Don't let the Rich Kids of Instagram fool you. The typical multimillionaire or billionaire doesn't bathe in champagne or use high-value banknotes as toilet paper. In fact, some of the world's richest people live well below their means, opting for lifestyles that are anything but high maintenance and extravagant. Read on as we reveal the super-rich's money-saving habits that lead to a richer life. All dollar values in US dollars and net worths via Forbes, correct as of 28 March 2022. 

David Cheriton, the so-called 'Billionaire Professor' who cleaned up after investing a pile of cash in Google during its infancy, takes thriftiness to the extreme. Despite his $11.8 billion (£9bn) net worth, the mega-rich Stanford University professor keeps an eye on every cent.

Cheriton still lives in the same period-style home he bought well before his Google shares soared in value and drives an average Honda car. The rich academic even cuts his own hair and asks for doggy bags in upscale restaurants when there are leftovers on his plate. His rule of thumb is to “never spend in a way that I can’t explain to my parents without apology or embarrassment.”

Now worth a staggering $129.7 billion (£99bn), CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and investor extraordinaire Warren Buffett is famed for his thrifty ways. The fabled Oracle of Omaha is as frugal as they come, both in his business and personal life.

The fifth richest person in the world is always on the lookout for a bargain. "Whether we're talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down," he says. The leading investor still lives in the modest home he bought for $31,500 back in 1958, drives a practical Cadillac XTS, and eschews the high life. As Buffett is well aware, even small sums compound over time, so he invests every spare penny he can muster.

The Facebook founder might boast a bank balance of $79 billion (£60bn), but his spending habits show he still hasn't forgotten completely about his humble student days. 

For starters, his wardrobe is remarkably similar to many students, apparently consisting of little more than old T-shirts and hoodies. In another frugal move, he and his wife got married in the backyard of their Palo Alto home.

Media magnate and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg didn't amass his $82 billion (£62.7bn) fortune by splashing the cash around. Known for his frugality, records show Bloomberg paid himself a paltry annual salary of between $5,000 and $20,000 (£4,000-£16,000) during the late 1990s.

If you own a business, paying yourself a small salary and topping it up with dividends should reduce your tax bill. Bloomberg also saves cash by streamlining his business wardrobe. It's said that the pennywise billionaire owned just two pairs of work shoes for a decade, having them repaired whenever they wore out.

Ingvar Kamprad amassed his fortune by founding Swedish flat-pack furniture giant IKEA. The billionaire, who died in 2018, knew how to penny pinch. He once told Swedish channel TV4, who made a documentary about him: “I don’t think I’m wearing anything that wasn’t bought at a flea market. It means that I want to set a good example.”

Kamprad, whose net worth was around $3.5 billion (£2.5bn) at the time of his death, was often seen eating in cheap-and-cheerful restaurants and haggling down prices at markets. However, his thrifty ways might not have extended to his living arrangements. While it's widely reported that his home in Switzerland contained mainly IKEA furniture, he also owned an 18th-century Swedish mansion, a Swiss villa, and a vineyard in Provence.

Indian business tycoon Azim Premji is worth a whopping £9.9 billion (£7.6bn), having amassed his wealth as the owner of the technology service giant Wipro Limited.

If reports are to be believed, Premji runs an extraordinarily tight ship at the firm, even monitoring the number of toilet paper rolls used in its offices and making employees switch off the lights when leaving. One worker (who wisely remained anonymous) told Bloomberg: “Premji makes Uncle Scrooge look like Santa Claus.” 

Next on the list is Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder and former president of parent company Alphabet. In 2015 Google was praised by investors for becoming far more cost-conscious, quite a change given the company's reputation for splashing cash on all sorts of zany initiatives.

That's a belief shared by Brin, who told Moment magazine how he learned to “be happy without many things” from his parents. “It’s interesting – I still find myself not wanting to leave anything on the plate uneaten. I still look at prices,” he said. “I try to force myself to do this less, not to be so frugal. But I was raised being happy with not so much.” That being said, he has reportedly spend some of his $114.2 billion (£87bn) net worth on more than one private jet... 

Fashion giant Inditex's founder Amancio Ortega is the wealthiest man in Spain with a net worth of $57.9 billion (£44.3bn). The boss of brands such as Zara can put his success down to serious hard work, unyielding dedication, and making financial sacrifices when needed.

The workaholic fast fashion magnate has lived in the same modest apartment for years despite owning an impressive real estate portfolio, forgoes fancy restaurants to eat in the company canteen with his employees, and didn't take a proper holiday for 25 years while he was building up the business.

 

The late Frederik Meijer helped found the Meijer supermarket franchise in the US Midwest along with his father, and passed it on to his sons in the 1990s. He was worth an estimated $5 billion (£3.8bn) at the time of his death in 2011.

Meijer left behind an important lesson: only spend big on the things that matter. Whenever he travelled for business, he would only fly economy class and stay in budget hotels. He would also only drive modest cars. In fact, the only time he would part with large sums of money was when he was donating to the community, according to Forbes. 

John Caudwell made the bulk of his money by founding UK phone retailer Phones 4u. He received £1.4 billion in 2006 when he sold the company, and today he boasts a net worth of $3.1 billion (£2.4bn). 

Caudwell recognises that spending money extravagantly won't boost your sense of self-worth. Explaining why he bought his clothes from chain stores, he told Forbes: “I don’t need Savile Row suits. I don’t need to spend money to bolster my own esteem.” 

Forbes once called Chuck Feeney the “billionaire who wants to go broke”. That's not because he's been frivolous with his cash; the philanthropist has actually given pretty much all of it away to good causes. As the founder of Duty Free Shoppers explains: “I set out to work hard, not get rich.”

Forbes says that Feeney has always been loath to spend cash if he didn't have to, a classic trait of frugal living. He uses public transport, flies economy, and buys his clothes from chain stores, stating “you can only wear one pair of shoes at a time”. He also made his children take summer jobs to learn the value of money.

Jack Ma became something of a celebrity in China, after his online retailer Alibaba set a record as the world's biggest public stock offering when it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.

Yet despite being worth $25.6 billion (£19.6bn), Ma's spending habits remained largely unchanged. Speaking to USA Today, Ma's friend Chen said the entrepreneur still enjoys quiet meditation in the mountains and playing poker with friends. “Ma Yun's lifestyle is very simple and modest,” he said. “His hobbies are still tai chi and kung fu novels. I don't think he has changed much, he is still that old style.”

While the Waltons are the richest family in America, the heirs to the Walmart empire are careful with their cash and refrain from flaunting their multibillion-dollar fortune. Jim Walton, the youngest son of company co-founder Sam Walton, is a prime example.

Despite a net worth of $69.6 billion (£51.3bn), the retail heir keeps costs down by running the family's wealth management company from an unpretentious office in a nondescript building in Bentonville, Arkansas, and driving a sensible budget car.

Charlie Ergen has a more interesting back story than most business moguls. As Forbes tells it, he became a professional gambler after college, but allegedly got thrown out of a Las Vegas casino for counting cards. From there, Ergen began selling satellite dishes from the back of his truck, and from such humble beginnings went on to co-found the multibillion-dollar Dish Network. Today he is worth $9 billion (£6.8 billion).

Despite such a hefty bank balance, Ergen is well-known for his frugal ways. Rather than wasting money buying lunch, he brings in a sandwich from home. According to an India Times report, he also cuts costs by sharing hotel rooms with his colleagues during business trips – though what his colleagues think of this isn't reported.

Chairman of a major shopping mall chain and property developer in the Philippines, retail entrepreneur-turned-politician Manuel Villar is one of the country's wealthiest people with a net worth of $8.7 billion (£6.6bn). The rags-to-riches billionaire, who was brought up in a super-thrifty household, lived a very humble lifestyle during the early stages of his career to fund his business dream.

Villar channelled as much money as possible into his companies to make them a success. “If you’re an entrepreneur, you never have any money... because you put it all in your businesses,” he hold the Inquirer in 2015. “Even my personal cash ended up being invested because I couldn’t pass up the opportunities. We ended up eating at McDonald’s.”

Along with his family, Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim is worth $89.9 billion (£68.7bn) but this huge fortune hasn't stopped him from pinching the pennies. Always prepared to negotiate, Slim is all about getting the lowest price possible for anything he purchases, no matter how small or insignificant.

By way of example, during a vacation in Venice, Slim reportedly spent hours haggling with the owner of a fairly run-of-the-mill boutique in an attempt to get the price down on a silk tie by just 10%. The man clearly drives a very hard bargain and does not back down.

The late corporate raider and financier T. Boone Pickens had hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank for a reason. The Texas-based tycoon was especially prudent with his money. For instance, he saved cash by buying business clothing only once every five years.

On the rare occasions that Pickens hit the stores, he put together a list of what he needed beforehand, left the credit cards at home, and only brought enough cash with him to pay for the items on the list.

Boasting a multimillion dollar car collection, former The Tonight Show host Jay Leno is far from frugal. However, there are still valuable financial lessons to be learned from the star...

Leno says that he has never touched any of his salary from The Tonight Show – an impressive feat considering he was earning an estimated $30 million (£22.9m) annual salary in his prime. In fact, he's always tired to have two sources of income: one for spending and one for saving. 

The world's wealthiest person reportedly believes that possessions weigh you down. In a tweet from May 2020, Elon Musk wrote: “I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.”

The Tesla CEO followed through with his bold statement, selling seven of his properties. He's said that he now rents a 400-square-foot (37-square-metre) house from his second company Space X in Boca Chica, Texas – although journalists at the Wall Street Journal has claimed he's actually been living at an 8,000-square-foot (743-square-metre) mansion belonging to the PayPal co-founder Ken Howery. Musk has denied the claims. Earlier this year, his partner Grimes attracted further criticism for saying: "[Musk] does not live like a billionaire. Bro lives at times below the poverty line."

The late multimillionaire investor John Bogle wasn't frivolous with his cash or overly extravagant when it came to his living arrangements. The founder of the $4.5 billion (£3.4bn) Vanguard Group downsized his property to save money once his children had left the nest.

“My wife and I downsized our home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, as we got older,” he said in an interview with Reuters in 2012. “We moved into a place that's about a third smaller and with much less property. I didn't take out a mortgage for it because at this point I don't have to borrow money, and I don't like to.” 

Now meet the rich and famous people who refuse to spoil their kids