I was sitting behind my laptop buying some things, paying some bills and dreaming. Not of a simple life or even simplifying my life. I was dreaming about having the means to be able to buy anything I wanted. Certainly, those boots I was talking about in this post were on the list. I imagined what it would feel like to have no limits when it came to having the ‘things’ you wanted. Ponder that for yourself for a bit, I’ll wait. IT’s a fine old fantasy, right? Delicious.
For most of us buying and having things costs us our time and energy in the form of a job or two. Some find a way to generate income free from work, some win it and other inherit it. It made me wonder though what it is that I needed that would have me work longer, harder, more. Is there any one thing that would make me work longer hours, for more money, than I do?
And I vote no.
Nope.
No way.
No thanks.
A lot of people wonder about us, how we can afford for me to work part-time and blog. How Hubby was able to start a new business after working full full-time hours before that. But mostly they wonder why we don’t want MORE stuff. Bigger better cars, fancier things, maybe a new couch for example. I DO want that. I want that so bad. But I’m getting distracted.
You see we chose life and our lifestyle over having more things, more money and more stress. In a lot of ways, we downsized our life. We cut the fat and made it possible by tightening our belts for a little while to enjoy the freedoms we do now. We simplified our lives. It took us about 12-18 months on two good incomes to get in the position we were in when we took the leap.
But let me help you out and give you a few tips that you can start doing today whether you plan to simplify your life, cut the fat and get on with living sometime soon. Especially if you gave wistfully off into the distance imagining Friday every Monday morning. Start now, take the leap later. Start moving into position like a chess piece. Are you ready? Let’s talk about that.
To simplify our lives and cut the fat we;
- Reduced our expenses by paying down debt especially credit card debt. I wrote a post once about credit cards and how we went about paying ours off. Maybe read that for more tips.
- We cut all unnecessary bills like phone add ons we never used or additional television channels. We cancelled magazine subscriptions {hello internet} and made sure we had the best deals possible on the things we needed to have like insurances and phones etc.
- We saved for a rainy day and maintain that account when that rainy day comes. There’s always another rainy day, am I right? We let nothing get in our way and by we I mean Hubby, he’s the super saver. Me? Not so much.
- We stopped buying things we didn’t need. That includes food {who else wastes a lot of food throwing it out at the end of the week?}, clothes and all sorts of gadgets and things. You will be surprised how much you MAY be spending on all these extras that are forgotten shortly after. Cut the waste people.
- Tracked our spending for a month or two and REALLY learn where you are spending your money and how much of the money you are spending is pointless consuming. Start to cut the fat here by either limiting mindless spending or setting limits to ‘spending’ money.
- And finally, we got really clear on how much we would need at a minimum to live our lives comfortably but having the lifestyle we enjoy. This allowed us a target for our business, for my part-time income and consulting. Once we hit that we knew we were doing it and let go of the reins.
And well would you look at that! This whole post started out as pondering of the things I’d love to buy, the beautiful shiny things and we ended up here. Do you know why that is? Because as I look at the most recent Kardashian wedding, when I see extravagance and wistfully sigh at how lovely it must be to have all that and more, I am quick to remember that I crave a simple life really. A new handbag or custom made dress isn’t going to make me happy for long.
Instead, I choose to fill my life up with living. What about you?
And no judgement here. We have been on both sides of the fence and enjoyed both. I’m just curious. Are you working hard for the money and enjoying the spoils of your riches or are you kicking back way out of the fast lane and soaking up the simple things in life?
Hi! I’m Melissa Walker Horn. Around here, they call me Suger. I’m the Chief Blogger and doer of all the things here at Suger Coat It. Blogging since 1901; I love a casual ootd, taking photos, and writing about things that irk or inspire me. I love wine and cheese, long days at the beach and spending time with my family. I make stuff for the internet over at Chalkboard Digital. You know, living the sweet life.
It’s interesting you bring up those boots because I had a conversation with Guv about those boots after reading that post and I said to him “you know, no matter how much money we had, I could never bring myself to spend that much on a pair of boots!” and I actually couldn’t tell you why!
We’re in a similar position to you and K, Guv works full-time and I work 4 half days a week. Could we be earning more money? Sure we could but we do fine. Having no children helps – if we had kids, we wouldn’t have bought the XR6 last November, Guv wouldn’t have a Harley, we wouldn’t eat out as much as we do [which is A LOT!] but we don’t and so we’re in the lucky position of spending our disposable income on things we choose, rather than things we have to.
We can do this because we live in a 3 bedroom house [why do we need 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms for the two of us? Answer, we don’t], in an okay area with a small mortgage – a choice we made; we could afford a bigger mortgage for a bigger house in a better area but honestly? Just the thought of owing that much money makes me feel ill.
I know we’re doing well [I was going to say lucky but I’m not a fan of that word because we’re not lucky, we made decisions that put us in this position and where we are and it had nothing to do with luck] but as we are doing well in regards to this, others are in other ways – eg being able to have kids. It’s all swings and roundabouts. And while I know there are people who are in the situation they’re in for reasons they have no control over, that’s not the case for everyone.
If you’re life isn’t what you want it to be and the life you do want is within reach, it’s just a matter of taking the necessary steps to get there; it might be a hard road for awhile but it will be worth it if it means you end up living the life that makes you the happiest x
Haha. Boots and I go way back, I’ll never forget the look on Kel’s face the time I told him one of my pairs of boots from my single days cost me over $400. Priceless. Per wear though, those babies were worth every single penny. Promise. 😉
GREAT comment again Rach, always such a great addition to the posts here. I go to use ‘lucky’ all the time too, but while it may be a certain amount of opportunity found its way to you {and I} grabbing it, going for what we want, that’s not luck.
We’re in a place where we’re building our own business and setting ourselves up for the next phase of our lives. Taking 18 months off to travel helped us to set up simple lives when we came to Sydney afterwards. Like you said, no unecessary bills like TV channels we dont use and I had a major shoe buying problem before that travelling helped me to curb! We find that cheap good food isnt as easy to access in our area of Sydney, probably because we havent taken the time to explore our options. This works for us because it means that we cook most of the time now and from scratch, which I love to do. It also saves us money, as if I can see something in the fridge thats dying I can brainstorm and use it instead of throwing it away. We rent an apartment bigger than what we need for the two of us, and we rent out two of the bedrooms to short term stayers to supplement our incomes. It gives us flexibility and space so that we can have family and friends to stay, as well as being an awesome way to meet some great people who pass through. Its not something that suits everyone and yet it suits us down to a tee. We’re earning money for hosting and opening our home, something we love to do!
What I find interesting is the different personal interpretations that different people have to the term ‘simplifying your life’. My best friend lives a very simple life by her terms and her life is very different to ours. Its just her interpretation and what suits her, which is never going to suit us. I learn a lot from her way of thinking/doing things, I take these tidbits with me and I use them in a way that benefits hubby and I.
Yes! I absolutely agree. Sitting in our rather large house but well into suburbia, with a car loan each and plans for a pool hardly classifies us as ‘living a simple life’ by most cases. But simple is whatever it is to you, keeping it simple is whatever works for you to have a life you love and not have to overshadowed by things that are not as important to you. Thanks for sharing your story! Love it.
Seriously Faith, I was in a similar situation for many years. It does get easier. I think even the difference between having kids under school age to high school age is immense, provided you bring them up to not be spoilt shits (not much chance of that as a single mum even if you wanted to, right).
When my son left home (he’s 28 now), it was such a huge difference financially. For starters, you are only paying rent for one person. And feeding a teenagers… sheesh!
I don’t work at the moment because I want to focus on writing. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices to have to have that choice – living in a low rent area (with housemates), not having a car, not going out much. I save a lot of money when I’m working as a contractor and travel a lot when I’m not. No credit card, no debts.
One other tip that helps me is to stay well away from temptation. Put a ‘no junk mail’ sticker on the letter box and don’t hang out at the shops to kill time. I need to do something about my internet shopping though.
Oooo a great tip about the no junk mail! It really is tempting stuff. Most of it you don’t even know you want until you see it.
And thank you for sharing your story with us, with Faith, because I have no reassurances to add due to my lack of experience in the matter. Happy to see someone in this community step up with words of encouragement and support. x
Yes thank you so much Kathryn! In glad to know there is light at the end of the tunnel! Not that I’m trying to wish the time away. These young years are so precious. And no spoiled shits in this house either! Xx
Love this Melissa! It is where I am at in my life, where I want to be…just need to get my hubby on board to take that leap of faith too! T xx
I always found it easier when I had the proof behind me. The costs and how I planned to replace my income/reduce our expenses. And then it’s all about faith and the assurance that you can always get a job again if it flops. 😉
I’m working very hard for my money and still don’t have much to show for it! But a lot of that is atributed to be a working single mummy. Childcare costs are a killer. its almost not worth my while working fulltime. That with rent, heating etc with no one to share costs with makes life a financial struggle. But I know that at some point in the future Jason will be in school and child care will go down and then even further down the line he will have flown the nest. Working part time as a mother means you hit the glass ceiling fast so I feel I have to continue to work full time to stay in the game, and I’m playing the long game. So in 15 or so years time J will be finishing university, hopefully I will have climbed the ladder and be on a decent salary and I will be able to travel and have nice things. Right now it feels a bit like survival. A lot of people aren’t as privilged to have the 2 choices that you set out. Some are working every minute they can for shitty money just to get by.
Oh Faith I didn’t mean to imply that you were either working for pretty things or not, I apologise. I can imagine there are a number of fixed expenses and circumstances that won’t shift. I love the part about playing the long game. That is indeed what you are doing and your son will thank you for it I am sure. x
Oh I didn’t mean to be snarky in my reply! I think a lot of people have been forced into the simple life in recent years due to the recession and it’s probably done a lot of people good to be freed from the chains if mindless consumerism. But it isn’t always a choice. I’m very happy with my little life but sometimes I do look around and think what am I actually working so hard for but I have to remind myself that the best is perhaps yet to come.
I’m glad we clarified Faith. And you are so right, it isn’t always a choice.