beginning of this year i wanted to challenge myself to a low buy year i had already been on
a minimalism journey so this was a perfect chance to prove to myself that i had the self-discipline
to eliminate the unnecessary expenses from my budget what started this in the first
place i think i reached a point in my life where having a closet full of cute clothes paying for
overpriced dinner dates and curating my house with cute little things didn't fulfill me with
the same meaning and satisfaction as before thinking back i don't know if it ever did
in the past i spent money because i earned it because i didn't really know how else to
prove to myself that working 50 plus hours a week was somehow the right thing to do
every time i bought something new it made monday mornings a bit more bearable so i let the cycle
continue but i had a rude awakening when we first moved into our new home and all i saw
were piles of random things and boxes laying around the house for months they were untouched
it was a brutal reminder of how much stuff i had accumulated
and unbeknownst to me my reckless spending habit was the very reason i had to keep working so much
of course thinking about the money i had wasted made my stomach turn but what affected me the
most was looking at the person that i had become overly materialistic and wasteful
so my low by year was not only my attempt to reduce my spending but it was a chance to find
my way back to my old self but during the process i learned a lesson and something quite unexpected
happened here is my story first i want to talk about how i actually did on my low by years so
if you haven't seen the video where i talk about the rules that i set for myself i will leave the
video in the description box below please go check it out after this video but overall i feel like
i did pretty well i reduced my spending pretty significantly and it really was a domino effect
because once i started to cut back on a certain spending i really wanted to challenge myself and
do it in all different areas of my life as well not only did i cut down on my spending i feel
that i became more resourceful along the way this was the year i got my library card i hosted my
first garage sale i discovered some really cool second-hand markets on maui and i took on diy
projects more than ever before of course it wasn't all smooth sailing it definitely came with its own
challenges i started the year off strong but then in the middle of the year we started to travel and
that came with its own challenges i want to talk about the highs the lows and what i ultimately
took away from this challenge also i have a special announcement that i wanted to make at
the end of the video so please make sure to watch it all the way through okay let's get started if
you guys have seen my previous videos you guys know that my biggest expense outside of my normal
bills was buying clothing and also eating out and those were the two areas of my life that i really
wanted to tackle and reduce my spendings on i did add some few new pieces to my capsule wardrobe
i bought a couple of tank tops because i found a specific style that i wanted
new shorts because i outgrew my old ones a much needed sweater a few denim and a sturdy everyday
sandal what really helped me was to keep a wish list and i kept going back and forth uh to see if
i still needed it after a couple of days after a week and this helped me to really think my
purchases through and throughout the year i kept experimenting with my capsule wardrobe
i put things away and then i shopped for my own closet this process really helped me realize which
pieces i wear on a regular basis and which pieces i had to let go of because there was no sense of
keeping these pieces around if i was never going to wear them and once i started to declutter my
entire closet i really saw my wardrobe transform into a concise and very cohesive
closet and this made me want to become even more selective with the new pieces that i was going to
add to it i now realize more than ever that clothes should be something that we buy
slowly over time and not because there was a new trend or something cute we saw on social media
and every piece that we add to our closet should be an addition to the collection like a missing
puzzle piece to our wardrobe and that's exactly how i want to approach it moving forward so
overall i am really proud of myself for how well i did on reducing my spendings on my clothes but
not only clothes it was in all different areas of my life it was household goods plants house decor
makeup skin care essentially i broke a bad habit i think that's what i'm the most proud of but
there is something that i struggled with during this low by challenge and that was eating out
or should i say not eating out some of you guys know that we travel to the mainland this year to
go visit my parents and it was much more difficult not eating out when we're traveling and when we're
on the road but honestly i forgot how much i missed dining out with my husband and this
was something that we really bonded over eating good food and trying out new restaurants this has
always been our time to kind of get away from the house and all of the chores that comes with it and
just spend some quality time together and at one point it felt kind of silly to take away
the one thing that was kind of our joy you know the thing that we were looking forward to the most
throughout our week and so i did adjust the rules a little bit i still cook at home i still love to
meal plan on a day-to-day basis but i think i will always have some kind of a budget where
my husband and i can go out to eat and dine out because that's something that we really enjoy
and i think that's just another reminder that minimalism doesn't have to be all about
utility and practicality it's supposed to really narrow down the things that we don't want so we
can spend the money on the things that we want and eating out just happens to be one of them
so what did i learn throughout this whole process i feel that i truly needed this challenge to put
a lot of different things into perspective i mean i saw my expenses drop by one-third maybe
and my happiness didn't decrease with it in fact i felt a lot more lighter and felt more content
with everything that i have not only that we were able to make big strides and paying off
a lot of our heloc and also set aside a big fund for our next investment as well in the beginning
it was all about sticking to the rules but as the months went by i really began to feel the why and
i realized that i was actually taking steps towards my own version of freedom financial
freedom freedom to make adjustments in my career freedom to be able to uproot and move anywhere in
the world if i wanted to and this means more to me than any of the things that are in my house
and i think that's a truly valuable lesson at some point it really shifted gears and it wasn't
a challenge anymore it was a lifestyle choice that i made and i think i will carry this on
for the next year with a new set of rules and for many years moving forward if you also did the low
by challenge with me let me know in the comments how you did and what are some key things that you
took away from this challenge i would love to know and also i have to mention that last year
around this time we had about 30 000 people in this community and it grew to over 300 000 which
i still cannot believe so i just wanted to say thank you guys so much for always supporting me
showing me love and sharing my videos i just hope you know how much it means to me and i know that
this wouldn't be possible without you so thank you so much for being a part of this journey
and being a part of my journey also i did promise you some exciting news i decided to start a second
channel under my name sophie daquis and i will leave all of the channel link in the description
box below the content of malama life channel will not change but i wanted a space where i
could share more personal content and share with you my favorite books my favorite recipes and
maybe day to day vlogs it'll be much more unscripted unedited and more up to date with
my life i will be taking next week off on this channel and i'll be actually uploading a new video
on my personal channel next week so i hope to see you guys there i wish you guys a happy holidays
take care of yourselves take care of each other and i will talk to you really soon bye