The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store

by Cait Flanders

Aside from the car I had financed, most of my previous debt was a result of dining out and partying—living a lifestyle I couldn’t afford because my credit cards made it affordable.

Yes, you only live once. And you should enjoy it. But not if it means breaking your budget or going into debt for it. There’s nothing fun about debt, and there is certainly no acronym to change that.

They would always make little digs at my intentions that would try to put cracks in the tiny bit of willpower I was still standing on, because people will always make comments when you decide to live a countercultural lifestyle. I couldn’t avoid it, the same way I couldn’t avoid anything else that could cause me to think about spending money. There were always going to be outside influences at play. But I could change my reactions to them—and that change had to start within.

Advertisements and marketing campaigns had conditioned me to believe everything was now or never. It never occurred to me to wait until I actually needed something. The truth, I was learning, was that we couldn’t actually discover what we needed until we lived without it.

I should have known by now that anything was possible if I made it a priority.

I also didn’t want to work at a job where all I cared about was getting a promotion and a raise every year, and when you live in a big city, it can feel like that’s all there is to work toward. More work, more money, more stuff. I didn’t want any of it. And now, I didn’t need any of it. All I needed was to make enough money to live, save, and occasionally travel, and the shopping ban showed me exactly how much that would cost.

When something triggers you, figure out what else you can do—besides spending money—and do it repeatedly, until it eventually becomes second nature.