In 2019 I spent $72,000.
In 2020 I spent $31,600.
In 2021 I spent $20,800 (and half of that was materials for builds and an out of pocket surgery).
I aim to spend less than $10,000 in 2022.
Don’t ask about 2023; it’s a surprise.
After that point, I think I’ll be able to stop thinking about money almost entirely. When I need some, I’ll have some. I won’t have a budget and I won’t maintain an expenses spreadsheet like I do now. I might jot down my account balances once a year, but money will occupy almost no space in my brain.
“Quality of Life” has been trending up and to the right, however. Coincidence?
I’m not a naturally frugal person. Even as a little kid, when we went to the movies, I’d have the whole box of skittles stuffed in my cheeks like a squirrel before the previews were over. (My brother, on the other hand, would make his box of MnMs last until the next time we went to the movie theater. Baffling.)
I’ve always liked the idea of being frugal, much as I’ve always liked the idea of being as clever and quick on my feet as James Bond. Alas, I’m naturally loose with whatever money I have just as I’m naturally quite slow-witted. If I’m to make progress on either desire, the only way for me is one of consistent effort and obsessive planning.
For over a decade I’ve been trying to figure out how to become a nonconsumer, how to free my mind from the clutches of consumer culture. For some reason, I only recently made the connection that a nonconsumer has little need for buying things, so if I want to become a nonconsumer I have to stop buying stuff. Hence my current obsession with not spending any money.
This has to be a temporary focus. Being obsessed with not spending money is just as narrow a mindset as being obsessed with the next thing I’m going to spend it on - it’s the flip side of the same stupid coin. But in order to get to the point of letting go of being ruled by money, I think I need to figure out the mechanics of having a good life while spending hardly any money at all.
I’m terribly excited by this project. It feels like an adventure.