As I was riding my bike on a rainy Saturday in October, I started thinking about my journey toward simplicity. How I transitioned from consuming thoughtlessly to spending minimally. How daily visits to the store transformed into meals being home made. I thought about how a week without spending brought me a peace that continuous consumption never could.
As the aromas of home cooking fills my studio apartment I think of how this journey began. How a 400 square foot multipurpose space and a wall full of totes landed me here.
Let me tell you about those totes. They were your standard medium sized, lidded, plastic storage containers. They were full of items that I’d collected over multiple moves. Inside were a slurry of items; picture frames, photo alums, costumes, old notebooks, cooking utensils, emergency survival gear, hair care products, photography equipment, Christmas decorations, old books, clothes, shoes, etc. You name it, I probably had it in a tote.
I had so many totes, that at one point I forgot what was in them. Did the green one or the blue one have notebooks and writing tools? What did I put into the gray one? Was it extra blankets, or miscellaneous items. I think those are frames in the light gray one, but those could be albums.
Then there were the brown paper boxes, who new what was in those. Those boxes had been packed years ago. Back when I still lived in the South and had just moved when I moved. There they were, like an invading army of “what they hell is all of this?” My entire adult life, loosely organized in paper and plastic boxes. The totes were so plentiful that when I ran out of space at my place, I had to take the additional ones to a family members house for storage.
For years I stared at that wall of plastic and paper. Occasionally opening one or two to dig out a long forgotten item momentarily remembered. As the years passed, the collection grew. 10 totes became 12, 12 became 14, and the size of the totes increase as well. The more I consumed the more totes I would buy. Until one day, as a wobbly tower of totes began to topple above me. At that moment I decide that I needed to make a change. I concluded that it was my lack of organization not my spending that was the issue. If I wanted to get ride of the totes, I needed to create more space. My brilliant idea; buy shelving! Yes, I was going to add more to my already cramped space. Off to Ikea I went. First I bought a book shelf, then a desk, then a 4 cube stand, then a 8 cube stand. I was going to get organized before the totes killed me.
I pulled the totes out one by one and emptied their content onto the floor. I shredded and threw away old papers, I consolidated like items, I placed everything that could fit on a shelf on one. I organized the shelves so that I could easily see what I had. Heavily used items were placed in the front, infrequently used items were neatly tucked in the back. Items that were seasonal or used for a specific purpose were placed back in a tote. Slowly but surely, I watched the tower of totes dwindle from 14 to 6. While the shelving did help me get organized, I still had the issue of unnecessary spending. At one point I looked around and discovered that I had multiples of multiple items. I had 4 sets of skillets, 4 sets of pots and pans, three knife sets, two printers, three scanners, two hand mixers, 3 sets of measuring cups, 4 sets of plates, 6 cameras of varying types, 30-50 pens and markers, 40 bottles of nail polish, 3 tripods, 2 monopods, 2 vacuums (only one worked) and those were just the items that stuck out.
My far too frequent impulse purchases were beginning to crowd the little space I had created. I would justify the purchases by saying I had a “need” for them. I needed those new pairs of shoes because they would make a cute outfit. I needed those headphone to drown out the sounds of my morning commute, screaming babies, and noisy co-workers. I needed 15 picture frame to hold all the photo’s I was going to eventually print (on one of the two printers) and hang up. I need, I need, I need. When in reality it was, I want, I want, I want. But why did I want them? What purpose were all these purchases serving to a person who was $25,000 in debt, other than to offer fast fading flickers of happiness?
I would stress over paying my debts and then browse Amazon looking for my next cheap thrill. That was until, the joy of the find began to wane. I looked around and asked myself, “what purpose do these items serve?” Why is it that you have developed this habit of consumption? That was a question I did not have an answer to. So, on January 1, 2017, I decided to stop. I decided it was time to get serious about my finances, clear my debt, and move my net worth into the positives. With 40 looming a few short years over the horizon, I could no longer use the excuse of youthful ignorance. If my life was going to be different, it was going to be because I made it so.
2017, the year of no unnecessary spending. Once I commit to a goal, there is almost no stopping me from achieving its and my year of minimal spending would be no different. I bought the items I needed, and very few others. I bought new clothes only when the old ones wore out (i.e the pair of jeans I had to replace when I ripped a whole up the butt), and the dress and shoes I needed for my sisters wedding. I saved 10% of every paycheck and committed to paying off two of my 8 credit cards (I forgot to mention I was spending money I didn’t really have). Given my income, these were monumental feats. Over the year, I realized that most of what we want we really don’t need, and once you break the habit of consuming you stop missing it. By the end of 2017, I had successfully paid off those two cards, and was extremely proud of how far I had come. My emergency fund was growing and I was moving steadily towards net positive. All this on top of having to care for my sick mother at the beginning of the year and my sick father at the end.
Enter 2018, building on the momentum I’d gained for my minimal spending year, I made the commitment to cook 95% of my meal at home and continue saving 10% of each paycheck. I was not sure of how much eating in would save me, but I knew I had a problem with external eating and snacking that needed to be addressed. The snacks were a bit more challenging than the meals to give up. I stayed true to my 95% home cooked meals even while traveling. Others treating me to meals out was ok, as long as I didn’t spend any money. By the end of the year, I had saved over $1000 on food and had managed to pay off another credit card.
With the previous two years having gone so well I was sure I was poised for success in 2019. The year started off strong but quickly got derailed with one very unexpected and expensive occurrence. My car decided to break down, and by break down I mean stopped in the middle of the street smoking. $2500 in repairs later, the car decided it wanted to stay broken. This expense hurt my savings and left me feels pretty down. I had been doing so well. Riding high on my success and then in one day, it all came tumbling down.
In the wake of the car incident, my frivolous spending increased. I started eating out more, stopping at the store for snacks and treats, and buying small items via Amazon. In addition to the massive car expense, I had a weekend where I spent an unexpected $600, and then I had the expense of a sick pet. Buying cleaning supplies for my pets endless accidents, and then her ultimate demise, left me in a state of depression. Cue more spending. I got to the point where I was looking at my monthly register of expenses and seeing hundreds to thousands of dollars gone on random stuff I didn’t remember, which brought me back to the question of why?
Why, that same question I asked myself when I was staring at that wall of totes filled with the unwieldy decisions of my past. I was again filling my life with pointless things, when it was not about the things at all. It was about the feelings I was trying to sooth with each purchase. Hoping those items would fill a piece of an ever expanding void but in the end only ending up boxing me in and weighing me down. So, I stopped. I put a halt to all spending. If I was going to be financially free and happy, it was not going to be because of things. It was going to be because I chose to be, which brings me back to a rainy Saturday in October.