Hello!
My name is Jay Pee, I just turned 40 an live together with my wife an two little kids in northern Germany.
Our simple lifestyle came a bit by accident. Too much work, too much debt, too much clutter, not enough money and no time. Quite often we went to the City on a Saturday just shopping, spending money we did not have for things that were cheap, but did not make us happy for a long time. We had to do something, so we stopped purchasing new stuff, only food and really importand things like replacing worn out shoes. With the kids, we switched to more to activities like hiking with a picknick instead of shopping trips and replaced stuff by experiences. I also started to declutter our home, selling what was possible and not really needed.
First, I expected it to be hard giving all these things away, including a lot of my hobby items. Actually, it wasn't. Leaving all this stuff behind really gave me a kind of freedom. We still do have a lot of stuff. Especially growing children leave a lot of worn out clothes, and it takes a lot of time to get them sold or given away. But buying less an spending money more consiously reduces our debt, actually we will be out of debt at the end of the year.
When I started this process, I searched the internet for some tips and hints. Quite fast I found some blogs about simple living and minimalism that were a huge inspiration to me. Great to know that I am not the only one who does not want to run faster and work harder and longer just to spend more money for stuff you don't really need.
So I am really looking forward to some interesting discussions here.
Regards
JP
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You have made the hardest decision which is to reduce, declutter and live simply. Congratulations!
