How to Learn to Live on Less
I had someone ask me the other day if I was going to upgrade my cell phone to the newest version. I hadn’t given it a thought until I was asked, and then I felt the pressure that maybe I should, and maybe I was missing out on something I needed! Within a few seconds, I came to my senses and remembered who I was and what I stood for, which is learning how to live on less.
While most of the world is looking for the next best electronic to hit the market, many homesteaders, like myself are turning our backs on consumerism. We’re embracing the fact that happiness is not bought in a big-box store or in the latest version of the next best thing, it’s found in being content with life as it is.
We believe living a simple life doesn’t mean with less we have to do without the things we love, it means looking for the simple things in life that bring us joy. It means changing old habits that keep us trapped in a must-have must do lifestyle.
For us, it means we don’t drive new cars or have a big fancy house but appreciate and find happiness in other things like our faith, family, and farm.
When we moved to the country, we left most of what we had behind, along with a lifestyle we were running from. We eliminated the excess from our lives that came with a sense of freedom by owning less.
Here are a few tips we used to keep us living a simple non-cluttered lifestyle:
- Stay out of the stores – Simplicity is about making do with what you already have, not buying new and not replacing things that can still be used.
- Limit exposure to ads – Companies spend billions of dollars every year trying to convince us we need the next best thing! Turn off the TV, watch movies without commercials and listen to real music rather than the radio.
- Use one thing at a time until you wear it out – Do we really need 5 pairs of shoes when we only have one pair of feet? How many outfits do we need when we can only wear one at a time?
- Learn to love being home – We spend thousands of dollars each year to pay and maintain our homes, most spend more time away from their homes than living in them. Find the joy in being at home!
We have learned that life is too short to spend time worrying about how we’re going to buy that next best thing.
Now we spend our time looking for ways to live a more meaningful life on less.
