6 Minimalist Habits that Improve Your Life and Money

One thing that I teach is always to live on less than you make. And one thing that I've learned over the years is that this mindset carries into other parts of our life too. So today, I'm going to talk about six minimalist habits that can improve your life and your money. And be sure to drop some of your favorite minimalism tips down below, because I always love hearing from you guys. Now make sure to subscribe and share this episode with a friend. All right, tip number one. Not really money related, but it's very helpful. And that is to simplify your schedule. We live in a world, you guys, where we are like back to back on our calendars, right? I mean, it's just like everything always, there's so much going on, so many commitments. And I feel like as life goes on and different seasons of life change, right? Maybe you get married, maybe you start having kids. Like, it just feels like life gets fuller and fuller. And we feel this need to continue to like rush around and be busy. And what ends up happening is, I think it really does not just affect our money, because it can, us spending money on all this stuff, but also it just affects our peace of mind. Because when you are in a constant state of rush and hurry, it's not healthy for you, it's not good for you. There's a great book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. But he talks about this all the time, about like how we've come as a society and a culture to almost celebrate busyness. But it is not good for us, you guys, it is not good. So being able to look and say, hey, we're gonna choose intentionally to schedule my life in such a way that I have margin, just like we talk about having margin with your money, that actually gives you this level of peace because you have control back and actually time, time to yourself or time to do the things that you really wanna do. We had to do this with our kids. We got to this point that we're like, oh my gosh, there's just too many things. So it was even simple decisions like, okay, everyone gets to choose one thing per semester, one thing, and that's it. Instead of trying to do two or three different things per kid, I mean, it just gets out of control. So being able to have margin in your time is going to give you peace. Number two is to spend money on experiences over possessions. So what I mean by this is this idea of when you experience something with the people that you love, Arthur Brooks talks about this, it actually implements joy into your life. And so when you say, okay, we're going to actually spend more of our time and our money on experiences and enjoying life, it is going to bring you more joy. Now, this is no excuse to be like, okay, great, let's go book a Disney cruise for two weeks, regardless of our money, right? No, we still have to have money for these experiences. We want to be sure that we absolutely budget for them. All that is still very, very important. But there is something to be said when you sit there and just buy a bunch of stuff. I'm saying this to myself, just P.S. And you just buy stuff and buy stuff and buy stuff, buy stuff, and it just kind of keeps just piling on. There is something there that does not bring joy, you guys. Stuff will not bring you joy. It's okay to have some stuff, but actually start navigating and prioritizing experiences over stuff. And that will help with the minimalism in your life because you won't have as much material things, but you're going to have great experiences with people you love. Tip number three is to live on less than you make. So we talked about this earlier, but this is so, so key. When you do a budget, you guys, you want to have margin. You want to get to this point that you get at the bottom and say, okay, here's my income. Here's everything that I spend money on. And you don't want to be in the red, right? You don't want to spend more than what your income you have coming in is. So you want to be able to say, no, I want to be in the black, meaning I have extra money left over. And with that money, be intentional with it, but that is a peaceful place to be. So you can do things like cut out, you know, going out to eat an expensive coffee. You can, you know, there's subscriptions and memberships you're not using. You can do things and cut things out to give yourself that margin because when there's less of this idea of stress with your budget and there's actually a level of peace when you say, yeah, we don't have so much that we're spending money on. We're cutting things out. Again, a level of minimalism, but when it comes to your money, we'll give you so much peace of mind. All right, before I share the rest of my tips, I want to tell you about one of our sponsors, Christian Healthcare Ministries. Just about everything costs more these days. CHM is not health insurance. It's a biblically-based health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours with healthcare costs without sacrificing freedom. You can join CHM at any time, like now. So learn more at chministries.org slash budgets. That's chministries.org slash budgets. All right, tip number four for some minimalism is to declutter the spaces that you're in. So my friend Dawn, who you may know her as Minimal Mom, has talked about, you know, not using rugs in her home anymore because it's one less thing that you have to keep clean. And so you can look at things, you know, get creative when you look around, you know, places in your kitchen or in your bathroom or your closet, where you're like, hey, what are things that I can actually remove and not only create more space and more margin with the physical space around me, but also that, you know, I don't have to keep up this idea of like brain calories of having to choose or think through things, right? So like hers, as an example, you know, the rug, it's like, okay, that's one less thing I have to think about. Like, that's great, right? For me, when I go through my closet and being able to like take things out and like donate or give things away, and I go and I'm like, okay, here's the things in my closet that I actually wear, that I actually like, it's less brain calories to go in and feel like I have to like sort through a bunch of stuff that I don't even like or wear anymore, right? So you're minimalizing not just the space that you're in, but the brain calories it takes to make decisions within those spaces. Tip number five is to cut out toxic relationships. So this is an interesting one because community and friendships, they are such a gift, but sometimes we have relationships in our life that can be very draining and there may be a time and a place to set boundaries, right? This is gonna look different depending on the relationship, but sometimes you end up in, you know, a friendship with someone over time that maybe you weren't even that great of friends, but yet like they are just like taking so much out of you or there's like this codependence or like just some weird elements. And as an adult, you're okay to set some boundaries and say, hey, I may not have the time and the energy to upkeep this relationship. Now, obviously the longer the relationship or if it's family, like there's definitely more elements to this point, but if you do have a toxic relationship in your life, setting a boundary is gonna give you some peace. Tip number six is do a no spend challenge once a year. So I love this because you could take a month and say, hey, we're not gonna buy anything that we don't need, right? We're gonna cover our food, shelter, utilities, transportation, all that's really important, but all this extra stuff that we end up buying, we're gonna cut it out or maybe you take a month and you say, you know, we're gonna eat at home every January. So in January, we're not going out to eat, we're just eating at home. Or maybe you say, I'm not gonna buy shoes for six months. You know, you like find something where you can do a no spend challenge. Maybe it's a category or a specific timeframe. But when you do this, it's amazing to know that not only do you have the discipline for it, but then you also realize how much money you end up spending on stuff that you don't need. And usually that stuff ends up taking up space in your life. And so there's something about this that's so powerful. I did this with my kids last summer because they were just like to this point where they work and they'll make some money here and there around the house. But it was like, can we go to Target? Can we go to Target? Can we go to the toy store? Can I get on Amazon? They just wanted to spend all their money constantly and it was so exhausting. So we finally were like, okay, this summer, you can't spend any money. Kids, you're done, you're done. And it's amazing what ends up happening when it's not even an option to go and buy something. You know, you get creative, you see what you have, you play with what you have. And I think that's true as adults. Like if we told ourselves, no, we're not spending money, you gotta get creative and realize you're gonna be okay. Like you can do this. So needs versus wants is a big conversation here, but all the stuff in the wants category, it's powerful to say, yeah, I'm gonna choose not to spend money on that and to know that you can do this and you will survive it. And you'll save time and money by doing it too, which is great. Now, a great tool when you're doing these kinds of challenges is when you are looking at your budget. And we talked about earlier, even cutting out some expenses to live on less than you make. Having a budget to help guide some of this is so key. And that's why I love EveryDollar. EveryDollar is an incredible budget. It's an app on your phone. And it really does help you stay organized. It helps you stay accountable. And it allows you to visually see the plan that you have for your money. So make sure to check that out. I'll leave the link down below. But check out EveryDollar, create a budget, and start living when you are organized with your money because it is a, again, peaceful way to live. For more minimalism tips, make sure to check out my episode, Life-Changing Lessons I've Learned from Minimalists. You can click here, or if you're listening on podcast, I will leave a link down below. All right, you guys, remember to take control of your money and create a life you love.