Minimalism not only changes your outlook on life, but also effects your pocketbook. Below are three ways that minimalism saves you money.
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Living the minimalist lifestyle is a growing movement. Families and individuals all over the world are starting to realize and come to an agreeance that life isn't about the number of materialistic items you own, but about the memories that you make with your friends and family.
Is it possible to live with less? Absolutely.
Not only can you simplify your life, but minimalism will save your family money.
3 Super Simple Ways that Minimalism Saves You Money
Here are three ways a minimalist lifestyle will help save you money!
1. You start to forget the Joneses.
Getting caught up in the thought process that it's a "requirement" to keep up with the Joneses can be expensive.
When you decide to live your life as simple as possible, you truly learn how to live more, with less — more experiences, more memories and more happiness.
The great thing about simplifying your life? You learn that you don't need to buy items to bring happiness. And when you don't feel the need to buy items, that results in you saving money.
When you simplify your life, you simplify your desire to keep up with the Joneses.
2. You start using cash again.
Living minimal means that you use cash (or your available budget) to purchase your must-need items instead of relying on credit cards to live your daily life.
Wants and impulse purchases with credit cards are a quick way to overspend and bust the bottom line of your budget. Buying on credit is one of the fastest ways to throw away your hard-earned money.
Say you use your credit card to buy something on sale. You're going to spend the money that you just "saved" paying interest fees to the credit card company. It is an easy trap to get stuck in, but we can all agree it makes no sense. Why give the credit card companies your money by paying them interest?
Paying in cash for items that you truly need is a super simple way to save money. When living a minimalist lifestyle, credit cards quickly become the enemy.
3. You start to truly comprehend the difference between needs and wants.
To be successful in your journey, you have to understand what it will take for you to live within your means and needs. While half your body and brain may want you to have fun and impulse buy and spend money on your wants, the minimalist side of you begins to truly understand the difference between want and need. It can be a hard line to balance but gets easier over time.
Needs are important, wants are not a necessity. The quicker you can cut out that spending on those frivolous wants, the quicker you'll start saving money each and every month.
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Dip your toe in the water of minimalist living.
For the next thirty days, try to minimize your wants and focus on your family's needs. Also, start saving receipts on EVERY purchase your entire family makes — groceries, gas, eating out, gifts for birthday parties, medications, bills, the whole nine yards.
At the end of the month, pull out that stack receipts from your shoebox, wallet, and purse and make a huge pile. Here comes the eye-opening part ... you're going to look at where your money went for the last month.
Our family used the free Dave Ramsey budgeting tool, Every Dollar, the first time we did this. I was shocked by how much we spent eating out (which I'd have said we never did if you'd asked me), on one-off coffees, and also how much we spent on Amazon movies.
When you watch and KNOW exactly where your money is going it inspires you to make changes. By cutting out the extra's in your life and paying only the needed bills, your pocketbook will start to fill up quickly with all the money that you'll be saving.
Cutting down on the ownership of items allows you to focus more on family time. Memories seem like a simple choice over "stuff," right?
The sooner that you can embrace everything that the minimalist lifestyle has to offer, the sooner that you'll start living a life full of ways to save money and eliminate a lot of the added pressures and stress of the world!