A few years ago, we decided we wanted to break the mold of how society tells us we should live and pursue a debt free life. During that timeframe, minimalism sort of became second nature to us. In fact, we could argue that minimalism actually helped us become debt free faster.
Today, I want to share how minimalism sped up our debt free journey. It’s been a 4-year process. Some decisions were harder to make than others. Committing to being debt free often time meant saying “no” a lot. We cut back on how often we were eating out. Date nights were often just cooking a nice meal at home and playing board games. It’s wasn’t always easy, but a lot of things in life became way more simple.
This newfound simplicity became an easy segway into a more minimalistic lifestyle. And once I started diving into the world of minimalism, I found that it was honestly not as intimidating as I had once thought it was.
Spending Habits
One of the biggest changes we made was taking a good, hard look at where our money was going. Before becoming full-time RVers, Jon and I both had successful business where we lived near Charlotte, NC. Cost of living was low, and we had a lot of extra spending money. We also lived in a 2,600sqft house where storage options were endless.
During our time in South Carolina, we became less budget-conscious simply because we didn’t really have to be. The only debt we had was a mortgage. Our vehicles were completely paid for. We didn’t squander our money by any means, but we were definitely living with more than we needed. We were living very comfortably. That is…until we became RVers.
We knew that when we started RVing that we would have to change the way we lived. We downsized our businesses quite a bit in order to pursue a nomadic life on the road. So one of the most important things that had to happen was changing our spending habits. Impulse buying was no longer an option. We cut back on how often we were eating out. We even found ways to work on farms for free lodging. Our entire mindset towards spending had to shift.
Instead, we were being very intentional about what we would spend our money on. The idea of “quality over quantity” ranks high in our priorities. It became more about getting value and use from our purchases rather than just buying because we could buy; leaving more money available for putting toward debt and savings.
Selling What We No Longer Used
After all those years of spending just because we had the extra money, we had a lot of stuff in our lives that just didn’t really have a purpose. Minimalism is a lot about being intentional about the times you choose to use. And before we knew it, we were getting rid of furniture, TVs, vehicles, home decor, kitchenware, etc. You name it, we’ve probably sold it.
If there were items that we didn’t (or couldn’t) sell, we donated them. A lot of clothing was in this category. I couldn’t believe the number of boxes we filled with clothes that neither of us had worn in years. It was an extremely eye-opening experience.
Of course, selling items you no longer use or need creates excess cash to put toward debt and savings.
Reevaluating Our Current Lifestyle
There are definitely different levels of minimalism. This depends greatly on the type of lifestyle you wish to lead. Just because you own a larger home, doesn’t mean you’re not a minimalist. It just so happens that, for us, we no longer saw the value in owning a large home. For us, a large home just meant more opportunities for accumulating items that we don’t really need.
Our version of minimalism definitely includes embracing smaller spaces. Why else would we love living in an RV so much? Haha! There is something addicting about living tiny. We’re drawn to it simply because it encourages us to be constantly evaluating our lifestyle, the choices we make financially, and keeping us accountable to our biggest goals, dreams, and desires for our life.
By downsizing our lifestyle, we were able to save money. And when we did make purchases, we always kept resale value in mind. This goes for real estate, vehicles, ATVs, and even furniture. Rarely do we spend money on anything that we couldn’t sell later for at least what we paid, if not more.
Realizing How Little We Really Needed
This may seem like common sense. But like so many others, we had to break the chains from the consumerism habits we had developed over the course of our marriage. We don’t need a brand new car, or even a fancy used car. No, we don’t need an entire closet full of clothes when we spend most of our time at home, anyway. We don’t need every single kitchen gadget there is, and we certainly didn’t need boxes and boxes of decorations for each season or special holiday.
Jon and I recently sold our property in Sandpoint, Idaho. And every time we sell a house, we go through what we like to call, “The Great Purge.” Ever since 2017, we’ve pretty much been living off of whatever it is we took with us in our 28ft travel trailer. The rest of our belonging have been kept in storage. Boxes and boxes of household items that we literally never needed, and even forgot we had, just sitting in storage for almost 4 years.
Since we sold our most recent house, we decided it was time for another purge. And I have to say, this is probably the most we have ever gotten rid of in one fell swoop. Kitchen items, bedding, blankets, decor, furniture, a TV, books, three giant boxes of just throw pillows…gone. We ended up selling everything to a friend of ours who is starting a consignment shop.
For the first time ever, Jon and I each have just one box of clothes. Just one box each! To me, that just sounds so insane. The more we live tiny, the more we realize just how little we actually need. And now, anything more than what we need just feels like clutter to me. Breaking the mindset of needing things is probably one of the hardest concepts to grasp when developing a minimalistic lifestyle. But once you do, it’s such a freeing feeling.
So whether you’re wanting to embrace minimalism, or you’re pursuing your own debt free journey, we hope these tips will help give you some inspiration!
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