Less

Over the past number of months I’ve been trying to use “less”. This comes in many forms; not buying the extra snack in the supermarket, continuing to use older phones/computers, and generally not buying things.

Why

Well it’s kind of fun to buy things, but the thrill is pretty short lived. Purchasing things you don’t really need is both:

• Expensive on your wallet. My discretionary spending is about 50% of all spending. Anything saved here can be redirected elsewhere (charity donations, investments etc).
• Wasteful. Things we buy and later bin are often not recycled but end up in a landfil site (essentially a giant hole in the ground). This is burning up our planets limited resources, and also the time and energy of our fellow people.

So if you don’t really need to buy it, don’t. You’d be surprised how much we can do without.

What do you need?

Well whats required for your day to day? For myself; I wake up and make coffee. So that needs filters, coffee, a mug and my pot coffee machine.

I cycle to work. I need a bike, lights, hi-vis vest + various maintenance components.

When I come home I need utensils to cook with, pots and pans to cook in, and cutlery + delph to eat on.

Technically I could use only a phone or computer to communicate with my friends and family. But right now I have both.

There are bits like furniture; a chair and table are nice. Plus toiletries to maintain my own body.

But surprisingly the list for a man is rather short.

What do do with all this new money and time

Well now that we are spending less on things we don’t need (you should always been suspecious of single use appliances such as egg cookers, milk frothers, ice-cream makers and mixers), we have both considerably more money, more space in our homes, and more time as we don’t have to maintain or buy this stuff.

How do I spend that time? On other things! Reading books, hanging out with my beautiful wife, running and learning to play instruments.

It’s almost a bit fashionable nowadays to be “old school”, but you will really appreciate some inventions a lot more after doing without. My washing machine and dishwasher are much appreciated after I didn’t have them in my house after a recent move!

Lastly, since we need less items it’s worth trying to “buy it for life”. Spending 2 or even 3x on something like a set of kitchen knives is really worth it if you maintain them well. You will get more joy using them, have an easier time, and appreciate the craftsmanship or something well made in the world.