4 Frugal Lessons We Can Learn From The Amish

I might be the only one who thinks the Amish lifestyle is romantic, but it's a notion I've held for a long time. As a girl, I admired the paintings of the Amish by N.A. Noel and daydreamed about standing in one of her watercolors, hands grasping one of the beautiful quilts hanging out to dry…. it's a beautiful image. As I grew older, the Amish appealed to me in a new way. I fell in love with their reverence, their simplicity, their rejection of materialism in an increasingly materialistic society.

I know I love the internet and the ease of travel my car affords too much to survive with the Amish, although I still wish I could take an Amish retreat of some kind (if that were a thing).  However, there's still a lot we can all learn from the Amish.  Missy Rakes, from Graceful Little Honey Bee blog, has the scoop on frugal lessons from the Amish we should all take to heart.

Cook From Scratch
As I said earlier, the Amish are known for being excellent cooks because they make everything from scratch. Not only does their food taste better, but they are spending less on it than us because they aren’t buying convenience foods. Anything that you can learn to make from scratch like the Amish, will save you money.

Grow & Preserve Your Own Food
Another reason the Amish aren’t spending as much on food as us is because they grow it themselves and then put it up for the winter. Growing your own food is a great way to cut down your grocery bill.

Become Skilled
The Amish possess certain skills which naturally save them money. They know how to sew and mend their own clothes, preserve their own food, knit their own mittens, construct their own buildings, take care of their own livestock, bale their own hay, make their own furniture, etc. Any kind of life skill that you can teach yourself will save you money because you don’t have to pay someone else to do it.

DIY Everything
The Amish spend less than us because they do almost everything themselves. Need a gift? Make if yourself. Broken faucet? Fix it yourself. Empty cupboard? Grow your own food. The next time you think you need to go buy an item or hire someone to fix something consider how you could make it or fix it yourself first. I bet you will be surprised at what you can do on your own without spending any money.

So far, I've mastered cooking from scratch. I'm not certain that my brown thumb will ever succeed in growing food for my family, but I'm trying each year. I am learning various skills like sewing, home repairs, and recycling things we own to meet our current needs rather than throwing them out to purchase new.  Check out the 5 other lessons on being frugal we can all learn from the Amish at Graceful Little Honey Bee.