The No Spend Year: How I spent less and lived more by Michelle Mcgagh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
at a period when i am struggling to find meaning in saving and curb my spending, i found this book.
i made a grave mistake of overspending because of too much disposable income. i dont have much responsibility financially but in ignorance, i spend. so one day i made a rough calculation that if i had saved a thousand dollar every month since i got married, i would have had $60K worth of savings now. yup, that’s a huge amount of money. when i saw that number and the realisation that money gone don’t know where, i had a huge knock on the head. so numbed by the amount of money i spent. i roughly had 1/3 of that amount i should have saved. and it had remained that way coz i kept on spending.
i started decluttering bit by bit. giving away or re-selling stuffs i bought but i didnt use. make ups i bought but never used and over bought dresses and realised i don’t really like the colour or the pattern, ended up not wearing them. it was a lot of stuffs. i was in shame. i was disappointed in myself for not thinking far ahead.
i made so many resolutions. tried to minimise. only this year, i felt i made minuscule progress. for one thing, i have not touched my savings account. so let’s stay at that. please. and i wanted to focus on paying off my card. that’s the aim. that i should be able to clear off everything by December 2017.
i cannot spend like a teenager. i must start saving for the future.
reading this made me feel that i am not alone. that it is possible to ban yourself from shopping. that it is possible to live in minimal.
changes i made this year:
previous years i always went crazy over a malaysian boutique’s dresses and shawls. and yes, i might have spent hundreds on them. but this year, alhamdulillah, even though i still follow the brand and was up to date of their new collections, i have not bought any. for the past 5 months, i only bought two pairs of blouses, which totalled to $40 and a baju kurung of $60. and only recently bought two dresses which cost me $100. and even then, it took me many days to really think about and made the decision of buying. that’s an improvement, i have to say. previously, i would just buy them without a second thought.
i have not bought shoes. i had several times, liked a shoe and thought of buying them online. but i have made the conscious effort of going to the shops, have a try and then decide again if whether i really like it, do i really need it (which is usually No) and do i feel comfortable wearing it, am i goingto wear it often, will it match my usual attires? and twice, i made this effort and realised i don’t really like or i don’t need them.
i bought one bag. which is part of a buy one get one discount. technically there’s two bags there, but i gave the other one to my sister who happened to like the same bag. so it was a bonus.
my weakness is still books though. but i have never regretted buying books as much as other things. but that does not mean i have to keep on buying. if i can manage it, i probably make a rule that i can only buy two books per month. and that the total purchase must not exceed $100. i truly have more books which i have yet to read!
staying in my beloved parc vera house gives me that chance of sitting in my reading room and devote an hour or two to just reading. i perfectly enjoyed it.
So i hope i can persevere in this challenge to save more and more. and who knows, perhaps its a reason to quit when i have enough savings.
living seri 