A while back I decided to try to spend only $5,000 in a year, Project TTM5k [1]. The goal is to live well off five thousand dollars. It isn’t about whiteknuckling my way to poverty tourism just to prove I can do it. It’s to challenge myself to learn the skill of Living the Good Life at a very low consumption level, which is something I believe is entirely possible.
I haven't hit $5k yet. I hit $7,027 in June 2023 [2], then came back up to $9,789 to close out 2023.
I think that 2024 is the year I'm going to pull off TTM5K. When I look over my expenses from 2023, there's actually a fair amount of slop:
I spent well over a grand traveling in Japan with my family (and I have no plans or desire to travel internationally soon).
I bought some expensive custom glazing units for the studio, as well as other building supplies.
I spent more on books than I needed to, considering how amazing libraries are.
I got a little lazy with food shopping (averaged $238/mo).
I drove more than I needed to.
In other words, when I look at my expenses over the past couple years, I see outflows of cash that I can easily stopper with no decrease in quality of life at all. In fact, I anticipate my quality of life increasing due to the tweaks I’m going to make in my life system.
This is the secret to post-consumer praxis, the subversive truth that the ad men and the bosses don’t want you to know. The deeper you get, the more fun you have. In fact, I’m going to codify this:
The First Law of Post-Consumer Praxis: if you aren’t having more fun as a post-consumer than you were as a consumer, you are doing it wrong. [3]
Some of the actions I'm going to take this year in order to hit TTM5k are:
Instead of flying anywhere to travel, I’m going to do another bikepacking trip through the Southwest.
I’m also going to follow my curiosity about the natural and pre-contact history of my local bioregions and explore on foot and bike. I live in the Southern Sierras. I could spend the rest of my life just wandering around and never get bored.
I'm going to be better about using salvaged and natural materials for my builds. I’m no longer in a rush to get things built, and I can afford to ice projects until the right combination of salvaged materials comes in.
I'm going to be less lazy about food costs. Also I plan on starting to grow some of my own food soon… not sure how much of an impact on expenses that will make in the near future though.
That ought to do it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do you spend so little on housing?
A: I live in a tiny house compound I built myself (and thus own without debt) on family land that my parents insist on not charging me rent on.
Q: Oh, but that's cheating.
A: Yes.
Q: So you just mooch off your parents?
A: Kind of. I like to think of it as an informal economy type situation. I help out around the place with the sorts of things that people in their 70s don't enjoy doing, like erecting scaffolding, moving heavy stuff, helping out with projects they don't want to do themselves but would have a hard time getting anyone from town to come up and do, like solarizing our well.
They like having me around. I like being around. My relationship with them has never been better. It is a sign of ill societal health that multigenerational households are a weird thing, imo. Read The Tail End by Tim Urban and get back to me.
Q: How do you spend so little on food?
A: I wrote a post on it. The short version is that I cook 99% of my own meals, buy in bulk, rarely eat meat, and spent a few months analyzing food from a calories per dollar perspective. I also 99% quit drinking alcohol because it’s, like, poison, y’know?
Q: How do you spend so little on transportation?
A: I sold my truck so I don't pay registration, insurance, maintenance, etc. My preferred means of getting to town is to ride my bike or catch the bus.
My Bus Stop
Q: What do you do when you need to pick up building supplies or bulk food?
A: I borrow my parent's truck and pay them a mileage fee. With the fee and gas it's about $24 to get into town and back.
Q: Why don't you buy your own car, like a normal adult?
A: I'm not a normal adult. Also, I 'need' to use a car only a couple times a month, with ambitions of using one even less. Owning a vehicle that just sat around 98% of the time would be stupid, particularly since there’s already 2 vehicles up here that mostly just sit around. Utilization factors, and whatnot.
Q: What about buying an EV?
A: Ugh, don’t get me started.
[1] TTM is accounting jargon for 'trailing twelve month', meaning, the twelve months up to the current point in time.
[2] Counterintuitively, one of the reasons my COL got so low last year is because I was traveling in Europe. My preferred way to travel is to worktrade for room and board at interesting projects, so my only expenses are conveyance between projects.
[3] Informally known as the Piratecaptain Law of Post-Consumer Praxis.