Money Monday 6
How We Shifted Our Mindset to Frugal Living
(and how you can too)
Working and living for months at a time out of what we brought in suitcases, was an eye-opening experience, and lead us to a mindset shift towards frugality.
Fast forward 7 years: we are married and everything is frugal living! Covid also made sure of that. We save every dollar we can. We are among many millennials staying with family and saving up to purchase a place of our own.
What is frugal living?
Frugal living is the act of being very intentional with your spending. If done properly, you'll be able to prioritize the things that matter to you most. You'll spend money on things that matter and save money in other areas of your life.
We transitioned off ships in Feb 2022, and now run a successful entertainment business full time, travelling across southern Ontario, and being self-employed has forced us to keep a close eye on our finances.
OUR 3 MINDSET SHIFTS
(realizing we don't need stuff)
1. Minimalism at Sea: Embracing a minimalist lifestyle while living in small quarters on cruise ships.
The experience of living and working in close quarters on cruise ships with limited resources lead to a newfound appreciation for frugality and it forever changed our relationship with having “stuff.” Our crew cabins typically had a bunk bed next to a wardrobe with 2 doors for closet space, a truly travel-sized bathroom, and one shelf suspended above a single desk & chair.
While living with the bare essentials, I even got into researching and reading about minimalism and developed an interest on various aspects of that lifestyle for our future home as well.
What is minimalism?
A minimalist lifestyle is intentionally living with fewer possessions — focusing only on the ones you need. Living with less may be the right choice if you're feeling overwhelmed with clutter, if you're looking for fewer distractions, or if you're looking to cut back on spending.
2. Living with Less: Downsizing personal belongings, and making do with less space and resources.
I can't stress enough the impact it had. When you live out of a suitcase you have a greater appreciation for simple living. Living for months at a time with fewer possessions and making do with limited resources forces you to see the bigger picture of what you actually need in life and what you don’t.
Every time we returned home from a contract, Tyler and I went on these 'purge' sprees where we would clear out unused clutter back home. From clothes to trinkets and even just papers and junk that had accumulated over the years. It always felt great to re-assess what we had and scale down to the most practical, and sentimental possessions.
- Think about when you go on vacation, when you have multiples of something, (accessories, makeup, clothes, shoes, whatever) packing forces you to choose your favourites and/or the most practical/functional, and leave the rest.
The idea is, you chose the ones you either care about most, or that function the best, so you really don’t need the rest, ever. The same principle applies to anything you have in abundance, including sentimental things.
3. The Benefits: Discovering the positive effects of frugal living on personal finances, overall well-being, and the environment.
My third biggest reason for not needing stuff? It was a nice change! The less stuff we found ourselves needing, the less stuff we decided was worth buying. By buying less, we threw out less trash which improved our overall footprint on the environment and we felt better knowing we weren’t spending our hard earned money just using and tossing more “stuff.”
SALARY SAVING
(keeping 80-90% our earnings)
We realize we were in a unique position save on ships because our job eliminated 2 big expenses: housing and food.
This doesn’t mean we never bought food - we did. We would still purchase the occasional restaurant meal on the ship or in port, and also purchase snacks on the ship or at a drug store in port. Or, we’d even ship things like Welch’s fruit snacks from Amazon because they are delicious. But we were still choosy about when and how we spent our hard-earned salary, and every dollar spent became purposeful and intentional.
This doesn’t mean we never bought food - we did. We would still purchase the occasional restaurant meal on the ship or in port, and also purchase snacks on the ship or at a drug store in port. Or, we’d even ship things like Welch’s fruit snacks from Amazon because they are delicious. But we were still choosy about when and how we spent our hard-earned salary, and every dollar spent became purposeful and intentional.
IMPORTANT REMINDER:
You do NOT need to be on cruise ships to start saving more of your paycheck.
We kept our money-saving habits even though now we have MUCH higher business expenses on land, we always aim to offset spending days with zero-spend days.
Traveling on a budget: discovering ways to explore new places without breaking the bank.
We often get asked if we spent a lot on excursions or how we saved so much while travelling.
But you really don’t have to spend any money to experience places. Most of the ports we visited on ships were within walking distance of the tourist attractions or beaches etc. So we only spent money on excursions if there was something specific we wanted to do, like the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.
TOP 3 BENEFITS OF FRUGAL LIVING
(for mental health)
- The importance of self-sufficiency: developing skills to take care of oneself, and relying less on material possessions for happiness.
- Building a community: connecting with other like-minded individuals, and creating a sense of community and support around financial independence.
- Making the most of life: finding joy and fulfillment in small things, and embracing new experiences and challenges.
Regardless of the changes made, the key to successfully adopting a frugal lifestyle is to make it a permanent part of your life.
Overall, the experience of working on a cruise ship was the catalyst for our shift towards frugality, but it could happen anywhere to anyone.
- Adopting your own frugal lifestyle habits can involve starting with small changes, such as cooking at home instead of eating out, cancelling a subscription you can do without, and finding ways to save money by eliminating small everyday purchases (more on this in the coming weeks).
- Living frugally involves being mindful of wants vs needs and finding ways to save money by cutting out the inessentials without sacrificing the things that bring you joy and fulfillment. This does not give you permission to go out and buy yourself something every time it will make you happy in the short term. The point is to be choosy about how you spend the money you spent time earning.
- Some people would call it penny pinching, but I prefer to think of it as being mindful of what’s important. This doesn’t mean you can never treat yourself to that snack at the grocery store, but be mindful of how often you are giving in to your inner 5-year-old.
Taking small but actionable and intentional steps toward frugality will lead you to better financial habits and a more purposeful life. It can also lead to a greater sense of appreciation for the simple things in life and a greater focus on what truly makes you happy.
Shifting towards frugality is a positive change that can lead to greater financial stability, a more sustainable lifestyle, and a greater sense of control over your life.
P.S. Giving thought and appreciation for every dollar that comes in and out of your life can also give you a greater sense of control over your finances. This requires developing good financial habits, such as regularly tracking your spending, creating a budget to avoid unnecessary purchases. Topics I will be diving into in future Money Monday blog posts :).
Grow Your Money
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Testing 1 2 :)
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