Jasmine for Miles

No-Spend November is a month of resetting spending habits, reevaluating priorities, and overall just making better decisions. In this post, I've detailed how my third week of No-Spend November 2022 went. Week of November 15-21 My goals and resolutions for the month are all about making more mindful use of my time and paying off lingering CC debt from a long summer season of travel. I've set out to do things like meal plan, work out more, and make healthier decisions in general. How's how this week went: Day 15: (Tuesday) I worked out with my boss after work. I was feeling a bit mentally fatigued so I mostly relaxed after work with a little bit of mindless TV. My boss and I talked about whether or not we wanted to leave Twitter, and I chatted with some other friends about miscellaneous other stuff. Day 16: (Wednesday) I didn't have much energy after work. Normally, Wednesday would be my deadlift day, but I opted to spend time on my stationary bike and read a book inste...

No-Spend November is a month of resetting spending habits, reevaluating priorities, and overall just making better decisions. In this post, I've detailed how my second week of No-Spend November 2022 went. Week of November 8-14 My goals and resolutions for the month are related to making more mindful use of my time outside of work, and paying off lingering credit card debt from traveling between Memorial Day and mid-October. Basically, no more "bovinating" after work, and a break from spending money on anything but the essentials. Here's how I did day-by-day: Day 8: (Tuesday) ELECTION DAYYYYYY!!! After working out at my hospital's exercise room, I went home and got out to vote with my husband to do our part to keep/get more DFL candidates in office. Once I got home from voting and could wind down, I helped my husband make dinner and enjoyed a drink. That was about it for the night, as I was pretty tired and ready to sleep. Day 9: (Wednesday) Despite seeing a l...

One thing that frustrates me when I search for other posts about minimalism is that I occasionally see posts like "how minimalism ruined my life" and "how minimalism isn't for low-income people". I was never happy as a mindless consumer or maximalist, and not too many years ago, I was making less than $10,000 per year and could only survive on the backs of credit cards. I wish I had found minimalism when I was low-income, and in this post I'm going to explain why. Minimalism would have saved me money. This is the biggest reason that I wish I had become a minimalist sooner. When I was making less than $10k/year, I was lucky if I was ever out of the red when it came to what I had in my bank account versus what I had to pay on credit cards to get by. If I had been a minimalist, I would have realized I needed less than I thought I did, and would have shopped less as a result. I did not have the luxury of shopping for new clothes, so I made do with thrift store f...

I'm sure most of us are not lucky enough to have jobs that let us show up in our pajamas or underwear (or nothing at all, for the exhibitionists of the world). Expansive wardrobes stuffed to the point of bursting with different options can lead to a "nothing to wear" feeling that stems from decision fatigue. Before I was a minimalist, I was one of those people with an expansive wardrobe but could miraculously never find anything to wear. In this post, I'm going to share my tips for creating a minimalist wardrobe that will alleviate decision fatigue and that "nothing to wear" feeling. I find that a lot of "minimalist" wardrobe blog posts (and even books) fall into the trap of assuming some set number of items will work for everyone, kind of like a broad-spectrum prescription. I'm very much not of that mindset. I don't have a wardrobe that fits the "Project 333" model, or "only 10 items" model. I have a wardrobe that's...

No-Spend November is a month of resetting spending habits, reevaluating priorities, and overall just making better decisions. In this post, I've detailed how my first week of No-Spend November 2022 went. Week of November 1-7  I used the end of October to get my priorities, resolutions, and goals lined up in preparation for this No-Spend November. One resolution I made was to use my time after work more mindfully--no more automatic bovinating (ok, this is a word I made up that means "to cow" if you're silly, or "acting cow-like" if you're less silly, and entails grazing on snacks while mindlessly watching TV). A major goal I set out to achieve was to pay off lingering credit card debt from traveling from late May to mid-October.  Here's how I did day-by-day: Day 1: (Tuesday) I didn't encounter any real desire to buy anything. I kept busy at work and worked out in my hospital's exercise room, then went home to cook a healthy dinner, finish re...

Sometimes, a no-spend or low-spend month might seem daunting despite needing to fix spending habits. For recovering shopaholics, or even just minimalists like me who enjoy shopping a little too much sometimes, there is an alternative to no-spend/low-spend that can still help to curb bad spending habits and fix finances; the concept is literally Nothing New . What is Nothing New? Nothing New is a shopping method that allows someone to keep shopping, but not for anything brand-new. Instead of shopping in big box stores or online retailers, shopping for Nothing New happens in secondhand stores (both brick-and-mortar and online) and in social media swap groups. Benefits of Nothing New As with any spending challenge, the longer you commit to the plan, the more you can do to fix bad habits and get your finances on track. I definitely recommend trying Nothing New for at least a month, if not longer. Here are some of the benefits: It's eco-friendly . By shopping secondhand or swapping, ite...