3061: What If We Only Bought the Stuff We Loved from Budgets Are Sexy on Intentional Purchasing & Financial Mindfulness

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily, Episode 3061. What If We Only Bought The Stuff We Loved by J.MoneyofBudgetsAreSexy.com And I'm your narrator Justin Malik. I read to you every single day of the year from the best articles and blogs I can find

[00:00:16] with permission from the authors of course. And it's all in an effort to make your man my day even a tiny bit better. So with that let's get right to it as we optimize your life. What If We Only Bought The Stuff We Loved by J.MoneyofBudgetsAreSexy.com

[00:00:37] I came across an article by Kathleen from Frugal Portland the other day and I absolutely love the idea she threw out to her audience regarding the stuff we fill our lives with. She had been inspired by a quote she read in an NPR article on compulsive shopping,

[00:00:55] which in itself was good, you can never get enough of what you don't really need. But I personally was more drawn to what she blogged about shortly thereafter. Quote, What if instead we only bought things that we loved?

[00:01:11] What if when we looked through our homes and saw only the things we absolutely adored on the wall or bookshelf or cabinets or closets, we'd have less certainly, but we'd feel like we had more. End quote. So true.

[00:01:28] Imagine looking around your entire house right now and appreciating everything that was inside of it. The furniture, the decorations, your clothes, the spoons. Okay so you don't have to love everything in your house but you get the point.

[00:01:43] It's not that easy to do of course but it still doesn't mean you can't strive for it if you think it'd improve your quality of life, or at the least your wallet for that matter. Reminds me of some of the things I've tried recently along the same lines.

[00:01:58] Number one, Keep only the clothes I love and use. In a fit of minimalism over the summer, I decided to give away or donate every last article of clothing I either didn't like much or never used, which literally accounted for about 97% of my entire wardrobe. I went nuts.

[00:02:19] And for a while it worked out really well until my favorite clothes started unraveling and deteriorating with every new use. It's been about six months now and I still haven't come up with a solution other than going out to buy new clothes, which I'm not good at.

[00:02:36] So in this regard it's kind of working but also kind of not. Number two, Only invest in stocks I use or believe in. Or rather, only invest my IRA money into stocks that I use and believe in.

[00:02:50] Places such as Target, Panera Bread, TJ Maxx, Amazon, and so on. I figured I'd spend all my money there anyways and the rest of the world seems to as well. So how could you really go wrong?

[00:03:04] Well the jury's still out on whether it was a smart move or not. I haven't looked at the numbers in detail recently. But the last time I poked in we were doing just fine. All of the stocks had gone up with the exception of one

[00:03:17] and I've pretty much just let them be ever since. But the overall point was that I was investing my money into companies I really like. Number three, Only work on projects I love and believe in. As you've probably noticed I'm still blogging here on Budgets or Sexy

[00:03:36] and that's because it's a passion project of mine along the same lines of rockstarfinance.com too. Now could I be making more money doing something else? Most certainly, but until I'm forced to, I continue pouring my heart into these two guys

[00:03:53] hoping they'll produce enough greens so I don't have to do all the stuff we hate doing just for the money. I still have to do some of it of course because you can't ever wipe all the nonsense away but at least it's skewed towards what makes me happy.

[00:04:07] And number four, Only buying things at yard sales or thrift shops that's worth birthday money. This is a new one I'm trying and so far so good. I've realized over time that I treat money differently depending on where I've received it.

[00:04:25] So if it's work money it goes to the bills. If it's birthday money it goes to only really awesome stuff. And when I ask myself if the object in my site is worth the birthday money it helps me make decisions much, much faster.

[00:04:40] You can't do this with bills and other stuff we're required to pay in order to live but you sure can with all the extras in our life. So now everything I pick up better really excite me more my cash is staying in my pockets.

[00:04:55] I'm sure I've tried a handful of other similar things as well all in the pursuit to maximize happiness and minimize clutter both mental and physical. Maybe you do too. In that same article Kathleen then went on to list the six questions you should ask yourself

[00:05:13] before you pick up that next shiny thing in your hands which are all great no doubt about it but a bit too many to remember on the spot compared to my simple birthday money one. So why am I here? How do I feel?

[00:05:27] Do I need this? What if I wait? How will I pay for it? And where will I put it? The sixth is probably the most important one at least for reform tortures like myself. One of the things I learned from all those minimalism books and articles was that

[00:05:44] if you bring something home you should then throw or donate something else away to keep the same number of things in your home with the future goal of decreasing this number of course. It's also a question any antique lover is very familiar with.

[00:05:59] That's where my mom asks herself this at 50% of the yard sales we hit up. Anyways something good to think about. Then I'll leave you with another idea from Kathleen off that same post. It's all about getting your mind right.

[00:06:13] Quote, what if we could make savings as satisfying as shopping? I know there's a rush of excitement however short lived that comes with having new clothes or shoes but it wears off. We seek the high and once our new cute things are just our things

[00:06:30] that maybe we didn't like all that much in the first place, we seek that hit. I get the same high from throwing money into savings. You just listened to the post titled, what if we only bought the stuff we loved?

[00:06:49] By Jay Money of BudgetsAreSexy.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Think of Jay Money, a great guy that I've been lucky enough to meet a few times over the years.

[00:07:00] Personally the little trick that he mentioned that I really like is the one in one out rule. And you don't have to do this for every purchase, I think that would be a bit maddening

[00:07:12] but maybe you can do it for one specific category of items in your home. So for example, this is the one I do it for, clothing. It's really easy to buy something here, get a gift there.

[00:07:26] Next thing you know your closet is overflowing with clothes, most of which you rarely wear if ever. For me it's a mental note, whenever I wash some new clothing for the first time from that same load I find something to get rid of

[00:07:43] and it goes in a bag or a box that can be donated later. It's super easy to do but keeps things from getting out of control. And again, you don't have to do it with everything or with clothing like me

[00:07:56] but maybe you can pick one category that you feel like you tend to collect a little too much and try it out, it might work wonders for you. But I'll leave it there for today, have a great rest of your day

[00:08:08] and I'll see you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.