moving towards minimalism

I am officially on the bandwagon! Or at least as much as I can be for now. I have been listening to podcasts, watching documentaries and shows on the topics of minimalism and frugality and am going to make a concerted effort to manage my consumption more consciously. This effort has a few different purposes in my mind and I will try to put my spin on why this is the right thing for me, and how I would encourage others to start as well.

I had started to get the sense of being on a hamster wheel in terms of my personal finances, that most of what was coming in was going back out (and without any scrutiny or awareness). In retrospect, there had been times where I purchased things for the temporary high of having that new thing to focus on, or just to be able to flash something new around. But the high is just that; temporary.

I hadn’t monitored my finances closely for quite a while, so I wanted to see what was going where and how much, if anything, was my “discretionary” spending amount. I don’t know how many people actually enjoy writing a budget, but it was actually a great exercise. I downloaded a free template online and tweaked it a bit to my liking. Then, I remembered that I could move into the 21st century, and replicated it in my Mint and Truebill apps. It confirmed some of my suspicions, but also gave me the chance to review a ton of my subscriptions, memberships and spending habits.

In 2020, so far, I had already been working on changing some habits. By doing Dry January, I had already gone out to eat and drink much less. I also worked on decluttering, sold many items that I no longer used and donated a large portion of them as well. It has been great to continue to purge the excess, clean up storage spaces a bit and make a few bucks on top of it all. No matter how much I have gotten rid of, I keep ending up starting a new pile or bag of items that are going to make the next trip out of here!

All of these things have been very complimentary adjustments, and I have been happier with having less around and being more conscious about my consumption. As cliche as it may be, buying things won’t make you happier. But, living that reality can be a lot harder than it would seem. It has felt great to take some strides in trying to distill down to things that are closer to the essentials.

My journey so far followed these few steps:
1. Purge – Go through your things. Many of us are pack rats by nature and just cling onto things for “what if” scenarios. If you haven’t worn/used it in over six months, then what is the likelihood that you “need” it? I have sold a lot of nicer pieces that I was no longer using successfully on Facebook Marketplace, and got a little extra cash from this process. The rest got donated if in good condition and doesn’t seem worth my time to post and manage a transaction. Now is the perfect time to start some Spring cleaning!

2. Plan – Whatever your motivation is, be aware of where your money is going and what you truly NEED. As I mentioned, I love the Truebill and Mint apps. You can assign categories that help you create budgets to all your transactions and you can link it to your financial accounts in order to do so automatically. Great exercise and worth the effort to set up!

3. Be mindful – Once you have a rough budget in place, continue to be conscious of your decisions and choices. Monitor your progress using the apps or your budget and you might even find that you can beat your budget by making conscious decisions instead of being habitual or impulsive. For instance, I have stopped buying new clothes so far for the year and am going to focus on necessity, multipurpose functionality and quality more for these purchases going forward.

Personally, I am trying to move towards saving more and preparation for my future and the lifestyle I ultimately want to live sooner than later, so I am shifting efforts in that way. Probably a pretty comfortable, “fat FIRE” lifestyle (Financial Independence, Retire Early), but still moving in that direction none-the-less. More time and resources for passion projects and causes that I care about is the ultimate goal. I have a long way to go still, but am enjoying the journey so far!

For anyone else considering making similar adjustments, it all depends on your personal goals, but there are likely areas that you can be more aware of your consumption, and resolve to manage it a bit more actively. Tailor your lifestyle and goals to fit the balance that you can commit to and see where it takes you!

I bet you can live without that thing in your Amazon cart.

A few of the tools I am using to shuffle things towards savings and investments are posted on my new referrals page! Check it out!