Could you live like this (minimally)?

[lxskllr]

I think the guys in the article are confusing debt with having possessions. You don't have to go into debt to buy things:



Here's an idea -- how about only buying things you can pay for outright?

I buy almost everything used. I have a closet full of shoes I've picked up from the thrift shop. Do I need 8 pairs of shoes? Of course not, but you have to get them when you see them. I have a lifetime supply of hand stitched American made shoes I probably paid an average of $5 a pair for. I do that with everything. I look for stuff used before I need it, and while it may be sitting around doing nothing for awhile, when I do need it, I'll save 95%+ of the retail cost.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

I buy almost everything used. I have a closet full of shoes I've picked up from the thrift shop. Do I need 8 pairs of shoes? Of course not, but you have to get them when you see them. I have a lifetime supply of hand stitched American made shoes I probably paid an average of $5 a pair for. I do that with everything. I look for stuff used before I need it, and while it may be sitting around doing nothing for awhile, when I do need it, I'll save 95%+ of the retail cost.

outlet stores + sales = $$$ saved

we have bins of baby clothes most of which cost no more than $2 for a set by shopping sales at the local Childrens Place and Carters outlet stores. The only problem with that is we have BINS of clothes. My wife likes to shop ahead for everything and saves mad money... but again, she like to shop and get a lot.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I buy almost everything used. I have a closet full of shoes I've picked up from the thrift shop. Do I need 8 pairs of shoes? Of course not, but you have to get them when you see them. I have a lifetime supply of hand stitched American made shoes I probably paid an average of $5 a pair for. I do that with everything. I look for stuff used before I need it, and while it may be sitting around doing nothing for awhile, when I do need it, I'll save 95%+ of the retail cost.

I am leaning more towards this strategy just to save more money. As I get older, I'm more willing to pay for experiences than possessions, as I think the payoff is higher (as the article states).

 

[lxskllr]

I am leaning more towards this strategy just to save more money. As I get older, I'm more willing to pay for experiences than possessions, as I think the payoff is higher (as the article states).

Exactly. Every dollar you save on stuff you don't really care about is a dollar you can spend on something you do care about :^)

 

[Martin]

I live somewhat like that - studio apartment, no car, not much stuff, etc. The truth of the matter is, possessions have a high cost beyond the price you pay at the store - you have to store them, clean them, organize them, use them etc etc. Owning too much is pretty depressing and taxing.

Having said that, owning too little is no good either - for example, my place felt pretty empty and cold until I got a rug, some paintings and a TV. Now it feels quite comfortable.

I don't mind buying stuff and paying decent money for a quality, I just have to be sure that I'll use it regularly and appreciate it, otherwise it's not worth it.

 

[KeithTalent]

I definitely could and I've even considered it; I have a fair amount of stuff, but I could live without all of it quite easily.

KT

 

[Modelworks]

Yep I could without problems. I went from a job making 4x more than I do now and I don't miss anything I had before. Remember all you need is food, shelter and clothing.
Once you realize that , life becomes easy . People confuse needs with wants too much and think that if they can only get more of their 'needs' they can be happy. They spend their lives stressed and overworked for an imaginary goal of where happiness begins and they die never being happy because that goal was never obtainable.

 

[Modelworks]

I
Here's an idea -- how about only buying things you can pay for outright?

I do that now. I am in zero debt . I don't owe a loan, credit card, or anything else. I pay cash if I can afford it, or use a savings account if I cannot till I can afford it.

 

[Jeff7]

I live somewhat like that - studio apartment, no car, not much stuff, etc. The truth of the matter is, possessions have a high cost beyond the price you pay at the store - you have to store them, clean them, organize them, use them etc etc. Owning too much is pretty depressing and taxing.
...

Then you go buy more stuff so you can store your stuff, then a bigger house to store the stuff, but then you have more space, so you can buy more stuff.
</Carlin>

And of course, Steven Wright: "You can't have everything - where would you put it?"

 

[DanDaManJC]

but without our consumer culture, how would our economy survive? obviously it wouldn't (in its current form), but it'd be interesting to see how things pan out...

id be most worried about technological advances -- that is, without the extra tax revenue, there'd be big cuts in everything, including academic research. or maybe costs would just be lower all around and current research levels could be continued.

 

[reallyscrued]

I doubt it, since it seems like they're counting *everything*. I could hit 100 on clothing and cookware/utensils alone.

As a reasonable minimum...
7x underwear (should be able to get through a week)
7x socks
5x work shirts
5x undershirts
5x work pants
5x casual shirts
5x casual pants/shorts (warm weather)
5x casual pants/shorts (cold weather)
1x jacket
1x coat
1x gloves (winter)
1x warm hat (winter)
4x plates
4x bowls
4x forks
4x knives
4x spoons
4x cups
1x chef's knife
1x spatula
1x cutting board
1x skillet
1x pot/dutch oven

Hmm, that's 67..maybe it would be feasible. Although between cleaning supplies, tools, furniture, and miscellaneous others (car/computer/etc) I bet I'd be over 100. And honestly I feel like I was pretty conservative with the clothing.

Is that really how they are counting things? I guess my 280 piece toolset tips the scale...
Is my 5.1 surround sound system considered 6 posessions? Would downgrading to plain-jane stereo allow me to cross 3 things off the list?

This is bogus. Counting up items, hah. If you spend money on stupid shit, just stop buying stupid shit. No need to make quotas on the number of items you possess. I mean, sure, maybe if you have TVs in every room in your house you could do without some of them...

 

[bignateyk]

If you have a house, it is impossible to have <100 possessions.

Unless you plan to pay someone else to perform all house/yard maintenance/upgrades. In which case you're an idiot.

Currently my wife and I three sources of debt: My car, My student loans, and our mortgage.

We are planning on selling her car to pay my car off, then using the money we save on not having a car payment, and not paying for gas/insurance/maintenance on her car to pay off my student loans. (only 15K left).

I don't really mind having a mortgage.

We are trying to cut our spending so that we could live off of just my salary and still save some money. Right now we depend on both our salaries (but still save 50% of her salary). I'd like to save 100% of her salary.

 

[nageov3t]

I've lived like that and not by choice.

so could I do it? sure. but I'd never volunteer to.

 

[Farang]

Americans have a sickness that makes us want to consume. We're like addicts. It is really strange to see, I swear most people take up hobbies just to buy shit. When they talk about their hobbies, it seems half of the talk is about what they can buy next to solve whatever problem they are having.

I think it is American ingenuity run amok, that can-do problem-solving spirit when placed in an entirely comfortable environment without much problems. Take the men who planned and built the transcontinental railroad, make them the managers of a Walmart, give them a house in Salina, KS, and this is the sort of thing that happens.

 

[vi edit]

If I didn't have a family, probably. But it would take a retooling of my life. If you are even the least bit of a hobbiest this philosphy is completely thrown out the door. Photography, cooking, woodworking, scrapbooking, whatever...all of these hobbies have an entourage of things that accompany them.

 

[vshah]

the key to being debt free is never getting into debt in the first place.

/hugs all my stuff

 

[InflatableBuddha]

I don't know that I could take it to the extreme outlined in the article, but I try to consume less.

I don't hesitate to spend money on travel, experiences, and events in favour of things.

I usually only buy new items when I wear out older ones, and every so often I do a purge of books, clothes, etc. and donate those items to charity. I drive an old car and I rent a basement suite. Even though I buy less than most people and I'm debt-free, I probably still have more stuff than I need.

Off the top of my head, I have a whole bookcase stacked with board games I've acquired and played over the years. I don't play them very much anymore, but just when I think I should get rid of them, there's an opportunity to play them again.

 

[ivan2]

so what's stopping her to keep the 40k job and live simply? it's not hard to not buy what u don't need.

 

[bignateyk]

so what's stopping her to keep the 40k job and live simply? it's not hard to not buy what u don't need.

I think she didn't like the 40K job, and is much happier working from home at her new job.

 

[SunnyD]

Been there, done that. Lived life on an air mattress in a rented bedroom a couple years ago. Also been in much worse situations too.

 

[nageov3t]

I think she didn't like the 40K job, and is much happier working from home at her new job.

her kids are going to be thrilled with their student loans and hand-me-down clothes because mommy and daddy couldn't suck it up in their real world jobs.

 

[bignateyk]

her kids are going to be thrilled with their student loans and hand-me-down clothes because mommy and daddy couldn't suck it up in their real world jobs.

My graduation gift from my parents was transferring $30K of loans they took out to pay for part of my college into my name. Most kids were getting cars.

My parents make that much money in less than 2 months. They could have easily paid for my college. They just (rightfully) expected me to earn it myself.

Kids feel entitled to way too many things these days. I think it's good for them to have to suck it up and not be spoiled.

 

[Sumguy]

I could live that way, but I wouldn't want to.

If things keep going as they are now, I will graduate college with absolutely no debt. If I stop eating out all the time (I plan to, my new apartment is far away from all the restaurants) it will be very easy for me to graduate with a very nice chunk of money in the bank. My parents haven't paid for a dime until this summer (I needed to buy a bed and some cash to make it through the summer). I fully intend to pay them back after graduation, if they accept it or not. If they try and refuse, they're gonna get a very nice home entertainment system out of the blue.

With no loans to pay off and (hopefully) a degree in engineering, my first course of action other than finding a job will be finding a cheap apartment to live in. I'll keep the car I have now for as long as possible, and with my dad being a retired mechanic, its entirely possible to keep it maintained very well for a long time.

During this time, most of the money I make goes directly into savings. After two or three years I might consider getting a better apartment.

Coming from a family that made, on a GOOD year, about fifteen thousand less than what an engineer makes on their first job, I think I'll be fine. Got all the "HOLY SHIT LOOK AT ALL THIS MONEY, AND ITS MINE!" out freshman year.

 

[Zargon]

no i could not.

my wife and i wouldn't be able to travel anywhere with a 24k/yr income.

aint much left after mortgage and escrow!

sounds like they are a little special. if they could do this, how could they not just trim back sum and not be in debt?

I love stuff, but I wont go into debt buying it anymore, learned that when I was 19 and made a mess of myself.

my house, my wifes car, and my wifes student loans are the only debt we carry, we put some money in savings everymonth and always pay off the CC we use.

not being able to do that without cutting yourself back to that extreme pretty much means they had a serious problem and needed help.

 

[morkus64]

All things in moderation.

What I'm trying to do is still have stuff but get rid of THINGS. E.g., I have something like 13 boxes of books, so I'm getting a kindle, and plan on going scan crazy for a day on whatever I can't find online so I can get it down to 1 box of books that I keep because the book is either special in some way (sentimental) or just more useful in book form than digitally (some art books, etc).

I'm also trying to winnow down my clothes to the point where I've got what I need but nothing I barely wear, but I don't plan on going to the extreme that I have to do laundry every few days.

In the end, the goal is that everything I own will fit in my Beetle.