{"id":13398,"date":"2011-09-05T09:10:34","date_gmt":"2011-09-05T15:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sustainablog.org\/?p=13398"},"modified":"2011-09-05T09:10:34","modified_gmt":"2011-09-05T15:10:34","slug":"voluntary-simplicity-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/voluntary-simplicity-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Voluntary Simplicity: My 30-Day Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"saving<\/a>In September 2009, I took on a little experiment: I wanted to go a whole month without spending any money.\u00a0 I would pay my bills as usual, but that\u2019s it.\u00a0 For food, I was fortunate to live in a community where I exchanged a few hours of labor each week for my meals, so that part took care of itself.\u00a0 Most people who take on a challenge like this<\/a> (see another example on MSN<\/a>) allow themselves to buy groceries as normal, or stock up on dry goods beforehand and then limit shopping to perishables such as vegetables and dairy.\u00a0 The important thing is to deliberately create a sense of scarcity, and turn your life into a bit of a never-ending scavenger hunt.\u00a0 It\u2019s more fun than you might believe.<\/p>\n

Within a day of starting the experiment, my outlook had changed in many ways.\u00a0 Once the no-spending rule was imposed, my brain happily lept up to the challenge of finding alternate solutions. \u00a0I biked to work every day, saving my car and half-tank of gas for emergency use only. \u00a0I had planned to buy a new bike light, but instead I looked through my drawers and found about four different flashlights, and on the ride into work that morning, I brainstormed different ways of attaching one of the lights to my handlebars.\u00a0 I found myself creating a mental list of supplies I might use.\u00a0 I could find some bailing wire in the garage\u2026 there\u2019s some duct tape in my tub of camping supplies\u2026 I could ask Chris if there\u2019s any extra hose clamps lying around\u2026\u00a0 This was exciting.\u00a0 I decided to use wire to make a little mount that I could clip my headlamp into, and then refined the design over the next few days.<\/p>\n

When other projects or needs came up, I spent time pawing through our garage and workshop to find little spare parts that might be repurposed.\u00a0 I went to the library instead of the bookstore.\u00a0 I borrowed from friends.\u00a0 The best part was that all of this felt like a game.\u00a0 Every time I found a way to solve a problem, within the constraint of not spending a single penny, I got a little bolt of satisfaction and pride.\u00a0 The money-free solution felt better<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Voluntary Simplicity: what it is, and why it matters<\/h3>\n

There is a large and well-established movement around simplifying and downsizing our complex modern lives<\/a>.\u00a0 The term \u201cvoluntary simplicity\u201d was coined by Richard Gregg in 1936, and later in the century the movement was popularized and canonized by authors such as Duane Elgin (Voluntary Simplicity<\/em>, Promise Ahead<\/em>) and Vicki Robin (Your Money or Your Life<\/em>). \u00a0Especially given today\u2019s still-sickly economic situation, there\u2019s never been a better time to look at how you might get more of what you want \u2013 happiness, satisfaction, health, fun, and time with your family and friends \u2013 while spending less money than ever.\u00a0 By cutting down on clutter, obligations, expenses, and distractions, you can do much to re-focus your life around what you truly value, and what truly makes you happy.<\/p>\n

Duane Elgin writes a regular column for the Huffington Post, and last week<\/a> he highlighted some key aspects of voluntary simplicity, and allayed some common fears.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to move out into the woods and live a drab, impoverished life.\u00a0 To the contrary, people who practice some level of voluntary simplicity have more stable finances, more time for friends, hobbies, and leisure, and generally report improved overall well-being.\u00a0 The operative word here is voluntary<\/em>.\u00a0 You give up what you want to give up \u2013 the stuff that you know isn\u2019t helping you anyways<\/em>.\u00a0 The practice is simply to look carefully at each expense, obligation, and project on your list, and then ask which of those you might happily give up.\u00a0 The only rules are the ones you choose to make for yourself; everyone who practices voluntary simplicity has their own version.<\/p>\n

I did end up spending some money during my month-long challenge.\u00a0 On the 8th<\/sup>, I bought a replacement gas cap for my car, to stop fuel from evaporating from the tank.\u00a0 On the 13th<\/sup>, I donated 10 dollars to hear one of my favorite spiritual teachers give a talk at a local venue.\u00a0 On the 24th<\/sup>, I walked to a health-food store and bought lemon juice and honey to nurse my sore throat.\u00a0 And on the 25th<\/sup>, I paid for a haircut so that I could look decent at work.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 That\u2019s all I spent.\u00a0 For the most part, I didn\u2019t miss being able to spend money.\u00a0 I still had fun, I still spent time with friends, and with all the the time spent tinkering in the garage, I felt more empowered and liberated than usual.\u00a0 There\u2019s also the bonus of a good bottom line: for the month of September, 55% of my post-tax income went straight into a savings account.\u00a0 That\u2019s over ten times the average American savings rate, according to the government\u2019s most recent data<\/a>.\u00a0 Not too shabby.<\/p>\n

A month without money was an extreme experiment, and never intended to go long-term.\u00a0 After the month ended I let myself shop again, but I found that I wasn\u2019t very interested in doing so, and since then I\u2019ve been a bit more frugal overall.\u00a0 I thought it was a fine introduction to the practice of mindful consumption.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t like my dive-in approach to simplifying your life, an alternate strategy is to slowly experiment with cutting back just a little bit.\u00a0 Observe how often you eat out, or go to a mall, or order something online, and try reducing that by one-third.\u00a0 Once in a while, try to have a fun outing based entirely on free venues such as libraries, parks, and free museums, and see how it feels compared to more expensive forms of recreation and entertainment.\u00a0 But be careful: once you find that frugality can be a fun game, you just might get hooked!<\/p>\n

Photo by Ersler Dmitry<\/a> via Shutterstock<\/a>.\u00a0 Used with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In September 2009, I took on a little experiment: I wanted to go a whole month without spending any money.\u00a0 I would pay my bills as usual, but that\u2019s it.\u00a0 [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":13402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[5328,3928,288,1047,459,5329,2386],"yoast_head":"\nVoluntary Simplicity: 30 Days with No Spending<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brian Scoles discusses his own 30-Day challenge in voluntary simplicity in which he gave up spending money for a month.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/voluntary-simplicity-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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