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

“This book is such a gift. A gift for anyone who’s ever wanted to change but has been afraid—afraid to fail, afraid of what we might discover about ourselves as we strip back the layers, and afraid of what will happen if we don’t.

While my friends were moving on to the next stages of their lives, I was still working on myself.

Couldnt relate more

When I was paying down my debt, I had a practice of sharing my tentative budget at the beginning of each month and posting the final numbers at the end. During those two years, there were months when I put up to 55 percent of my income toward debt repayment. It was a tad aggressive, but I did whatever I had to in order to get my balances down to $0. When that day finally came, I felt freer—lighter—and like the world had opened so many new doors for me. For the first time in my life, I could set real savings goals, like putting aside 20 percent of my income for retirement.

Save first, spend what’s left over.

I would still be allowed to go to restaurants on occasion, but I was not allowed to get takeout coffee—my biggest vice and something I was no longer comfortable spending $100 or more on each month.

I wanted to get to a place where I only bought things I needed when I needed them. I wanted to finally see where my money was going and budget in a way that aligned with my goals and my values. And I really wanted to start spending less and saving more. But it would never happen if I continued to make mindless spending decisions.

I always had a book in front of me.

and without it, life seems somewhat boringgg XD

One of the many ways I mindlessly overspent money in the past was buying two books online instead of one, in order to get the total up to $25 so I could get free shipping. And even buying the first book was almost always done on impulse. I’d hear about something online or from a friend, jump on the website, then find something else that sounded good and add it to my cart, all to get that unpleasant shipping and handling fee down to $0. I did this at least once a month for probably close to a decade.

how is this soooo relatable

The one good thing about all those moves I made in 2013 was that it showed me just how many unread books I owned but knew I didn’t want to read anymore. Some were self-help books for things I no longer needed help with. Others were classics I thought I should read but which always put me to sleep. And more still were for projects I never seemed to get around to. I got rid of most of them in the course of moving—or so I thought.

For whatever reason, I had come into the possession of 36 pens. Nobody needed 36 pens.

Checking back my stuffs, I currently have at least 15 pens. Some had already dried up.

I learned I had a tendency to shut down during conflict.

SAME GHURL

didn’t know you could feel alone while you were in bed with someone,

I hated that I had become the girl who was sitting around, waiting for a guy. But I waited and waited and checked my phone for his messages. They never came through.

I found myself constantly wanting to do anything at all that might brighten my day, or lighten some of the load I was carrying around with me. Often, the “anything” I resorted to was thinking about something I could buy. Because that’s what happens when things hurt.

The real thing to celebrate was that I had felt things and I kept living.

Fortunately, there was an application that could help with this, which pulled together a long list of the 300-plus newsletters I had apparently subscribed to over the years, and put a big red “unsubscribe” button next to each one. Again, there were bookstores, outdoors stores, home decor stores, and department stores. Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. But there were also airlines and travel deal websites that notified me about discount codes and flash sales. I struggled with the decision to remove these future e-mails from my life. I am allowed to spend money on travel this year. Shouldn’t I try to save money whenever I book a trip? I am a personal finance blogger, after all! I can’t tell people I spent more when I could have spent less.

I suddenly felt like I was the only person pretending to be a grown-up in a room of actual grown-ups.

Still, I never felt attached to any one religion. I thought the ceremonies and traditions were beautiful, the sermons deep and meaningful, and the hymns made me want to sing as loud as I could so everyone could hear me. But no religion has ever spoken directly to me, or made me feel comfortable nodding in agreement to its list of beliefs. I won’t put words in my family’s mouths, but I believe the same could be said for most of us, based on the way we were raised and the role religion played—and did not play—in our lives. So Christmas, for us, was not a religious holiday. But yes, there were gifts. Oh, were there ever gifts.