For a long time now my husband and I have kept track of our savings and spending using budgeting programs on our computer. We record pretty much every cent we spend so we know where the money is going.

Recently we bought a new Apple Mac Mini so our old software is no longer compatible. We downloaded and tried out a couple of free software programs but have not been to happy with the performance of these. I have been persevering with one anyway just so we can keep track of things as usual but after today we have decided that we really don’t need to do this any more.

There are two reasons for this. One is that we have now paid off our home loan so we don’t need to keep track. Nor do we need to keep track our spending so much either since not having a home loan means we have a lot more disposable income. But the best reason is that today when I was inputting and balancing our spending against the online banking statement I noticed that there was very little to keep track of any more.

The input went a bit like this…

groceries, groceries, groceries, groceries,auto (gas/petrol), groceries, groceries, groceries, groceries,auto (gas/petrol), groceries, groceries, groceries, groceries,auto (gas/petrol).

As you can see, we really don’t do a lot of shopping these days except to buy groceries or fill up the car and motorbike. The bit of cash that goes in my wallet usually goes on having coffee with friends, more groceries and hand outs to our son for school supplies and other incidentals.

Most other things we buy replace an old favourite, so there isn’t any clutter coming into our house to take the place of the stuff heading out the door. This is the key to staying decluttered and it also means we have more savings to spend on the things that are more important to us like:

• A nice meal out together occasionally
• Travel
• Being able to get the car serviced without having to worry where the money is coming from
• If any unexpected medical expenses crop up we have nothing to worry about except our health

I am sure there are many more things but these are the few that jump into my head immediately.

With that accomplished the next target is to get my husband semi-retired by the time he turns fifty.

ITEM 184 OF 365 LESS THINGS

More personal clutter ready for the recycling bin

I live in a city on with a population of about 160,000. So far I have explored very little of the area and have decided it is about time I made a bigger effort to find out more about the wonderful ways to spend time in this fascinating city without it involving shopping.

I meet a friend for coffee at least one day a week and usually we get together at the local shopping centre because it is convenient and there are plenty of cafes to choose from. The problem with this arrangement is that once we have finished dining there is nothing else to do there except shop. As you know I have no desire to buy anything other than food and other necessities these days so shopping just isn’t my thing and I am getting the reputation of being the “Shopping Nazi” because I am always telling my friend “you don’t need that” so I need some interesting alternatives.

I will start investigating immediately and have something nice to do this Wednesday when she calls…

…pause here to investigate on the internet…

…I have visited churches and cathedrals all over Europe and yet I have never been inside the big cathedral in my own town perhaps this week would be a good time to do that. In future we could take a stroll on the beach, go to the art gallery, take a drive to one of the small outlying towns to explore or even do some kind of city tour and learn some history of the region.

ITEM 165 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Another record sold on ebay this one went for $15.00

While blog hopping I ran across a list which I have put a link to below which gives a list of 100 things that are free to enjoy and make life happier. It got me thinking that there were a lot of items on that list that were great alternative to shopping. Things that cost nothing or next to nothing but are a lot more social, healthy, educational, uplifting. rewarding… need I go on.

Here are some of the things I could and do take advantage of on a regular basis

• Go for a walk
• Go to the beach
• Spending time with friends
• Sitting back and enjoying the view. (Anywhere even people watching can be fun)
• Having a cup of tea on my patio and listening to the birds singing
• Doing a favour for a friend
• Go to the library and borrow a book sit and read there for a while
• Write a blog about something you are passionate about (trust me that can take up plenty of time)
• Read other peoples blogs they can be very informative and uplifting
• Enjoy a hobby (join of group to enjoy this with)
• Visit some art galleries
• Go to a museum (look closely at things the time will fly)
• Do some decluttering (I had to throw that one in)

The list could just go on and on and there is no time for shopping with all this stuff to do and the pleasurable memories linger longer than any joy of acquiring another item that I will soon tire of and waste money on.

Here is the link that I promised at the start of my post.

100+ free things to make life happier

ITEM 157 OF 365 LESS THINGS

The box of baseball cards I am so happy to have found a home for on Freecycle

I would just like to say at this point that although Pack Wars can be a fun activity collector cards are really just a form of gambling. Any activity where you outlay money for an item with a value unknown in the hope that it will be worth more than what you paid for it is gambling.

One of the most important lessons I have learned since taking on this challenge of 365 less things is that resisting the temptation from retail assault is not a futile exercise, it can be done. As I have mentioned before I hardly ever go shopping anymore except to buy my groceries and I am fine with that in fact I feel that I have the upper hand in some kind of battle of wills.

I did have a little head start or incentive if you like before I made the conscious decision stop spending on things that might ultimately become clutter. After living in the United States for seven years, I just couldn’t bring myself to pay the prices that the same products command here in Australia so I had already cut back.

When we took on the decluttering challenge one of the rules we made for ourselves was that if something new came into the house something else had to leave.  Since we are already busy picking and choosing what stays and what goes we really don’t want to make any more work for ourselves.

We have however upgraded our computer (a half tower for a mac mini) replaced a big stereo system with a new iPod docking station and bought an iPod touch so we don’t have to lug a laptop around with us on our next vacation but that is about it for the shopping this year. Even though this sounds like a big outlay the purpose behind these purchases aside from keeping up with technology, was to downsize the amount of space the old items were taking up in our home or our backpacks.

I have not bought any clothes,  accessory items, books, useless knick knacks, craft supplies, even birthday cards (I am using up my stocks or making them myself) or numerous other things that I used to buy that I have already forgotten I ever wanted.  It is amazing to realize how easy the transition was and although my friends might all think I am a scrooge I am very happy with the situation and don’t plan on changing back (I will not be assimilated).

ITEM 135 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Another pair of ski pants sold on eBay for $19.50

I no longer look at the decluttering process as a chore in fact I really enjoy it. I look for the positive in in every little effort I make. I no longer focus on the enormity of the task and just revel in the good feelings I get every time  a piece of clutter leaves my house. There is such a feeling of accomplishment and freedom associated with ridding myself  of objects that bring me stress rather than the joy I thought they represented when I brought them into my life.

I have almost forgotten what the feeling is like that is evoked by retail therapy. I think I was pretty much over shopping before this decluttering process even started or maybe that was the catalyst. Whenever I am forced to go to my local shopping centre usually that is just for groceries these days, I actually feel sorry for all the people around me clamoring for one item or another that they feel is lacking in their lives.

I suggest if you are not feeling this way about your efforts with decluttering you should just take a little time out and think about…

• how you are are feeling about the clutter (how it now feels like it owns you, how you feel smothered by it, the quilt when you look at all that stuff you are sorry ever came into your life in the first place).
• how you are hoping to feel once it is gone (the freedom, how clear the air feels, the stress relief, the lessons learned and maybe even the lifting of the financial burden when you have learned to buy less in the first place)
• the relief you feel every time you remove an item from your space  (the joy of accomplishment, how every little thing makes a difference, one more battle won, one more step to freedom and a simpler, happier life)

Focus on the good feelings to keep you motivated and when you falter remember the bad feeling and how you don’t want to go back there and keep on forging ahead.

ITEM 129 OF 365 LESS THINGS

I thought I would give you a break from snow gear and throw in this computer desk the was far too bulky for the space we had it in.

When I first started this adventure of decluttering at the beginning of the year that was all it was to me, decluttering. As I go along on this journey and discover the freedom that unburdening our lives of things that only bring stress on us I am starting to embrace the idea of taking it to the next level.

It really is a natural progression because the fundamentals of minimalism  have been a constant topic of conversation in our home for some years mostly without me even realising it. My husband has been reading up and considering the options available to us  for some time now and I have only just put a label to the concept.

In a round about way I stumbled onto a blog recently – Sanity In Simplicity – that follows one person’s journey into to minimalist lifestyle. I haven’t read that much of her posts yet but what I have read I have enjoyed.

Here is a small sample from the very first post from Megan’s blog….

Minimalism means many things to many people.  To me, it is a way to declutter my space so that I can declutter my mind so that I can declutter my life and sort out my priorities.  It a way to have more time and less stress, and be more environmentally friendly.  It means working less and playing more.  Minimalism, to me, is freedom…

Megan has some links to other great blogs about minimalism as well that are worth a look at.

Maybe next year I will have a whole new blog topic to consider “How I stumbled into minimalism” but lets not get ahead of ourselves after all one step at a time is the motto of 365lessthings.

ITEM 128 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This is another of my ski gear eBay auctions, a pair of child size 10 Columbia Snowboard Pants that fetched $32.95.

Remember my blog way back on Day 86 when I decided to find a way to use up all my gift wrap items that seemed to be multiplying rather than diminishing in the linen closet.

Well this weekend I attended a lovely get-together in the wine region of the Hunter Valley to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday. The weekend which included wine and cheese tastings, a lovely lunch, a bus to take us to all our destinations  and overnight accommodation, cost us all $270 each.

I felt inclined to provide a gift even though I was sure one wasn’t expected due to the financial outlay for the event. So I decided to find something within my home rather than resort to outlaying more funds. I had a few bottles of red wine that we had been cellaring for a couple of years and a lovely decorated  cylinder for the purpose of giving wine as a gift. I have had the cylinder for about five years, it was one of those items I bought but found were too nice to give away (How silly, I know). I also had an extra pashmina my husband had picked up when buying gifts for my work friends while on a recent trip to the Middle East.

I put the wine in the lovely cylinder and the pashmina in a small gift bag from my collection of recyclable gift wrap items and felt quite satisfied with the present I had to offer and at the same time had removed 4 items from my home that had just been lying around waiting for someone to appreciate. To top it off I printed a copy of a secret family recipe she had been wanting for years ( I may be in trouble with my Mum for that) and put it in with the handmade birthday card my mother had made for her.

Needless to say it was a wonderful weekend. She was happy just to have all her friends around her and as I thought she wasn’t expecting any gifts and she enjoyed a little too much making a phone call to my mother dobbing me in for giving her the secret family recipe which she was more impressed with receiving than any other part of the gift. I am happy to have had the wonderful experience and to be four items lighter in the quest to clear my house.

ITEM 124 OF 365 LESS THINGS

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I check the bathroom cupboards I always come up with one more thing that (or in this case three more things) that are for some reason of no use to us or past their used by date.

On day 119 I spoke briefly about sorting through my warranties and manuals.  I received a comment from Jen who suggested using Manuals on-line to source the manuals on line and saving them to a file on your computer for when and if you need them. You could also just access them online when you need them saving room on your hard drive but you relying on the fact that they will be available indefinitely.

Steph said:-I spent the afternoon tossing old manuals and finding the rest online. Now I have a Google Docs folder with PDFs of everything I still own. I found most of them on the manufacturers web sites.

I was having trouble accessing IKEA assembly manuals on the Australian website but using google I found this web address  for IKEA where I found most of the ones I needed.

Sometimes you need to google what you are looking for and plough through a few web sites to find exactly what you want but it is worth the effort so you don’t have to store gobs of paperwork that takes up valuable file drawer space.

ITEM 123 OF 365LESS THINGS

I finally got all the snow clothing out of the cupboard on the weekend (one of those jobs I have been avoiding) and put it all on eBay.  All that is except the pair of men’s pants that had a hole in the leg and a ripped lining – I don’t know why I hadn’t already tossed them out- and 2 pair of goggles that the foam fining had perished while stuck in the cupboard unused.

The auctions are going well 5 out of 10 things already have bids on and anything that doesn’t sell will be going to the thrift shop.

While writing this I realised that I forgot to put the other pairs of goggles on eBay so I had better take care of that shortly. I think there may be another jacket in my son’s closet as well so I have better check that out.

That certainly freed up some room in one cupboard.

I don’t know why I had been avoiding this job for so long but it is a good thing I decided to do it now because Australia is about to move into winter and the ski season will be starting soon so now is the perfect time to put ski gear on eBay. That is a good tip to remember – Consider the seasons when selling on eBay some things will sell better at certain times of the year.

ITEM 117 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These are the pants I had to toss because they were torn.

Last year we decluttered the garage by one whole car. Now I know you thought this post was going to be about cleaning out the garage and in a way it is because  we  made a whole lot more space by getting rid of one of our cars.

Granted this car was only bought because my husband had to work 500km away from home for almost a whole year and only came home every other weekend but never the less we could have kept the car for the convenience when he came back but we didn’t.

The money we have saved not paying for insurance, licensing (rego to you Aussies) and  maintenance alone never mind how much more we would have spent on petrol (gas) just because it was there and we could is insane. My husband rides a motorbike to work which is way cheaper to own and run than a car and I live about a 20 minute walk to my work so it is no effort to get there if my husband needs the car so it really hasn’t been difficult to manage without it.

I am sure we could even cope if my husband sold his motorbike too and maybe that is an option if I committed myself to using man power rather than horse power more often.

Choosing our home with a location convenient to shops and work has saved us a whole lot of cash because of the lack of the necessity for expensive travel costs.

ITEM 114 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Today’s item, a car sun shade was in the old car when we bought it and somehow managed to be left in the garage when we sold it I did attempt to find it useful at one point be kept forgetting to use it so out it goes