I'm very
surprised how rewarding I have found this transition, from mainstream
capitalist to off path minimalist. It has not been an effortless transition, it
has however been incredibly rewarding both personally and financially.
I started this journey on the 16th
of June when I wrote my first blog post “The day my life changed” this was
shortly after I almost lost everything when the failure of my business came
from nowhere. I was down and stressed, contemplating the worst when I discover
a concept via a documentary call “The minimalists” on Netflix. After watching the
hour-long documentary, I decided to do my research and the rest is history. I
now class myself as a born-again-human, with a new exciting journey ahead. The
life I always imagined I would lead, has completely changed to the point where I
class myself as practically a different person.
On the 27th of June I wrote a blog
titled "First
step towards a minimalist life" if you read that blog, you will
vaguely remember how I discussed how I was going to reduce my need for material
things and stop impulse purchasing. I touched on reducing my wardrobe which has
changed my outlook completely
I am proud to say I have not
purchased a single item in three months, not a major achievement but it is in
my eyes a successful step towards my goal.
I have stuck to my wardrobe
reduction and taken it to a new level not only did I remove all unnecessary
items of clothing from my wardrobe, but I really thought about the items I kept
while trying to keep to a max number of 33 items of clothing, excluding socks
and underpants. Well for the first month anyway as while I was getting dressed
one morning I thought to myself “why do I wear underpants?”. After asking a few
of my work buddies, I concluded it was because sometimes we dribble after we
have a wee. “It catches the dribbles before it comes through on your pant” said
one of my co-workers. Now being a minimalist is all about cutting out what we
don't need, and I always have enough time to shake after having a wee. I binned
all my underpants and I have not looked back since! I feel one step closer to
Eden in a strange way.
On the 12 of August in my blog
"How
I control spending" I wrote about how I have had to make the biggest
changes in my adult life and the hardest to manage, with my family who are not
liking the new strict regime and have likened it to living in a cult. However,
we have managed to find middle ground where both sides feel they can be happy.
I
now know how important a
budget is, if you can make a forecast of where you will be if you achieve every
milestone. It can be used as an incredibly motivating tool, to help you achieve
your goal and help you hold your resolve. I use excel to break my expenditure
into different segments, and at the end of a month I create a pie chart to show
where our money is going. once I have seen, how our money was getting spent I
make plans to cut those bills. The results require their own blog post coming
soon called "Money stop wasting it".
The hardest thing I have
experienced is differentiating the difference between a need and a want, harder
still convincing my wife that her wants are not needs. This area has been the
biggest area of controversy since I took up this new mantra, as anyone who is
in a relationship knows nothing gets a couple fighting quicker than one telling
the other they can’t do something they really want to do. Compromises were made
and both of us feel at least we have a watered-down happy medium version of
what we want out of life.
Areas where we have made good
savings is when we plan our meals a week in advance on the 7th July in my blog
"Planning
food for a minimalist family" I touched on basic nutrition for a
modern diet that I believe is healthy and sustainable, using good fat to fuel
the body which requires us eating less but specific high fat foods (healthy
fats) and low carbs and moderate protein. This diet is far more sustainable
than high carbs and proteins of mainstream diets. However, the main point of
that blog was planning your meals, eat the same things regularly and you will
save money. This would be accelerated by growing your own produce, which would
not just save you more money but more importantly reduce your carbon foot
print.
I have not made any headways as I’m
still trying to get my allotment. I have proven that forward planning works
when I plan our meals for the weak and buy what we need, I have managed to feed
a family of four on £36pw which is about 70% reduction in our weekly shopping
bills then when we don’t plan.
Reducing the clutter that stops us
from enjoying our personal space, has been a struggle. A lot of the stuff that
clutters our house is mine built up from my previous life of the more stuff I
have the more successful I was. I rammed it all in the garage and declared my
zones of the house as clutter free zones that nobody can put anything in. On
the 6 Aug I wrote a blog titled “Cutting
out the clutter” I discussed how I was going to start getting rid of all my
possessions, using local car boot sales which has been particularly enjoyable.
I now know that if I want something, I can get it for a steel at a car boot. As
I have sold possessions for next to nothing just to get rid. I can now at least
walk into my garage still have some way to go but if you look at the before photo
in the above link you can see the positive steps made. More importantly I have
got to spend time with my wife without the distractions of our busy life at
home, while removing the clutter from our life.
In Summary, I’m enjoying the new
direction my life is going and I’m excited for a future where I have little or
no dependence on material things to bring me happiness. I have learnt that my
happiness is not linked to possessions but experiences. I plan to continue
reducing my outgoing and need for material possessions and focus on growing my
experiences and memories with my family at my side. I would rather spend £500
on a trip away doing something memorable than having nice decorations on a wall
that will date but the memories of the trips and experiences with my wife and
boys will live forever, in the pictures and my thoughts. When I’m gone my boys
will remember me! Hopefully I can help them learn earlier in life that life is
for living not accumulating stuff.
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