That’s exactly why we regularly extrapolate our savings. If something saves us a certain amount each week, what does that become in a month? What does it become in a year?
Looking at the bigger number helps us see whether a habit is worth continuing.
This is one reason people can become discouraged when they first start living frugally. They look at today’s savings when they need to be looking at the cumulative effect.
When it feels hard to save money, stop asking only, “What did this save me today?” Ask, “What happens if I keep doing this for a year?” Small amounts matter when they’re repeated consistently.
Companies Have Convinced Us That Wants Are Needs
Think about something that was considered a luxury when you were growing up but is considered completely normal today.
Given that rotary phones with party lines were the norm when I was born, one obvious example is the cell phone. There was a time when having one was absolutely a luxury. Today, many people don’t even have a landline.
Here’s another example: central air conditioning. When I was a kid, if you had central air, you were rolling in the dough. Very few people even had a window air conditioner, let alone central air.
But times change and technology definitely changes. Sometimes things that were once wants suddenly become much more necessary to function in everyday life.
There is nothing wrong with either cell phones or central air. We own and use both. However, it’s important to never lose sight of the fact that marketers are exceptionally good at convincing us that we need to own the shiniest, greatest, or brightest new “thing” to be happy.
One of the ways they do that is by convincing us to spend money to save money.
There’s even a name for this marketing practice: spaving… and it may be costing you money. It’s also one of the things that frugal people avoid.
Here are some examples of spaving:
- Spend more to get free shipping.
- Buy more to qualify for a discount.
- Upgrade to the higher tier because it offers “more value.”
- Purchase the extended warranty to protect your purchase.
The offer is always framed around what you’re supposedly saving, instead of what you’re actually spending.
This is an especially important trap to recognize when it is already hard to save money. Spending another $30 to “save” $10 did not put an extra $10 in your bank account.
Before accepting one of these offers, stop and look at the entire transaction.
- How much were you originally planning to spend?
- How much will you spend if you accept the deal?
- Are you buying something you actually need?
Those questions can make the “savings” look very different.
Comparison Is Harder to Escape
Keeping up with the Joneses was a whole lot easier to avoid when the Joneses didn’t appear in your social media feed every day.
Now, we merely need to open Facebook on our phone to see how our friends, relatives, and neighbors are spending their time and money. We see vacations, home remodels, new cars, and furnishings that look like the pages of Better Homes and Gardens.
Oh! And don’t forget: Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok will gladly serve you up a never-ending supply of targeted ads, designed to get you to click and buy.
It’s time to take back your control! Here are some steps that limit the impact of ad-filled platforms.
- Turn off what you can. We use an ad-blocker where we can.
- Unsubscribe…but not to us! LOL! We help you save money, not spend it.
- Stay off platforms that consistently tempt you to spend.
- Go read a book. If you haven’t visited your local library in a while, now is the time.
But you can’t control everything. So, when you can’t control the input, create some roadblocks between yourself and the purchase.
One of our favorites is a mandatory 24-to-48-hour waiting period before buying something. If it’s a good deal today, it’ll probably still be a good deal tomorrow.
Another incredibly simple roadblock is to stop saving your payment information on shopping websites. When you make a purchase, the website always asks the question: “Would you like us to save this card for your next purchase?”
No. You don’t – and here’s why.
In the time it takes you to get yourself off the couch, find your wallet, get the card, and come back to your computer screen, your brain gets a break in the “purchase-induced rush of happy hormones.” That sixty seconds is often enough time to realize, “Maybe I don’t need this thing.”
Businesses want to eliminate friction from purchasing. Sometimes frugal people need to deliberately put the friction back in.
But the Rules Have Changed!
We know. It’s frustrating when you are trying your best and the goalpost is moving. However, we don’t believe the answer to today’s financial challenges is to throw up our hands and decide that saving money is impossible.
We’ve lived this way for decades, and we still use these principles in our own home.
Yes, the environment has changed. Pricing has become way more volatile. You have to be fastidious and work harder to save a dime. Convenience and advertising are everywhere.
But that doesn’t mean “hard to save money” is “impossible to save money”.
To save money:
- Be willing to learn about and try new things.
- Do the math.
- Know what constitutes a good deal – and what is just hype.
- Figure out what you can control.
- Double down on what is already working.
- Have written goals so you know what you are trying to accomplish with your money.
- Give small savings time. They will become big savings.
Frugality isn’t about being cheap. It’s about making the most of your resources so they can accomplish the things that matter most to you.
Your Turn
What makes it hard to save money right now? What have you changed to make saving easier? Share your experience in the comments.
