r/personalfinance vs r/Frugal

Side-by-side using public descriptions, members, growth and rule titles from SubMouse. Missing fields show as n/a. Adult communities are excluded.

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Money systems vs spending mindset

r/personalfinance’s public description points at budgeting, saving, debt, credit, investing and retirement planning—system-level personal finance. r/Frugal’s description frames frugality as a mindset about allocating time, money and convenience, not only pinching pennies.

Directory size favours personalfinance (about 22M members, directory rank #32) over Frugal (about 6.9M, directory rank #113). Activity samples diverge too: personalfinance shows a high text-heavy posts-per-day rate with some links; Frugal’s collected sample is much quieter on a posts-per-day basis, with a mix of text and some images/galleries.

Collected short rule titles reinforce the lanes. personalfinance includes titles on submission guidelines, self-promotional advertising or soliciting, asking for handouts or transactions, and politicizing. Frugal includes “No low effort, off-topic, or overly specific content,” bans on affiliate/referral links and solicitation, and limits on fraud/illegal discussion. Go to personalfinance for plan-level money questions; go to Frugal for waste-less living tactics—without treating either as professional advice.

personalfinance: planning, credit, investing, debt payoff frameworks.
Frugal: everyday resourcefulness and spending discipline (collected title covers low-effort/off-topic posts).
Neither replaces a licensed adviser. personalfinance has a full SubMouse community page; Frugal is listed but outside the current Top list.

Written comparison based on public descriptions and rule titles · updated 2026-11-06.

r/personalfinance

Personal Finance

Learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances!

Members: 21.9M
7-day growth: +5.2K
Posts/day: 141.6
Directory rank: #32
Created: Feb 9, 2009
Submissions: Text posts

Sample mix: text posts 91%, links 9%

Topics: Personal Finance

Rule titles (short names we collected)

Submission guidelines
Self-promotional advertising or soliciting
Unhelpful or disrespectful
Asking for handouts or transactions
Legal or business discussion
Politicizing
Lawbreaking information
Personal attack or abusive language
Personal advice discussion
Other bad behavior

Open r/personalfinance on SubMouse

r/Frugal

Frugal Living: Waste Less, Gain More!

Frugality is the mental approach we each take when considering our resource allocations. It includes time, money, convenience, and many other factors.

Members: 6.9M
7-day growth: +2.9K
Posts/day: 10.7
Directory rank: #113
Created: Mar 3, 2008
Submissions: Text or links

Sample mix: text posts 77%, images 16%, galleries 8%

Topics: Frugal Living

Rule titles (short names we collected)

Be civil and respectful.
No low effort, off-topic, or overly specific content.
No affiliate or referral links.
No self-promotion, solicitation, or surveys.
No commercial links or product requests.
No promotion or discussion of fraud, theft, piracy, ULPTs, harassment, or illegal activity.
Posts should be sufficiently descriptive. Follow up image/link posts with a caption or comment.
Reserve hauls and finds for the megathread or Frugal Finds Friday.
No dangerous content or medical advice.
No requests for material aid or financial assistance.
No Gatekeeping.
No lost money, beer money, stocks/investing, or cryptocurrency/NFT money-making schemes.

Open r/Frugal on SubMouse

Supported differences

Aspect	r/personalfinance	r/Frugal
Public focus (from each community’s public description)	Learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances!	Frugality is the mental approach we each take when considering our resource allocations. It includes time, money, convenience, and many other factors.
Size r/personalfinance is larger in our directory (about 3.2×).	21.9M members	6.9M members
Posting activity (our sample)	141.6/day	10.7/day
Common post types in our sample	text posts 91%, links 9%	text posts 77%, images 16%, galleries 8%
Allowed submission type (meta)	Text posts	Text or links
Topic tags on SubMouse	Personal Finance	Frugal Living
Selected rule titles (short names we collected)	Submission guidelines; Self-promotional advertising or soliciting; Unhelpful or disrespectful; Asking for handouts or transactions; Legal or business discussion	Be civil and respectful.; No low effort, off-topic, or overly specific content.; No affiliate or referral links.; No self-promotion, solicitation, or surveys.; No commercial links or product requests.

Where this comparison comes from

Public descriptions and member counts from SubMouse’s safe-for-work directory. Short rule titles and activity samples SubMouse collected for both communities. Short titles only.

Members and public descriptions come from SubMouse's safe-for-work directory (as of 2026-11-02 UTC); 7-day growth measured from 2026-10-26. Posts/day and post-type mixes appear when we have an activity sample. Rule lines are short titles, not the full sidebar. Directory rank is listing order — communities outside the current Top 100 open in the info tool instead of a full community page.