people have this notion that minimalism is all about stripping down your entire life keeping
only the bare necessities while that may be true in some cases it's not how i like to live i first
adopted a minimalist lifestyle as a way to reduce my spending without affecting my overall happiness
like most people i enjoyed buying things i remember feeling this high when i saw sale at
my favorite store and i was proud of my purchases and felt like they defined me but i knew in order
to pay off my student loans my 200 000 worth of student loans and escape the pressure of debt
i needed to make some drastic changes with my relationship with money when you adopt a
minimalist lifestyle you're not stripping away all of your possessions what you do instead is
make meaningful decisions before making a purchase asking yourself do i really need this thing right
now marie kondo writes about how you need to go through all of your possessions and ask yourself
does this bring me happiness and if it does you keep it if not you get rid of it and during this
process you start to not only declutter your house but also your mind once i started to
question if i really needed something i realized just how much of my purchases were unnecessary
this takes me to my first tip on how to save money through minimalism
we live in an increasingly digital world with access to products everywhere you can buy a car
a house a mattress and even edible glitter whatever you desire is available online the
trick is escaping from this buy now culture i recently bought this wireless mic it's something
i've wanted for over a year but i needed to make sure that it would actually benefit my life i've
been using a cheaper wired mic for over a year now but i finally decided that a more expensive
wireless mic would help me to create better content for you since i'm now making youtube
videos twice a week but i waited that full year just to make sure that it was something that would
actually benefit my channel and not just another impulse purchase and i know waiting an entire year
seems a little excessive so what i normally do is i find something that i like and wait
seven days before purchasing it this gives me time to really consider if this is something i need
if after seven days i still want it then i'll buy it this habit alone saves me so much money because
i'm not making impulse purchases all the time this links to my next minimalism money saving tip
the world of marketing has become so advanced these days because of technology when you log into
your email and see all of these emails from your subscriptions those emails have been written by a
trained copywriter who knows exactly what to write to you to get you to click on it they even run
tests to find the most effective subject line to write on a basic level the copywriter will write
two subject lines one subject line is sent to half the audience and the other one is sent to the
other half then they can measure who opened the email what they read and which links they clicked
the subject line with the highest open rates will then be the winner and they can keep testing and
testing until they have a perfect email tailored to your preferences that they know will cause you
to take out your credit card and buy so the only way to escape this is to unsubscribe from all of
those newsletters you can't be tempted if there's nothing to tempt you the same goes for any type of
purchase when you see sales in stores resist the urge to go inside and check them out because i
don't believe sales are actually sales before you know it you've started buying a whole collection
of things that you wouldn't have otherwise needed and that causes you to spend more money than if
the sale hadn't existed so even though you may think that you're saving 40 by buying an item
on sale you're probably actually spending 60 that you wouldn't have otherwise spent there are some
rare cases where sales are actually sales but the whole psychology behind sales and scarcity
and deadlines usually means that you spend a lot more on things that you really didn't need
i know people have been commenting on this one after i made my video about millionaire habits
i simplified my wardrobe to save money and reduce decision fatigue for this channel i
rotate the same five or so white shirts and in my day-to-day life i usually only have about
five different go-to outfits this also helps me to avoid sales because i already know that i have all
the clothing i need before i simplify my wardrobe i bought into this idea that having more clothing
would make me feel happier or make me more confident if i was down i'd go to the store
and buy something to make me feel good but these temporary fixes don't address the actual issue
of why i was feeling down these days when i'm not feeling a hundred percent i really try to
get to the root of it and i don't use money as a band-aid or pick-me-up the way that i really used
to if there's a void i've just found that spending money and buying things is rarely the thing that
will actually fill it after making this decision i try to only reward myself when i'm feeling happy
that way i know i made the right choice it's just like when you go grocery shopping when
you're hungry before you know it your shopping cart is full of these snacks and pre-cooked meals
because you want to eat something as soon as possible but if you're shopping after a decent
meal then you're going to be in this better headspace to make rational shopping choices
i also think that if you can go through a money detox phase you'll start to realize what actually
matters to you versus what you're buying because you're bored or trying to fill a void
so for example i like to go through phases where i don't eat any sugar and i really love eating
cakes and chocolate but i realized that they were controlling me i was getting sugar cravings during
the day and it was disrupting my work because if i didn't have anything in my house i'd have
to go rush out to buy something sweet it was an unhealthy relationship which i realized
could be cut and the first two weeks were really hard because i was still having those cravings
but by about week three i didn't even miss it anymore the same thing happened with clothing i
used to buy clothing because i'd go to the mall to fill some time or because i was browsing through
sales online but when i decided that i wanted to aggressively pay off my 200 000 of student loans
one of the things i gave up was shopping for clothing and what happened was pretty amazing
i used to shop a lot whether it was because of my boredom or because i needed a pick-me-up
or because i wanted to fit in and after two years of essentially not shopping for clothing
i just found that i'm not interested in clothing anymore and i just prefer this simplified
wardrobe that's why i like to have a complete detox and just go cold turkey once in a while
whether it's with shopping or sugar it helps me to understand what i'm doing or purchasing out of
habit versus what i'm doing or purchasing because i actually enjoy it or it'll improve my life
i love buying used furniture it's not only good for the environment but you can also save a lot
of money i got this table used and it's perfectly fine i know if i bought all this furniture new
it cost me probably a couple thousand dollars and what would i actually be gaining from this
because a used desk works the same way that a new desk works so if you need something start
by asking your friends or family first or checking craigslist before making that purchase because you
never know who has that thing that you're looking for and this way you don't have to invest your
money into buying something brand new i've never owned a car and that might shock some people but
i've never needed to own a car it's a huge expense you've got the initial payment and then
there's insurance gas repairs and all the little accessories you need and i know for some that
having a car is a necessity especially if you live in a rural area with limited public transportation
then you might need a car just to get by but if you're living in a city like i do then using
public transportation is a perfectly fine way to get around or simply walking to the shops
instead of driving not having a car saves you so much money and if you do a huge grocery shop you
can always take a taxi home or rent a car by the hour which is what i do sometimes it'll still be
cheaper than owning a car once you lose the car then the city becomes your own personal chauffeur
this one might seem controversial but listen to the end before judging me i don't buy gifts this
all started when i was younger and my mother told us that she wasn't going to buy us gifts anymore
now i know you're picturing the grinch but it wasn't like that she was just being practical
about our gift-giving culture and said that we should donate the money that we would have spent
on gifts instead and volunteer our time to help others because how many times have you received
a gift only to put it on the shelf where it just stays and gathers dust especially as an adult if
we want something we can just buy it ourselves so when your friends and family try to guess what you
want it's no surprise that they often get it wrong if anything what i prefer to spend my money on is
having a nice dinner outing with my partner or my family it might sound very millennial of me
but i like going somewhere special and creating a lasting memory something that we can actually
chat about in the future this also helps to declutter my house because there aren't loads
of unnecessary gifts lying around which you're afraid to get rid of because you're afraid it
might upset the person who got it for you so those are some of the minimalist habits that
i've adopted to not only save money but also to improve my overall health and happiness
and now that i've built up these frugal habits i don't feel like they limit me but instead i see
good from them i can see the bigger picture and i don't have this desire to rush back into my
old lifestyle these quick fixes were an emotional band-aid they were quick fixes to a deeper problem
once i stopped relying on products for my happiness i started to feel overall happier i also
realized that so much of what i had purchased in the past was really out of this desire to impress
other people and to fit in and now i just don't have that desire the people who want to spend
time with me are going to do it regardless of what outfit i'm wearing or what purse i'm carrying i
hope this has been helpful and you can follow some of these tips and if you want to start investing
you can get two free stocks by clicking on my link in the description below and signing
up with weeble and that second free stock is gonna be worth up to sixteen hundred dollars
thank you so much for watching please hit the like button and i will see you in the next one