The Living With Less Evolution

Since my recent post about living with less I have found myself making a shift in thinking. For a couple of years now I've tried not to go to stores for entertainment purposes. Even still it can be difficult. It's still a necessity to head to a store for legitimate reasons and once there it can SO easy to load up a cart with $100 worth of $4-$5 items. It has been interesting since writing the recent post that I have stopped myself regularly to ask myself questions like these:

• Is this something that will help us get outdoors and spend time together - live a happier, healthier lifestyle?
• Is this a genuine need for basic every day living?
• Do we already have several of these?
• Where am I going to store this?
• How long will we get use from this or can I expect it will last?
• Do I want this more than I want the money?

It's been a great experience to have this same conversation with The Man when we are shopping together. We are happily generally in agreement in these conversations and working together on spending makes our relationship a little stronger and we feel more like a team. I think we're both passionate about the idea that we'd rather spend money having great experiences than on things we don't need.

I have been selling a few things on eBay or Craigslist that I no longer need. I have a lot of pretty high heels I no longer wear. I'm keeping a basic supply but several have gone to new homes. I also donated the box of mediocre handbags yesterday.

I can see now that this is going to be an evolution in some ways and an ongoing process. The interesting thing is that while acting on my decisions to live with less, I'm actually living with more. My life is less focused on stuff and more focused on spending time doing things I love with people I love. I'm outside more, I'm more active, participating in  a greater variety of activities and going to a wider range of interesting places. As the spending decreases, the benefits and rewards only seem to increase.

Have you made spending changes recently? What are you doing differently? What have you cleansed from your life this week? Are you feeling lighter? This has been a great conversation so far and I really appreciate your contributions to it. Thanks!