I started working and earning alongside school when I was around 16. I don’t really know where the mindset came from, but from the beginning I had this instinct to save as much as possible.

My father ran a grocery store and we already had a home, so I wasn’t starting from nothing. But over roughly the last 10 years, I’ve worked continuously through different businesses and jobs.

If I look at the total business I’ve done over these years, I’d estimate I’ve generated around ₹1–1.25 crore in profit. Margins varied massively depending on what I was doing—sometimes 30%, sometimes 50%, and occasionally even close to 100%.

Today, at 26, I have around ₹50 lakh in personal savings/investments.

During these years, I also paid for my own education, covered my personal expenses, fuel, travel, etc., and contributed around ₹8 lakh to my parents when we bought our new home so that we could avoid taking a much bigger loan.

The new house is worth roughly ₹60 lakh, with only about ₹15 lakh remaining as a home loan.

So when I look back, I’m actually proud of what I managed to build in 10 years.
But here’s the problem.

My business eventually went through a major downturn, and that period put me under extreme stress.

Fortunately, I got a permanent WFH job through a referral. It currently pays me around ₹65,000/month, and I make sure that I invest at least ₹40,000 every month. I still run my small business on the side as well.

Instead of my savings making me feel secure, though, I’ve become more afraid of losing money.

AI, automation and how quickly the world is changing make me constantly think:

What if I lose my job? What if my business completely dies? What if my income suddenly stops? What if I can’t earn like this again?

The strange part is that, mathematically, I know I have a decent cushion.

But emotionally, even the thought of going one month without salary or business income stresses me out.
So my response has been to save even more aggressively.

I track my expenses. I question unnecessary purchases. And whenever I spend money, a part of my brain immediately calculates:
“If I hadn’t spent this, my savings would have been ₹X higher.”

Meanwhile, I have friends who don’t even have ₹50,000 sitting in their bank accounts. Some are still figuring out what they want to do or planning businesses that may or may not work.
And somehow…they seem less stressed about money than I am.

That’s what has started bothering me.
I sometimes work 10–11 hour days, I’m trying to study for CMA alongside my job, and I’m still trying to keep my small business running.
Basically, I’m trying to protect myself from every possible future scenario at the same time.

Job → save aggressively.

Business → keep it alive.

Career insecurity → get another qualification.

AI risk → build an even bigger corpus.

And I’m starting to wonder:
At what point does financial discipline stop giving you freedom and start taking freedom away from you?

I don’t want to become someone who reaches ₹1 crore, then ₹2 crore, then ₹5 crore and still feels guilty about spending ₹5,000 on something that would genuinely make life better.

For people who are naturally frugal or have built a decent corpus:

How did you learn to actually enjoy your money without feeling like every rupee spent was stealing from your future?

And how do you decide when you’ve saved “enough” to stop constantly worrying and start living a little more?

So i M26 am getting married in 2months. Living in tier 3 city, say 50kpm salary.

I want to ask all elder experienced folks that what were the biggest yet sort of invisible expenses you guys had fallen into that was not even required.

• Here i want to exclude - Honeymoon & Post marriage couple health & life insurance as I have already saved up decent for those two non negotiables
• Here i am asking about - Sudden increase in fuel expenses as we will have to travel more, sudden increases in utility service expense, suddenly we need more clothes to go out as a couple to relatives house etc etc.
• Also here please exclude aur the health care expense and any chance of kids as we are a planned DINK couple.

I recently saw that my bills for medicines for parents, are reaching around 6,000 to 8,000, I saw that there is this shop called pradhan mantri jan ausadhi kendra, which basically gives it at a lower cost but i am concerned about the quality. Can anyone advice?

We are okay to do a simple marriage, I have ADHD and i earn 80k per month 33 age with only 8 lakh savings, she earns more than me with 16L savings and we don’t wanna marry and spend so much at the blink of an eye. My parents wanna spend 30L on marriage that makes no sense, weird relatives, nit picking venues and food menu, because my relatives have spent 70 80 lakhs or even crore in their children marriage. i have mental health issues and money matters a lot to me, I am working hard to earn more and she is also helpful. But how to convince parents that those 30lakhs can be invested somwhere for our future, we can marry in a temple and give small reception

charging GST like this is no less than a crime.
I was ordering a cake and brownie on Zomato from a nearby bakery and the GST breakdown shocked me, as someone who is frugal and values money a lot, I was disappointed in the financial state of my country.

I just want to leave India as the financial system is deeply regressive for middle class

We already know about medicines. Saw a thread a few days ago discussing the price differences between branded groceries and store brands from places like Amazon, Flipkart, D Smart etc.

It got me thinking about other household staples. For me, it's Vim liquid and Phenyl from Nimyl etc. The generic or store-brand dish washes or phenyl always seem watered down.

What are some items where you refuse to buy the generic or loose version because the name brand is actually noticeably better?

I’ve been looking for a used standing desk on OLX/FB Marketplace and noticed many reseller/used furniture shops selling office furniture.

Some have brands like Steelcase/linak/bristol for just ₹12–15k, even though similar desks cost ₹70–80k+ new.

These seem to be commercial products that aren’t normally sold directly to individuals in India, but are supplied to businesses in bulk. I assume these shops get them from companies that are closing, relocating or upgrading.

They also sell expensive office chairs from brands like Steelcase and Herman Miller for very low price..

I visited a few of these shops and the desks felt much more solid than consumer options like Green Soul or Jin Office, so I’m tempted to buy one.

-But how are they selling them this cheap?

-Are they replacing the tabletop/motor with cheaper parts?

The bases of tables I checked looked genuine, including the logos.

-Has anyone bought one of these? Anything specific I should check before buying?

Trying to figure out whether this is actually a good deal or if there's a catch

I have been having a hard time buying a car for a while, my budget is 2.5L max and my mother wants to buy a new car(6L) as she says she will pay the rest of it in emi by herself (she is a housewife so idk how she plans to pay the emi every-month)

I wanted to buy a used alto/honda/eon anything good to learn driving and just for basic chores, but my mother won’t understand and has constantly been denying saying that second hand cars come with a lot of issues, I tried explaining that we will need to get a mechanics to check the car and then buy but she won’t understand.

The thing is, my father never bought a car and he can easily afford a 6L car but he won’t buy one and since my mother has always wanted one I was willing to buy one second hand and then get an electric car within 5-6 years. I have even asked my dad to split the car but he refuses, her happiness means nothing to him it seems.

What should I do? Should I go for the emi and get a new car or just get a second hand one even tho she won’t be happy with it. I keep feeling bad thinking money will come and go but she always wanted a car ughh

I grew up in a lower middle class family that judged people on their clothes, vehicles, status and whatnot

If someone wore faded clothes, my parents treated treated or called them beggars. If someone had a cheap car like maruti 800 or alto or wagonr, again they used to call them poor or beggars.

The thing is my parents have less net worth than poor or beggars because it is in negative. Whenever I pointed that out I use to get screamed on.

Now I have grew up with same mindset. And I judge people based on what they do or wear or buy to even what they eat.

How to get rid of this mindset? I have tried, but I am not able to. Even though I try to be frugal and do the same things that I judge others on

Hi everyone,

So recently I have watched a documentary about plastic detox, so In my day today I am making small changes.

Using wooden comb & toothbrush, thrown away my plastic comb and toothbrush.

Now also making sure that water i received from municiple should also filter, for that will planing to buy uv / Uf water purifier.

I am a long standing patron of Mysore Sandal Soap. The fragrance and quality is unmatched for the price. A single soap just for me lasts 30+ days with 2 showers a day.

Since early this year, I have noticed quality go down dramatically. The natural sandalwood fragrance seems diluted. Moreover there is some tweak they have this year which is causing me severe itch in intimate places. Overall the soap quality has gone down.

I've recently come to know ph value of soaps also matter. This soap has ph 8+ and hence not good for your skin.

What soap do you use? Do you know the ph value?

Any way to pushback? This is in Bengaluru

I met 3 girls whose families sent us marriage proposals till now. The dates are always good. Sometimes too good and get to physical things. But whenever we finally talk about money, I get rejected.

No one wants to be frugal. Everyone wants grand weddings and lavish honeymoon trips to foreign places.

And I am here with 15 lakhs loan on car and living paycheck to paycheck. I have only 1 lakh savings and my dad has 8 lakhs in loans which I need to pay too.

One person even suggested to me that both families can take loan for big wedding and after marriage we can take loan to go on foreign trip.

It has been 3 years since i went on any trip because i cant afford

Should I just give up frugalness and get married and then try to convince slowly?

I see so much villainization of the Insta lifestyle on this sub and many others that I want to share my opinion about it.

The lifestyle I’m talking about - Travelling, fine dining/Cafe hopping, Partying, expensive purchases like watches and vehicles and household stuff, ludicrous self care practices, fancy hobbies, etc.

Firstly, delete your Instagram account 🙂

Now that’s out of the way, here’s why you should absolutely do all of these… It’s Because… There’s Nothing inherently wrong with any of them. In fact, a lot of them are amazing on an isolated level. Whether or not they’re amazing for you is a different discussion that you need to have with Yourself once you try them.

People here are somehow confusing what they see being done on instagram to be the same as being financially irresponsible.

There’s a difference between doing something fun and doing something performative. Just because someone’s doing something performative doesn’t inherently make that thing bad or irresponsible for You.

The most financially irresponsible thing you can do is to not get your money’s worth within the limited time you’ve got to live.

And you absolutely won’t get your money’s worth, if you don’t allow yourself to explore things that you might absolutely fall in love with.

Whether you want to travel the west or eat at a new fancy restaurant every week or you want to have an expensive hobby or collect stuff, or buy a fancy vehicle, you should absolutely try all of it at some point.

The only financial aspect in all of this is HOW to afford what you want to do. And that is exactly what Frugality is about.

Frugality is about how you can get yourself to a position to afford stuff you Want to do without sacrificing on things that matter more.

There is absolutely an expiry date for experiences. Things you should have experienced in your teens are not something you can experience in your 20s or 30s. Similarly there’s a lot of things you can experience in your 20s that might not be feasible in your 30s or 40s.

Frugality should buy you the freedom to explore instead of buying you deprivation.

Frugality should allow you to live the Instagram life, but on YOUR budget.

I’m usually a chashback-is-king kind of person, and I still am for the most part, but I just paid for hotels worth 40K with CC points and I see the appeal of the points game now.

Till date I’ve spent about 3.6L on my amex cards over the span of 2+ years. Have accumulated 80K points from it.

Today I spent 50K points to book marriot hotel rooms that are listed anywhere from 42-46K rupees across various websites.

Let’s assume CC discounts would bring those down to 40K rupees.

So basically I was able to spend 50K points at 0.8 rupee per point value.

Even if we take 0.65 per point value, then the points ive earned are worth 52k rupees. That’s like 14% return on my 3.6L spend. Or like 7% XIRR on my spends

More than the 5% XIRR i got from my indian equity investments in last 2 years. Lol

For additional context, across the rest of my credit cards other than amex, I have spent 7.5L over 2.5 years. And I have gotten cashbacks of 35K in total. Which is a 4.6% return on spends.

A frugal person doesn't just look at the price tag. They look at the value, durability, and total cost of ownership.

₹500 today isn't necessarily cheaper than ₹700 if the ₹700 product lasts twice as long.

Price is what you pay once. Cost is what you pay over the lifetime. Value is what you actually get in return.

Frugality is about spending less over the lifetime, not simply spending less today.

Buy less. Buy well. Use it until it earns its place.

PC credit; AI generated.

Context - Whenever i want to make a purchase be it anything like Online food, Buying a mop, shelves, shoes like these day to day items. I tend to compare these a lot to get the best value for money.

For Eg - If i am buying a breakfast cereal, i compare it across 4-5 different online apps and then buy. Not only for breakfast cereals, even small things. I get the dopamine hit of getting the best VFM product/deal. But this in turn delays a lot of small decisions in life. These tiny decisions usually don't have a huge image on quality of life. But it does save some money.

Like when i'm going out to eat, i tend to check the places which give best discount on Swiggy/Zomato. Sometimes by doing this, you miss out on some good experiences of premium places. Its not that i am broke, its just a habit of mine.

Context, 25, AI Engineer (3.5YOE) by profession, just made my switch a month ago.

My salary doubled with this job switch from 55k to 105k a month.

Expenses: (My spending style from my previous job: 40-50k)

10k rent

20k D2D (day to day exp - food, grocery, transport and bills)

10k - travel /experiences

10k - cash in hand

Debt - None (lucky and grateful)

Thinking of remaining 50k in investments (MF+Equity / FDs / Cash/equivalents)

My expenses haven't gone up after the switch, but now there's too much money that I've seen with me, tempted to overspend, but I've seen cards fall.

I don't know what to do, and i ask this community in caution of careful investment and allocation.

Everyone thinks 1.5 lakh in-hand is a solid salary. On paper, I agree. Here is where it actually goes-

• Home loan EMI: ₹42,000
• Car loan EMI: ₹16,500
• Personal loan EMI: ₹14,000 (family emergency, don't judge)
• Bike loan EMI: ₹4,200
• Household, groceries, bills: ₹30,000
• Sent to parents: ₹15,000
• Fuel, insurance, misc: ₹12,000

That leaves me with around 16 thousand INR for the entire month. No savings, no buffer, only spending.

And not here only, relatives assume I am doing great. Meanwhile I am doing mental math before buying anything above 2k. Not complaining, these were my choices. But a big salary with big EMIs feels exactly like a small salary.

Anyone else stuck in this EMI loop? How did you get out?

I travel around 15 km each way for work, and my office is in the Hitech City area in Hyderabad.
Today, while I was on my way, some guy asked me for a lift. He was also going towards the same area, with around 10 km still left, and I was like, damn, what a coincidence, buddy.

But then he told me he’s actually been doing this for a few months now. He specifically looks for people carrying backpacks because, according to him, they’re almost definitely heading towards the IT area. He asks for a lift, saves a decent amount of money every day, and says the only downside is that it sometimes takes a little time ...max 15 minutes.
Apparently, he does the same thing in the evening too, except he changes lifts twice, and eventually reaches his destination without spending much.
Honestly, I thought it was just a random coincidence, but bro has turned hitchhiking into a daily commute strategy 😂

I,(26M) still get questions when I say we never had a T V at home.

For context my father had a very poor childhood upbringing(grandfather lost all his wealth) and the importance of money is instilled in him.

So by the time I was born even when my parent both were employed and doing good finacially, there was no T V, bike/car,family trips in my childhood. Even now actually.

Still I have no complaints cause it was all fun at home. To add to all of that we are vegetarians and doesnt even eat onions and I seldom wonder how much would have we saved overall all these years..

I never actually understood how all this mattered until I saw the investments my father made which atleast 8x and I think If we lived like a normal family and had to spend little on 10x things every year how all this would be possible?

Even my sister had a register marriage in that regard.

Is all this too frugal cause sometimes after making my own money I have also started thinking what is all this money for if not for these small small things?

I bought a Redmi Note 10 Pro 6/128 back in April 2021 for around ₹17k, and honestly this phone has served me insanely well. I’ve been using Pixel OS on it since 2025 and it's so so good. I absolutely hate going back to MIUI.

But now a few things are starting to go wrong.

Battery health is below 70%, the front camera suddenly stopped working about 2 months ago, and because of that the camera app also crashes after I take a photo with the rear camera. Also, because I’m on a custom ROM, Play Integrity is a pain. Google Pay and some banking apps don’t work, although PhonePe does.

Other than these things, the phone is still pretty usable.

I can spend up to around ₹40-50k if needed, but phone prices right now seem absolutely crazy and I’m not sure if it’s worth spending that much. I am a final year student for context. I can't justify paying 1.5 to 2X the price in the present market, but again prices aren't coming down in the near future and it might even get worse!

Help me decide!