Happy New Year! Yesterday, an old friend of mine told me “Something that I find amazing about you is that your happiness is not linked to consumerism” this really resonated with me because it’s the truth. I have never been a spender apart from vacations (where I’m still careful with my expenses). I do not get any satisfaction of spending money on goods that I do not need. I realize that as a North American I’m an abnormality and I’m fine with that. I find a lot more pleasure in taking time for myself and enjoying the other joys in life that don’t cost a cent.

Many people ask me how I do it. Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Take an inventory of what you have and put a price tag on it
   In most developed countries, we have more than we really need. Think about your clothes, shoes, electronics, books, toys (if you have children), and the list continues.  If we associate our hours worked with the cost of the things we can conclude very quickly the hours of our lives spent obtaining stuff.
2. Think about each item in your inventory and how much time and/or money is invested in it
   The more things we have the more energy we spend to maintain them. Clothes need to be washed, ironed, and occasionally repaired. Electronics need to be upgraded and/or replaced on a somewhat often basis, furniture needs to be cleaned and/or polished, Pages in books get torn and need to be repaired and the list continues, ‘things’ require maintenance, this makes the original purchase price of any item more expensive.
3. Reflect on why you find happiness in purchasing things
   This takes some time. Maybe you were rewarded as a child with material things (most of us were). During the year we are expected to go shopping to buy the ‘perfect’ gift for that special someone and ditto for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and let’s not forget Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and every other occasion that society puts pressure on us to purchase items. There are other ways to share happiness than purchasing things.
4. Focus on other sources of happiness
   This takes reflection. We often live life in the future that we don’t take the time to appreciate the present. Living in the present allows us to just ‘be’ When we are in the present, we become conscious of our actions.
5. Re-wire your brain
   Look at every future item t as hours worked and a step further from early retirement it will eliminate most of your desires to purchase things. If you how much you make an hour after taxes and deductions and keep this number in your mind, whenever you go shopping (online shopping included) you can quickly convert a price to hours worked and most of the time conclude it’s not worth it.

You can do it! Buy what you need and avoid the rest!

Happy Savings!

Share with the Retiretenacious family how avoid unnecessary purchases in the comments section below.