A while back I read a very interesting article on-line that details a young woman's one-year attempt to avoid purchasing anything that was not a necessity.
I was particularly intrigued by her revelations about the difficulties she faced.
Prior to taking on this project, she had never been able to set and stick to a budget, and wanted to challenge herself to do it. So she was really a novice to the whole budget living lifestyle.
I was particularly intrigued by her revelations about the difficulties she faced.
Prior to taking on this project, she had never been able to set and stick to a budget, and wanted to challenge herself to do it. So she was really a novice to the whole budget living lifestyle.
In the end, she managed to save $23,000. Which is no small amount of money.
It's an excellent start, so I hope she'll continue to spend more mindfully to build herself a decent nest egg and safety net.
But clearly, if she was able to save that kind of money, she had been spending a LOT of money on impulse spending and purchases prior to taking on the challenge. And what struck me in reading her story was how tough she found it to cut back on those expenditures.
She obviously had developed spending habits and acquired tastes that made the a budget lifestyle much more difficult than it would have otherwise been.
For example, she related how lonely she felt that she could not go out as frequently with friends, and how deprived she felt at having to do without some of her pet indulgences.
That had me thinking once again how very pervasive the push to spend has become, and how easy it is for individuals to begin to see something as a necessity simply because they've become accustomed to having it.
This invariably leads to lifestyle creep and the costs associated with it.
In today's hyped up consumer culture it's very easy to scale our tastes and habits up without even really being aware that we're doing it.
That can truly wreak havoc on our bottom line and savings ability over time, to say nothing of our mental well-being, since much of what we spend money on does not bring us much sustained happiness or fulfillment.
I admire this young woman's attempts to turn her situation around. And I wish her luck in continuing to do so. But my advice is to avoid the trap of materialism and never acquire luxury tastes in the first place.
There's much to be said for sticking to simpler tastes and a simpler lifestyle, not only for the financial benefits, but for the peace of mind and contentment they offer.
It's an excellent start, so I hope she'll continue to spend more mindfully to build herself a decent nest egg and safety net.
But clearly, if she was able to save that kind of money, she had been spending a LOT of money on impulse spending and purchases prior to taking on the challenge. And what struck me in reading her story was how tough she found it to cut back on those expenditures.
She obviously had developed spending habits and acquired tastes that made the a budget lifestyle much more difficult than it would have otherwise been.
For example, she related how lonely she felt that she could not go out as frequently with friends, and how deprived she felt at having to do without some of her pet indulgences.
That had me thinking once again how very pervasive the push to spend has become, and how easy it is for individuals to begin to see something as a necessity simply because they've become accustomed to having it.
This invariably leads to lifestyle creep and the costs associated with it.
In today's hyped up consumer culture it's very easy to scale our tastes and habits up without even really being aware that we're doing it.
That can truly wreak havoc on our bottom line and savings ability over time, to say nothing of our mental well-being, since much of what we spend money on does not bring us much sustained happiness or fulfillment.
I admire this young woman's attempts to turn her situation around. And I wish her luck in continuing to do so. But my advice is to avoid the trap of materialism and never acquire luxury tastes in the first place.
There's much to be said for sticking to simpler tastes and a simpler lifestyle, not only for the financial benefits, but for the peace of mind and contentment they offer.
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