“He who is contented is rich.”
—Lao Tzu
One of the beautiful things about minimalism is that there are many ways to simplify your life, but none of them requires more money. In fact, minimalism will help you rethink your entire approach to money.
Take a moment to think about your financial life. Do you feel in control of your spending habits? Are you living well below your means, or do you always hit a cash crunch at the end of the month? Are you often asking yourself, where did all my money go? Take heart in knowing that these are common struggles for most people, even those with well-paying jobs.
The minimalist secret to money is just that: you already earn enough. You can be in control of your finances, have enough money to pay your bills, save for your future, and still have funds leftover for things that bring value into your life. And you won’t need to get a second job or sustain yourself on Ramen noodles alone to get there.
Minimalist money strategies are simple and effective, and can help you save more, work less, and invest in things that bring real value to your life. Once you’ve spent a few hours clearing out your home and donating things that you worked and paid for but rarely or never used, it’s easy to see that buying more isn’t a path to happiness. When you’ve reflected on your day and realized the highlight was watching the sunrise as you walked the dog before work (not the overpriced lunch out with colleagues), it’s easy to see all the great things in your life that are free. This shift from looking outward for material happiness to looking inward for true contentment comes from making small changes to reduce the clutter and busy-ness in your life. This change of pace sheds light on what truly matters to you and what is worthy of your time, energy, and savings.
In this next section, we’ll look at ways to reframe how we use money for contentment and how you can live happily within your means using the minimalist approach to money. Keep an open mind about these methods and strategies as you streamline your life and home. Some of these ideas may initially seem radical or far-flung or just plain impossible in your current life. However, a little further into your minimalist journey, when your home is free of clutter and you have more than enough time for all the people and activities you enjoy, you may want to revisit this section for ways to trim your spending and financial obligations. The lure and joy of being able to Do Less quickly becomes a motivator for slashing bills and reducing your cost of living.
We each have our own unique money mindsets based on how we were raised and our history with money. We may have grand aspirations for wealth, or concrete retirement plans, or we might put a high value on having so-called disposable income. It might seem that minimalism can’t possibly fit into all of these competing ideas and goals, but it can. We can all use minimalism to complement and help us reach our financial goals.
The first step to a minimalist money mindset is simply opening your mind to reshaping how you meet your goals. You need to get comfortable with being a bit uncomfortable and blow up some of your assumptions about how you have to spend your money. Just as you gave yourself some new eyes to reimagine what your home would look like without all that stuff, you’ll now reimagine what your finances would look like if you had fewer obligations and more room for those goals and dreams.
Look closely at what you spend your money on. What is a need and what is a want? Beyond shelter, food, basic clothing, and medicine, everything else is usually a want. Yes, a haircut, going to the movies, that expensive blender that you just had to have to make smoothies—all wants. Some days it may feel like you really need that bigger television, but it is still firmly in the want category, along with five-dollar lattes and all-inclusive vacations.
Minimalism takes this line of questioning one step further to re-examine whether your needs truly are needs. For example, is your home in the need or want category? Could you live in something smaller, in a less expensive area? Could you move closer to work and reduce your commute and vehicle costs? If you moved into something smaller closer to your job, could you:
As you can see, even within your “need” to have a house, there is a lot of leeway to live well on less. Moving is a big commitment, but it can bring quick and dramatic change to those who are short on time and money.
The smaller wants in your life are usually masquerading as needs—expensive cell phones, new cars, and weekly Saturday night babysitters for dinners with friends. Tally up what your wants amount to for a month. Count everything that you don’t truly need, including home Internet service, the lawn mowing service, and the monthly grooming service for your dog. It can be astounding to see how the small extras—the upgrades, the things we often think of as being needs rather than wants—eat up your dollars.
There will still be room in your minimalist life for luxuries and comforts.
Now, if you’re frightened about letting it all go—if you’re scared that minimalism will mean a hard bed, gruel for dinner, and no heat in the winter—relax. There will still be room in your minimalist life for luxuries and comforts. The difference is that you will be thoughtful about these luxuries and comforts and they’ll align with your value spending (more on that next).
The big upside to this approach: you’ll enjoy those small luxuries more because you conscientiously decided to keep them in your life. You’ll also enjoy your small luxuries more when you have them less frequently. Takeout pizza tastes best when you haven’t had it in a few months, and the ease of taking a taxi somewhere is so much more enjoyable when you make the effort to walk or take the bus daily. By buying everyday luxuries less frequently, you’ll save money and make those small treats you once took for granted feel like large extravagances.
Beyond simple shelter and food, we spend our money on what we value—hence the term “value spending.” For some, that value is living in a large home in the suburbs, for others it’s a sleek condo in the city, and for others it might be somewhere in between the two. Whereas one person may value the best cell phone or driving a newer car, another may put value on her education with evening courses and weekend retreats. No person’s choice is better than another’s.
The key to understanding the root of value spending is this: you have a choice with how you spend your money. Yes, each time you open your wallet, it’s a choice. What you value in life should be what you spend money on. Do you make thoughtful, planned decisions, or do you buy first and think later?
That doesn’t mean the choices are easy, though. The size and location of your home, the type of car you drive, and your cell phone plan—these are big decisions, and in most cases, the minimalist approach is not the popular one. Yet, you can:
Making minimalist decisions can simplify your life and free up money that you could put toward things you value more: saving, travel, education, fitness, charity, and most of all, more time. Consider that by choosing the more expensive option in each of these cases, you’re also choosing to:
Minimalist value-spending choices can be a challenge for many newcomers to the lifestyle. Take it slow, and start by prioritizing what you value in your life.
What do you value? List the top three things. It could be family, work success, your health, friendship, or creativity. How does your spending align with those values?
If you’re not sure how much of your money is going to each category, make a quick tally of what you spend each month and what percentage of that spending is on the things you value most.
As you reflect on how your spending aligns with what you value, you may find that your values are nowhere to be seen. For example:
This is not a time to feel regret or guilt. The conflict and misalignment between what you want and what you actually do is a challenge many people today face. Often you let yourself be pushed into spending money on things that your peers value or that you think you should value, instead of what truly speaks to you and your own wants and needs. This is, sadly, not that unusual. As you just saw when you uncluttered each room of your house in the Home section, it’s very easy to buy, or in this case buy into, things you never needed or really wanted.
The exciting news is that you don’t have to continue spending your money on things you don’t really want. In these next sections, you’ll create a plan to change your spending so you can Do Less and Live More.
One of the reasons our spending becomes so out of line with our values is that we think we need and want what those around us have. We should want a bigger home, a renovated kitchen, and an SUV that guzzles gas. We should be eating at restaurants as much as our friends do. We should be wearing the latest trends and fashions all the time. We should want and have everything we see our peers buying and doing.
The truth is, having everything has never made anyone happy. But if you’ve fallen into that trap, you’re not alone. Many of us have sought out a promotion or new car, a new neighborhood, or even an elaborate wedding, with the idea that this one thing, a life milestone or massive purchase, will make us happy. But did it? The expense and stress involved with a wedding often brings unhappiness. The real contentment from a marriage doesn’t come from a lavish wedding dress or an open bar, but from small moments and work that you put in daily over many years. If you’re not happy with your life before you spend a lot of money on your dream kitchen with the subway tiles and granite countertops, you probably won’t be happy after.
It sounds cliché, but spending money and buying things doesn’t bring happiness. But having what you want—what you truly need for wellness and the time and focus to do things that really matter to you—that is a recipe for a contented life. Dismiss the idea that the conventional benchmarks of success—big house, new car, lavish vacations—are markers of happiness. In the minimalist life, you can make your own benchmarks for success, and they can be anything from sleeping in until noon every Saturday because you no longer have a lawn to mow to taking a month of unpaid leave from your job so that you can volunteer overseas. The possibilities for finding what truly brings contentment to your life are unlimited.
In the minimalist life, you can make your own benchmarks for success.
When you let go of keeping up with the Joneses, you’ll find the resources to actually have the things you really want. The minimalist life means charting your own path to happiness. It’s a path that dismisses the frequent affordable luxuries so many of us think are necessities for bigger luxuries like time and financial freedom. As you pare down possessions and commitments to achieve these big luxuries, you’ll start to see that the Joneses don’t have it all. The Joneses have trapped themselves in a cycle of wanting more and spending more and none of it will ever be enough. More monthly payments will eat up the raise, and the bonus will go to keeping creditors at bay. In comparison, your raise or bonus or small windfall will be found money that you can spend or not spend as you please. That is the kind of flexible and easy freedom that comes from a minimalist life.
An easy way to forget about the Joneses? Stop comparing. Accept that all of us have different needs and wants. Yours won’t be the same as your friends’ and that’s okay. The goal is not to live like everyone else but to know what brings value and joy to your life. Have the courage to fill your life with those people, hobbies, and activities, instead of the things those around you choose.
It’s all too easy to buy things today. Cheap clothing, everyday luxuries bought at the cosmetics counter, and inexpensive housewares at dollar stores make it easy to fritter away your money. All this cheap and easy stuff has made delayed gratification obsolete. Why bother waiting patiently and saving to buy that well-made wool coat that will last a decade when today you can buy the cheap synthetic knockoff that will last one season? We’ve lost the art of delayed gratification and our lives and homes are the worse for it.
Delayed gratification makes you value what you have more. Those impulse purchases are more likely to be lost or carelessly broken because you didn’t work hard for them in the first place. But that new laptop that you saved for a year before buying? That laptop is treated with kid gloves and routinely cleaned and serviced so that it will last a long, long time. Not only do we treat the things we work hard for better, but we also enjoy them more. Dessert on a day when you played tennis for two hours is more satisfying than stuffing your face with chocolate at the movies when you haven’t worked out all week. You value and enjoy what you work hard for, more than what you carelessly buy and consume.
Waiting for something makes you savor it more. When you wait all week to finally watch the season finale of your favorite television show, you enjoy it more than watching it while multitasking through household chores you can’t put off. This works for the small and the big. Make a game of it. Challenge yourself to pack your lunch all week and put the money you save into an account marked for something special. When you finally hit your savings goal, you’ll get more value from the purchase than what it actually cost. The work you put into waiting and building anticipation for the end result actually increases the enjoyment and value of it.
What if there was infinite money in your bank account? What if you never had to worry about a bill or mortgage payment or baseball fees or what that new furnace is going to cost? One trick to changing your mindset about money is to practice abundance. It sounds counterintuitive, but it doesn’t mean spending every penny you have or pretending your annual salary has doubled. Instead, practicing abundance means freeing yourself of worries of scarcity. Here are three ways to practice abundance:
When you practice abundance, you not only create more calm and less stress in your life, but you also practice the law of attraction. If you want good things to happen in your life, start by doing good things for others. If you think and act as if there is an abundance in this world, there will be.
Being in control of your finances and spending doesn’t need to be overly complicated or time-consuming. The goal with minimalism is to have to Do Less, not more. Complicated money-management systems often create more work and stress. The intention with minimalist money tools is to give you a clear picture of your spending and help you achieve your goals. Those goals could be spending less on transportation and more on health or reducing your monthly fixed costs so you can work less. You make the goals and then use these tools to help achieve them.
Budgeting can be fun. Really, it can. Whether you’re a big earner or make an average wage, budgeting will allow you more freedom with your finances and help you meet your goals. It doesn’t have to be complicated or boring. A lot of people feel budgets are meant to limit spending and that budgeting is really just another word for deprivation and saying no a lot. On the contrary, budgets can actually help you say yes more and also help you see that you are richer than you think.
So let go of your preconceived notions about budgets and also let go of any failed budgeting attempts you’ve made in the past. This time will be different. This time, you’ll start with the minimalist approach: You already have all, and more, than you need.
Now that you’ve let go of keeping up with the Joneses and made note of how you spend money on your needs and wants, it’s time to go minimalist with your bills. This is where the fun starts and where you start creating room in your budget for things like working less, saving more, and spending on things that actually bring value into your life.
The goal with a minimalist approach to finances is simplicity and awareness. You want to have a good understanding of where your money is going and not feel burdened by dozens of bills that are hard to keep track of and that hinder your cash flow. Ideally, you want to pay bills automatically each month, so you merely need to check your accounts online periodically to see that everything is running smoothly. If you find it hard to track what’s coming in and what’s going out of your bank account each month, or if you are overwhelmed by the sheer number of bills, it’s a sign that your finances need a facelift. Re-evaluate everything beyond rent, utilities, and basic transportation.
Start by making a quick list of discretionary and nondiscretionary bills. Nondiscretionary bills are things like mortgage or rent, and home, life, and health insurance. As you tally your discretionary bills, make a note of which bills could be renegotiated or possibly reduced. Could you renegotiate your mortgage and knock $50 a month off of it? What about your life insurance or home insurance? Call the agents and review what your policy covers, if it’s still appropriate for your life situation, and if they can offer you a better rate. Often one phone call can result in a few hundred dollars of savings each year.
Look at your nondiscretionary bills with an open mind. What are you really and truly using on a daily basis? Everything should be on the table for elimination or reduction. Do you really need the most comprehensive cell phone package? Do you read the newspaper daily or does it just fill up the recycling bin? If you do read the paper, could you read one at the office for free on your lunch break and switch to just receiving the weekend paper? If you have an expensive cable television package and a digital video recorder, think about how often you use them. Could a Netflix subscription and streaming television shows online save you $100 a month? Be open to experimenting with cutting services. Get over the fear that these changes have to be permanent. They don’t. If you cut your cable package and then decide a few months later that you want it back, the provider will often offer you an incentive rate to get you to sign up again. Experiment with downsizing in different areas to find the extras and services that are easiest for you to part with.
Get over the fear that these changes have to be permanent. They don’t.
If you’re in debt, one of the most disheartening and challenging results from this exercise will be seeing how much you are paying each month in interest or mortgage points. You’ll find more debt-reduction strategies in the rest of this book, but for now, look at ways to reduce your discretionary bills so you can put that extra money into your loans or credit card balances. Even a few small cuts to your “want” bills can free up money that will help accelerate debt repayment. For bigger wins on the debt-repayment front, look at larger expenses like rent and transportation and see if there is a way to live somewhere smaller and closer to work. Housing and transportation costs are two expenses we often think of as being fixed costs, and we often miss out on hundreds of dollars a month in savings because of that. Consider some short-term options like moving in with friends or selling your car and commuting by bike to makes big gains on paying off debt.
Reverse budgeting is so simple that there’s no excuse not to try it. Here’s the gist: When income comes in, set aside an amount for savings, perhaps having an automatic transfer of 10 percent of your income into another account, and the rest is yours to live off of until the next paycheck. That’s it. When nondiscretionary bills like rent or your mortgage or medical insurance premium have been paid, the remaining money is yours to spend as you see fit. No categories, no tracking, and no complicated formula.
The beauty of this system is that it is simple and allows for flexibility. If you know you have a large expense coming up later in the month, live simply for a few weeks, inviting friends over for a movie night rather than joining them for a meal out. Delay any other large purchases. As you get closer to your next paycheck arriving, monitor your spending more frequently. Some weeks you may need to rustle up a few dinners from the staples in your pantry and freezer and other weeks you may have your paycheck come in with room to spare in your account. The goal is to learn how to say no when you need to and to keep an eye on your checking account balance. Some months you might have to pass on an event because you need new sneakers, but instead of feeling deprived, you feel at peace. You’re living within your means and you now know that you don’t need everything to be happy. And that knowledge is worth more than money.
Paying with cash is the other cornerstone of a minimalist and easy budget system. Credit cards are often the gateway to overspending and mismanaging finances. Paying with cash is powerful and it’s the easiest way to know what’s left in your checking account. When you buy something with cash, you are instantly more aware of not only how much it will impact your bank balance but if the purchase is truly worth it. If you only have $400 left until payday and your cell phone bill still has to be paid, do you really have the cash to go on a road trip for the weekend? Credit cards allow you to conveniently forget the impact that buying something has on your bottom line. Using cash and cash only is an easy introduction to simple budgeting.
In a minimalist life, you use just what you have. Cash is what you have. Credit belongs to someone else: the bank. Using a credit card complicates finances and can lead to spending more than you intend to. Parting with $70 in cash at the gas station can be a good reminder to batch your errands and drive less. It can even be motivation to ride-share, walk more, and consider moving closer to work. But handing over a piece of plastic at the pump doesn’t have that same impact. It’s too easy to forget that you put a purchase on a credit card and suddenly that healthy balance in your checking account is actually in the negative.
Here is a simple spending plan for someone wanting to use a reverse budget.
Breakdown of expenses:
Reverse budgeting allows you greater flexibility than a budget that relies on categories or envelopes; it is also the simplest way to manage your money. When it’s gone, it’s gone, and when you have something left, you can choose where you’d like that money to go. Roll it over into next month’s budget or send it to your savings account—it’s your choice.
If you’re in debt, there is no better time than today, this very second, to start getting out of it. This book is full of ways to live simply and save money—use as many of them as you can. If you are in debt and it’s holding you back from doing things you want, such as continuing your education, saving, or being able to work less, you have extra motivation to embrace these techniques. This section offers some practical and some radical ideas for getting out of debt and saving money.
One way to reduce your spending and avoid adding more debt and clutter is to wait thirty days before buying something. If you think you need a serving platter or a new swimsuit, promise yourself you’ll buy it in thirty days if you think you still need it. Often, waiting on a purchase and living without it makes you realize either you already had something that did the job or you didn’t really need the thing in the first place. We rarely get to hit the pause button in life, to take some time to think over our actions before we make them, and so we sometimes need to create these pauses artificially. That’s what the thirty-day wait is: a pause to collect your thoughts instead of buying on impulse or without good intentions.
Often, waiting on a purchase and living without it makes you realize either you already had something that did the job or you didn’t really need the thing in the first place.
Waiting thirty days to purchase something is also a great way to practice delayed gratification. Everything in life is so instant now; no one has to wait for information or entertainment. If a shop is out of your size jeans, you can simply order them online with next-day delivery. Waiting is challenging for a lot of us because we aren’t used to it. We can buy almost anything with a few clicks and a credit card today. As you turn your focus away from buying and consuming, you’ll find it easier to wait for things and see that you need less than you once thought you did.
To put this into action, create a thirty-day buy list. You can use a notebook, a chalkboard, a list on your computer or smartphone, or a virtual pin board on something like Pinterest.com. When you think you need to buy something—anything that’s not consumable or an emergency—put it on your list. Set a reminder on a calendar to check your list in thirty days. If, after thirty days, you still want the item and know it will be useful for you and fits in your budget, buy it. If, however, you realize you’ve been living well without that article of clothing/gadget/throw pillow, strike it from the list.
Stores are organized and arranged to make us buy more than we intend to. The end-of-the-aisle display features a “loss leader” item, something the store is selling at a drastically reduced priced to get you to buy even more. A great deal is hard to resist! You may have come in to pick up just one item, but you end up leaving with a dozen. Stores can be a trap and undo the best intentions for sticking to a budget and just buying what you need.
In the Home section, you carefully went through each room and removed anything you weren’t using or no longer needed. Think back to all those items you donated or sold. Did you buy them intentionally or were they purchased on a whim? Were you in a store looking for a gift for someone else when you decided to buy a little something for yourself too? Often the clutter we accumulate comes not from our planned purchases but from the unplanned ones. It’s that stop at a craft store when you’re killing time before meeting a friend for lunch or going to an electronics store to get a new battery for your laptop and leaving with a few DVDs and a universal overseas charger and adaptor too. Clutter and the unplanned purchase go hand in hand.
One strategy for sticking to a budget and buying just what you need: shop with a list. It’s a simple way to keep focused while shopping and turn a blind eye to sale items or attractively displayed merchandise. Make a habit of only entering a store with a list in hand and your sale blinders on. Do not let the panic or fear that you are missing out on a good deal sway you into buying more than you intended. Sales come again, things can be bought secondhand for a better price, and losing out on one deal that could save you $5 is not worth layers and layers of clutter in your home and hundreds or thousands of dollars in wasted money. The good habit of shopping with a list will save you far more than any sale ever will.
To put this technique into action, consider where you write your shopping list. The back of an opened envelope, your day planner, or a note on your smartphone are all good spots for lists that will help you stay organized and focused. Pick the one that is easiest and make a habit of shopping with a list. Don’t be concerned if you start off writing your grocery list sitting in your car parked outside the grocery store. It is always worth it to take a few minutes before entering a store to collect your thoughts and plan your shopping.
Clutter and the unplanned purchase go hand in hand.
Even better than writing a list before you enter a store: don’t go in the store. There are times when we need to browse to find an item—to see what is available and make a choice—but often, we go into a store for no other purpose than to see what they have without any idea of what we actually need. We’re shopping not to find something we know we need, but to actually find the need. The idea of upgrading your cell phone or buying a soap dispenser didn’t cross your mind until you saw the item in a store you were browsing. Suddenly that thing you didn’t even know existed becomes something you must have.
The solution to all this false need is avoiding stores. This goes for brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping. If you don’t have something on a list, preferably a consumable or something you’ve waited thirty days to buy, don’t enter a store. Not going into a store is one of the easiest actions you can take to reduce clutter and save money. It’s also a great way to save your time for more worthwhile pursuits such as sleep, making a good meal, or finding a spare hour to spend on yourself.
If shopping is a pastime for you or your friends, staying out of the stores will be a challenge. Start with finding other ways, preferably free, to socialize and bond. Instead of walking the mall, take a walk on a nature trail. Find new hobbies that don’t center on buying things. Shopping shouldn’t be a hobby! Hobbies should challenge you, like running, or relax you, like knitting. Your life will be richer, your bank account healthier, and your home less cluttered and easier to maintain when you stop shopping as a hobby.
Sometimes it feels like all we ever do is open our wallets. Lunch, coffee, gas, $10 for a colleague’s baby shower gift, and even feeding a parking meter all mean you’re buying something. Wouldn’t it be nice to spend a day without using your wallet at all? That’s just what a no-spend day is. One day a week, decide you won’t buy anything. Take your lunch to work and have your day planned out so that you could theoretically leave your wallet at home. Plan your shopping for an alternate day and book any social engagements or entertainment for a different night. If you have a daily purchase that you usually make with cash, such as bus fare, purchase a ticket the day prior.
The goal of a no-spend day is to get in the habit of living without spending. Too often, we think we need to spend money to have fun or to socialize. Our days are peppered with things that cost money but truly aren’t necessities. The no-spend day gives you a fresh perspective on how to live with less stuff and on less money. When you’re not constantly reaching for your wallet, you learn how to:
It’s a good way to spend less and learn how to enjoy your life more.
Unless you’re living in a remote area with no Internet access, the chance to spend every day is almost unlimited. A morning coffee, an online order for running gear, lunch at the local sandwich shop, library fines, a half dozen items at the corner store when you just went in for milk, and a new mixing bowl set after you saw a sale sign in a kitchen shop window could be a normal day’s purchases for most people. We open our wallets far too often and at the slightest provocation.
The minimalist life is one of financial simplicity, and part of that simplicity lies in spending with intention. For example: maybe you shop once a week because that is what works for your lifestyle. You make a point of not going to the grocery store in between those planned trips. At the end of the week, you might be having your coffee black and your breakfast is last night’s leftovers on a piece of toast, but that isn’t a hardship. You are simply using things up, limiting waste, and sticking to a once-a-week shopping routine that saves you time and money. That’s just one way to spend with intention. Another way is to leave your wallet at home when you don’t plan on buying anything. Having to go home and get your wallet quenches the need to buy something.
The minimalist life is one of financial simplicity, and part of that simplicity lies in spending with intention.
Be intentional about when and how you spend money. Remind yourself that you have a choice. Making this small habit of not spending one day of the week will help you be more mindful of all the other times you open your wallet.
Debt complicates your life. Debt makes your life more challenging and it prevents you from doing the things you want to do: changing careers, working less, or taking that dream vacation. If you have any debts beyond a mortgage, work quickly and methodically to pay them off. Debt holds you back, and the goal of adopting a more minimalist life is to move forward.
First, let go of your guilt about bad financial decisions and money you’ve wasted in the past. If you followed the guide to decluttering your home in the earlier section of this book, you probably got rid of a lot of things that you paid good money for. You may have even donated things that you are still paying for or sold them for a fraction of the original price. When you have a moment of sadness or guilt about your financial past, remember this: The money is already gone. The one positive thing you can do now is to start spending and saving wisely.
One trick to getting out of debt without being miserable is to know what your rice and beans are. This means, if you can live off repetitive and inexpensive meals and it won’t make you greatly unhappy, do it. If, however, you know that cutting your grocery budget will make you miserable, that a ham sandwich and an apple for lunch seven days a week might make you lose your will to live, find another area of your life that you can painlessly trim. That may mean walking to work instead of taking the bus or switching to a no-data cell phone or moving back in with your parents for a year. Find that cost-cutting measure that, though not easy, won’t make you feel so deprived and unhappy that you’ll start increasing your spending in other areas to compensate.
Keep a few small luxuries. It could be your Friday lunch out with coworkers or your yoga classes. Actually call them luxuries so that you remember they aren’t necessities. Keep them on a list in your wallet and look at them when you’re feeling like you want to spend money.
Be bold in your debt-reduction plans. This could mean moving, selling your car, or getting an extra job for a little while. Some short-term discomfort is well worth the long-term freedom of being debt-free. You can also take a look at your discretionary and nondiscretionary bills again and review what you can really live without. Don’t think too far ahead on some of your get-out-of-debt plans. It’s true, you might want to rejoin that gym at some point or have a landline phone again, but right now, saving that extra money each month to pay down your debt is worth it.
Find a confidant to keep you honest and motivated when it gets tough. This could be a friend, a sibling, your spouse, or even virtual friends. Join an online forum for personal finance or start a blog to track and write about your debt-reduction plans. Paying off debt is a marathon, not a sprint, and it helps to have a support network when you feel your resolve slipping or you need more ideas for cutting costs.
Sometimes it is hard to see all the fun that can be had without spending a dime. As you scale back your spending, make a list of the no-cost fun in your life. Books from the library, hosting a potluck dinner, pick-up basketball at the local courts, and a long bath are all mostly free activities. Keep adding to your list as you remember more things that you enjoy that don’t require money. When you’re tempted to hit the movies for the latest blockbuster and jumbo popcorn, ask a friend over for a movie night. If your friends are all spenders and in a habit of buying expensive concert tickets or do a lot of casual dining out, try to gently steer them into more wallet-friendly fun.
Here’s a statistic that will shock you: Renters are actually happier than homeowners. A study published in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School showed that homeowners are no happier than renters in life satisfaction, overall mood, and overall feeling and actually derive more pain from their homes. Another interesting comparison between homeowners and renters: the owners were on average twelve pounds heavier than the renters. Perhaps this increase in weight is because owners also had less active leisure time than the renters. So renting could actually be better for your health.
Friends and the bank may try to convince you owning a home is a necessity, but it certainly isn’t a requirement for a happy life. The dream of home ownership isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The renter simply makes a call when the stove breaks or the sink backs up; the homeowner deals with the stress and cost of repairs. Many of us stretch our finances as far as the bank allows so we can buy a home. The burden of a large mortgage, constant repairs, and nonstop responsibility affects your quality of life. Owning a home might not be the right path for you if you want flexibility in your work, if you want to change careers, if you work in a fulfilling but not well-paying job, or if you simply want weekends free to go rock climbing. Not everyone needs to own a home.
A minimalist approach means not only buying less but spending less too. A great way to spend less is to buy secondhand. There are a few things you would never purchase secondhand, of course, but most things in a home can be easily sourced lightly used for a fraction of what they originally cost. Secondhand is for the savvy shopper, the wannabe minimalist, the environmentally conscious, anyone getting out of debt, and anyone who wants to save his money for things that bring more value into his life.
If you’re new to buying secondhand, start slowly, getting to know where you can buy good-condition preowned clothing and goods for a fraction of their retail price. eBay.com is a wonderful resource for buying secondhand and allows you to quickly and efficiently search for exactly what you need. Get familiar with local buy-and-sell websites and boards. Thrift stores are also great for secondhand items but require an eye for value, patience, and focus. Plus, it’s easy to get distracted by all the interesting junk in thrift stores and forget about what you originally came in to look for! If you’ve struggled to rein in your casual shopping habits, thrift stores may not be for you.
It takes more time to buy secondhand and you’ll need to be patient if there is something you specifically need. Instead of hitting refresh on the local buy-and-sell online forum, make an appointment with yourself to just check once a week for that desk/lamp/bike. Just like your Thirty-Day Buy List, this barrier to spending can actually help you see that you either don’t need the item or could get by with something smaller or less expensive.
Yes, you can be rich without a lot of money. Sure, we all need some income, but there are riches to be had beyond your stock portfolio. A key tenet to minimalism is to maximize what you do have for the greatest effect. If you have your health, great friends, and burning creative aspirations, use them as your barometer of wealth instead of money.
Every great evening laughing with your closest friends is money in the coffers of a rich life. Every leisurely walk you take with your dog or a friend or on your own, enjoying nature, shows you your wealth of time and health. Every hour spent on work you find value in, be it a creative outlet like sewing, a fulfilling hobby like auto repair, or your job, fills the coffers of a life well lived. You can feel wealthy no matter what your income bracket is.
A key tenet to minimalism is to maximize what you do have for the greatest effect.