The $9 Rule: Use This Frugal Tip To Save on Costs Around Your Home
Written by
Gabrielle Olya
Edited by
Gary Dudak
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It’s easy to look around your home and find dozens of things you want to replace, from the clothes hanging in your closet to the furniture in your living room. This likely isn’t financially reasonable for you to do, and giving into all of these impulses can put a big strain on your budget.
That’s where the “$9 rule” comes in. Coined by TikToker @isabellekoritsas, the frugal rule states that if you can fix or improve something for $9 or less, you should opt to repair instead of replace it.
“It made me appreciate my things and my living space infinitely more so that I don’t always feel the need to compulsively go shopping,” Koritsas said on her TikTok.
Here are a few examples of the $9 rule in action.
Freshen Up Your Old Sweaters
In her TikTok, Koritsas said that she used her $9 rule to avoid the impulse to replace all the sweaters in her closet.
“I had a handful of old sweaters that I was just not really vibing with anymore, and they were just sitting in my wardrobe,” she said. “I was like, I want to buy a whole bunch of new sweaters.”
Realizing this was not sustainable — and also very expensive — Koritsas came up with an alternative plan.
“I realized the only thing that really needed to happen was I needed to shave my sweaters,” she said. “I needed to buy an electric pill remover and keep up the quality of my clothes.”
With $9, she was able to buy one on Amazon, and gave new life to the wool coats and sweaters she had been neglecting.
Remove Scuffs on Your Walls
Having scuffs on your walls can be an eyesore, and you may be tempted to go to extremes to give your home a new look when you see them.
“Yeah, maybe you can paint your entire apartment or buy stuck-on wallpaper and do all the trendy TikTok interior design things — or you can buy a Magic Eraser and clean your walls,” Koritsas said. “That’s under $9. There are so many little things like this that I file under my $9 rule that make you stop obsessing about the thing and appreciate what you do have more so that you’re not just consuming, consuming, consuming.”
Organize Clutter
Unsightly clutter can make you feel unhappy in your living space. Koritsas recalls once looking at a pile of belts she couldn’t find storage for and being tempted to move.
“I was looking at these belts and I was like, I need to move apartments because I have nowhere to put my belts,” she said. “I spent $9 on Amazon, got a pack of Command hooks, put some hooks up in the closet I already have and now I have belt storage.”
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