**This post contains affiliate links. I am compensated for purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you. Thanks for supporting Floradise!
My most recent Audible listen was “The Year of Less” by Cait Flanders, who apparently also has a popular personal finance blog I was not familiar with. This book was in my Audible recommendations after listening to “Girl, Wash Your Face,” which was also written by a blogger, Rachel Hollis. If you’re new around here, I am really into self-development books. I was intrigued by the idea of learning how a yearlong spending ban changed the author’s life. And while I wasn’t exactly moved by the stories of her life, nor did I follow the chronology of her story, I am now inspired by “The Year of Less” to try a spending ban again.
What I learned from “The Year of Less”
I can relate to feeling good about having some freedom to spend money lately after I restricted myself before our baby was born and during maternity leave. I knew I wouldn’t be bringing in my editing paychecks for three months and that my only income would be from blogging, so I cut back on spending unless it was necessary for the baby or Victoria. But now I want to be more mindful of how I am spending money again, because we have home-related expenses I want to save for, and I also want to save more in general. While it sounds so simple and obvious, I have been forgetting to save first and then spend, with the exception of my 401(k), HSA and childcare savings accounts. I want to stash more away in a separate savings for travel, and I want to save more for our children’s future.
While I haven’t set my specific rules for a new spending ban, I will be putting that together soon. I also want to declutter yet again. Cait’s advice for embarking on your own spending ban is to declutter first. She also took an inventory of all her belongings, but I don’t think I’ll go that in depth. I am always looking for items to declutter, but moving this summer opened my eyes to how much I didn’t know we had in storage because it was out of sight. While I can’t get rid of all of it because some of it belongs to Graham, I will be looking for what is mine and assessing whether I truly want to hang onto it.
One thing I realized I have been doing with my wardrobe for so long is buying items for the person I want to be vs. the person I am. This is a habit “The Year of Less” reminded me I was doing. When I look at the clothes in my closet, I don’t have much, but I don’t have much to wear on a daily basis because I own dresses and then lounging clothes, but nothing in between. I realized I need casual everyday clothes that I will actually wear during the week while working from home and running errands. Lately I have been wearing the same three pairs of shorts and same four tanks and tees, but when the weather changes I will be left with nothing to wear other than leggings. I will be purchasing some pants and attempting to create a sort of capsule wardrobe for the fall of items that I actually wear and will hopefully make excellent purchases that last. Wish me luck!
Have you read “The Year of Less”? Have you ever done a spending ban? What did you learn from either?
Read “The Year of Less”**
Consider donating it when you’re done!
Related posts:
Thoughts on “Girl, Wash Your Face”
Thoughts on “Joy of Less”
Marette Flora is the founder of Floradise blog and personalized gift shop. Marette is a passionate storyteller and creator. She attended the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and obtained a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication.
She is passionate about creating helpful and meaningful things.