Learning to live a simple life has radically changed it for the better.

For the OG fans of this blog, you probably remember the days when there were posts about how I just wanted to live a simple life.

For my newest readers, a little introduction onto how I became this way. I went to the best fashion school in the country for my undergraduate degree and university experience, and it traumatized me in the way in which I was horrified to see and examine our consumption habits.

While some people eagerly pursued careers in marketing for the fashion industry, I began to see it as a way in which we create and profit off of people’s insecurities. I didn’t want to do any of that with my life, so I ended up pursuing something else and nonprofit work.

Two years after dedicating myself to simple living, I think I am so much happier. I am also a lot more financially happy, as I stopped buying clothes and random things when I was out on the streets.

I saw less of a reason to go outside and spend money, as I didn’t really want anything unless it was a book I couldn’t find at my library system or for free online. My mother also started adopting many of these attitudes, and we end up spending our hard earned money on things like a nice meal every so often or vacations.

Here’s how my life has changed specifically!

Financial minimalism has made room for experiences. I also largely stopped buying books.

When I was in college, I spent so much money on brand new books and clothes. I had a very strict budget, and rarely went out except for concerts and shopping. Needless to say, I spent a ton of money on these things I have now gotten rid of over the years. I haven’t really bought new clothes in the past two years, and if I do, I try to hit up the thrift stores before I end up going to a store like UNIQLO.

The only big shopping trip I had was in New York in June, when I stopped in UNIQLO after being at the MoMA. And when I say shopping trip, I literally only bought two things: a dress and a graphic shirt. I only spent $50.

I am blessed to live where there is a good library system, so I stopped buying a lot of the novels I wanted to read, and if the book wasn’t available at my local branch, I requested it to be transferred or purchased.

So I ended up getting all the books I needed for free, and it doesn’t take up a ton of space in my room. I only really buy books, like I mentioned before, if it’s used or an academic text that I know I won’t be able to get the library to buy for me.

The lesson of all of this is now I have a lot of money to spend on things I’m more passionate about. A comment I get a lot is that I have rich people hobbies by going to New York a lot and getting to attend so many theatre shows when there.

But even in New York, I never spend more than sixty on a ticket for a show. I have a TDF membership as a student, which I see Broadway shows at a cheaper price, and I know people who work in industry, so I am able to attend shows on comps. AKA: they’re free.

Because of this, I’ve also been able to travel and buy things for my family. When we went to Florida, I was able to pay for a nice lunch, or when I had to go to the AWP Conference in Seattle, I was able to afford eating out at places that were a bit nicer versus constantly eating fast food and trying to make the food stretch. I’m living a better life because of the fact I don’t spend ridiculous amounts of money on useless objects for me.

I started cooking more and packing my lunches. Our grocery bills were manageable.

Cooking is therapeutic for me, but when I stopped going out as much, I stopped eating out. I grow my own vegetables and find the flavors in them are so much better, especially when I add our homegrown cucumbers and tomatoes into our salads with fresh basil I grew on the windowsill.

Dinner has become an occasion on our house, and I am able to control how much salt and whatnot goes into the meals we’re eating. Yesterday, when writing this, I made a vegan version of feijoada that I found to be really good, and it got my mom liking tofu when she never did before.

When I started graduate school, I also packed my own lunches because I was able to batch cook in advance. I’d roast sweet potatoes and make a fresh feta salad with strawberries, then would pack snacks. I worked and then attended class in the evenings, so I had a lot of long days.

If I wanted some caffeine, I packed tea with my lunch and brought it with me. This saved me a ton of money, especially as I saw a lot people who worked in my office constantly eating out and buying meals. Granted, some had meal plans, but I’d rather cook my own food than eat out.

Overall, for a hot minute, we managed to keep our grocery bills down to less than a hundred dollars for a family of four per week because I don’t really like cooking with meat.

I also ended up padding my savings because I wasn’t dumping a ton of money on Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts like a lot of the undergrads, while staying somewhat healthy with my little home packed meals.

Limiting time on social media.

I’ve written a lot about this on my blog in the past, but when I got a new phone, I put a limit of forty-five minutes for social media when I was seeing myself spending more time scrolling through my Instagram explore page.

They’re meant to be addicting, but I would rather use my time to read and write. So I ended up hitting my limit, then using that time to read. When I woke up in the morning, I would reach for a book and read a hundred pages before starting my day, which meant I was basically getting through a book every day by the time I went to bed and did my evening pages during the summer of 2023.

I’d rather make space for the people and things in my life that I enjoy the most. I often don’t text people unless I need to, and I don’t spend a lot of time looking at other people’s content on social media. I prefer the in person component of existing, and that’s what a lot of my friendships are like: we can meet after six months and continue where we left off.

I find these relationships to be more genuine than the ones I’ve had in the past when I didn’t have this simpler mentality.

Now I have time for the things that matter to me, like the NYC theater, or writing these blog posts. I don’t write these blog posts to make money or gain clout; I do it because I enjoy expressing myself in this way. I can write reviews and remember what I thought in the moment about a book or film, and that’s magical.

What a blessed life I’ve been living since I’ve simplified it! It’s more stress free, too, if we’re going to be honest.

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