With inflation at a 40-year high and talk of a recession looming, we are all looking for ways to save money. But will simplifying your life really help you be prepared for a recession? In other words, is now the time to pursue simple living to save money?
The simple answer is a resounding YES!
This past year has caused many of us to reprioritize. More and more we are gravitating towards simplicity and a simple living lifestyle. In fact, simple living continues to gain in popularity.
Simplifying your life has always been about gaining a quality of life that the constant pursuit of more can never offer. But now, more than ever, the benefits to your finances may be what takes you from curiosity to active pursuit.
What is Simple Living?
To some degree, simple living looks a little different for each person. However, there are some commonalities in the lifestyle.
Here is a good definition of simple living from Zen Habits:
“Living a simple life is about paring back so that you have space to breathe. It’s about doing with less because you realize that having more and doing more doesn’t lead to happiness. It’s about finding joys in the simple things, and being content with solitude, quiet, contemplation, and savoring the moment.”
I like that definition because it allows room to make simple living fit your season of life and circumstances. At the same time, it holds true to what is at the core of simple living.
What’s important to understand is that simple living is really about focusing on simplifying your life by getting rid of the excess. Whether that is excess stuff in your home, on your calendar, circling around your brain, or cluttering up your finances, the goal is to remove it!
Choosing to simplify your life involves placing quality over quantity. So instead of constantly consuming more material things you don’t need or that don’t add value to your life, your focus is on adding meaningful experiences that do add value.
It’s about understanding that people and experience are what create true meaning in life, not how much stuff you own.
Given simple living’s focus on people and experiences over stuff, you can see how pursuing simple living to save money is an appealing way to weather the current inflation trends. It will also help you prepare for any possible recession.
How Simple Living Will Help You To Save Money
I’m sure you can already see how pursuing simple living to save money works. As simple living emphasizes avoiding excess consumption, you will naturally spend less.
However, as I said in the beginning, choosing to simplify your life will look different for each of us. And how much you cut down on purchases and the items you consume will also look different.
There are, however, a few ways in which simplifying your life will have a direct impact on your finances and allow you to save money. This is true no matter where you fall on the consumer spectrum. That’s what we are going to look at now.
Simplifying Your Life Results in Creating Intentional Shopping Habits
I think one of the big aspects of simplifying your life is that it helps stop you from overspending on things.
One reason is that it forces you to think more about why you are purchasing something. Instead of buying things on impulse, you’ll naturally create intentional shopping habits. The result will be that your purchases consist only of things you love or truly need.
This is because your shopping habits will automatically have you evaluating each purchase. You’ll know if you are not willing to pay full price for a sale item, it’s not something you truly love. Also, you’ll consider whether you already own a similar item that will serve the same purpose.
These habits ensure you’ll stop buying things you don’t need, which in turn allows you to save money and prepare for any coming recession.
Simplifying Your Life Saves Money When You Eliminate Excess
First, what does it mean to eliminate excess? Well, excess things in your life consist of those things you neither need nor love. Most often, they are impulse purchases you later wonder why you made the purchase in the first place.
What happens when you choose to simplify your life, is you start to see how the excess complicates things. Because you start to focus on your priorities you often stop the impulse spending on things that don’t fit within those priorities.
Of course, this impacts your finances in a positive way.
It allows you to make room for the essentials, those are the things you actually need like household supplies and food in your pantry. While eliminating overspending on things that don’t have long-term value.
Simplifying Your Life Helps Reign in Spending
As you can already see, simplifying your life is often about renewing your mindset. It’s about turning away from a consumeristic mentality and embracing a simpler way of living.
This naturally leads to less spending and more saving. When you choose to simplify your life your living with less and saving more.
The focus is on prioritizing your important needs instead of giving into instant gratification for every want you have.
Choosing a simpler lifestyle allows you to see that material things pale in comparison to spending time with those you love. You’ll see how building memories through experiences with your people is what truly matters, not how much you own.
Instead of spending your weekends at the mall, getting out in nature with your family or visiting with a friend fills your cup more and longer than the latest shoe trend ever could.
When Simplifying Your Life You Learn How to Say No
Learning to say “no” was a big lesson for me. I tend to naturally want to help and be there for others. If I’m being honest I am a bit of a people pleaser. This often carried over into struggling to say “no” when it came to spending.
The truth is, if your finances are out of control it is usually the result of saying “yes” far too often.
However, when simplifying your life, decluttering your life is key. It often starts with decluttering your home of all the excess stuff you bought over the years. It then moves into decluttering your schedule of commitments that no longer serve your priorities.
This means you begin to focus on the value of experiences over things. Plus, you rethink your social commitments to eliminate those that often increase your spending while adding little value.
The more you learn to say no, the more, the less you will spend. It really is that simple!
Simplifying Your Life Increases Your Savings
Because the goal of simplifying your life is eliminating the excess, what you do purchase is with the mindset of quality over quantity.
When you are purchasing less, you have more resources to apply to your savings. In fact, simplifying your life is one of the best things you can do to increase your savings.
You’ll be less likely to live paycheck to paycheck because you’re not buying things you don’t need just to later regret your shopping purchase.
Simplifying Now Will Help You Save Money Later
Making the choice to simplify your life now will not only help you save money, but it is also a surefire way to start preparing now for any possible future recession. Something that is on all of our minds these days.
Even if a recession does not hit, it will make the pinch of inflation a little easier to bear.
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