Posted by Tim Stobbs on October 6, 2011
It’s been two weeks now since I’ve declared my war on stuff and as if this wasn’t enough of a challenge by itself. I’ve also got sucked into a different challenge to also cut down my weight during the same time frame which largely involves cleaning up some bad eating habits that I’ve picked up recently.
Somewhat ironically I’m finding the stuff challenge easier to handle than remembering not to eat a snack in the evening (damn you chips with your salty crispy goodness). Don’t worry I’m not going to become a monk anytime soon and give up any of my remaining vices. I love the rest of them too much to do that. 
Perhaps the biggest change I’ve noticed about the stuff challenge is it is forcing me to think prior to buying just about anything. I have to review the challenge in my head quickly to determine is this stuff (can’t buy it), an experience or a consumable (can buy it). While the pause isn’t huge that habit is very useful to help screen your purchases and cut back on impulse buying.
The other very noticeable change that hit me early on in the stuff challenge was the fact how used to looking at fliers I was. I used to look at them once a week and always the electronic ones…and I wondered why I usually want to buy some kind of electronic stuff?!? *sigh* Anyways, I’ve stopped looking for the most part as unless I need something consumable there is basically no point wasting time looking at fliers. So somewhat unexpectedly that has given me a little bit more time each week which I’ve been using to start the second part of my challenge: getting rid of stuff I already own, but don’t really use.
First up was my DVD collection which I didn’t bother to count but a rough estimate would be 200 DVDs. The total purge pile ended up being 31 DVDs (which includes five TV series, which I counted as one each even if they had 4 to 7 discs). Yet rather than toss completely useable stuff I decided to put in a little effort and sell the pile. While I only been selling them for three days I’ve already sold nine DVDs and four of the TV series for a total profit of $38. I believe my success so far has been pricing them cheap enough to get rid of them quickly ($2 each, expect the TV series which were $5).
So overall I’m rather happy with my progress on my war on stuff as I’ve even managed to start a first purge on my book collection. I’ll write more about that next time.
Posted by Tim Stobbs on September 22, 2011
Hi, my name is Tim and I’m a stuff addict. If you have any doubts I do get irrational cravings to go buy stuff even when I know I don’t really need (and sometimes even want) the item in question all that much.
Stuff fills my home in all sorts of ways the primary guilty parties are books, movies, and tools. While I’m ok with getting rid of some stuff, like clothes. I’m horrible about getting rid of books and I found it almost painful to purge my book shelves a while back. So that is the problem and I’ve got a solution for it: stop buying stuff.
Simple, eh? But actually doing it is going to be a hell of a lot harder. So I’ve devised a challenge to help me break the stuff habit. From today until the end of the year (Dec 31, 2011 at midnight) I can’t buy stuff for myself. No more DVD’s, books, or even a single screwdriver. Does this mean I won’t be spending any money? No, I can still buy experiences (dinner out, attending a play or attending a home tour) and consumables that I can reasonable expect to use up during my experiment (so yes I can buy food, the odd coffee out or shampoo).
Yet like all good challenges I’m putting in a few safety valves to cover myself on a few particular issues that are going to come up during the rest of the year.
- I can still buy presents. While I’m going to make an effort to at least consider alternative gifts that aren’t stuff I’m still allowed to break down and buy stuff for others. Try to image shopping for your three year old’s Christmas present and excluding stuff…I’m having a hard time coming up with any ideas.
- I won’t force my family to join me. While my wife has some interest in this experiment she isn’t entirely sure about the idea, so she won’t be formally joining this challenge. Also my kids are excluded on their allowance money as I’m just trying to get the idea of savings in their heads so I don’t want to introduce too much at once.
- I can still accept presents. I won’t be so brutal as to reject any Christmas present I normally get in because it is stuff. I will encourage people to get my consumables or experiences, but if I get a book from my kids I’m not going to yell at them.
- I can borrow stuff. So yes I can borrow books from the library or DVD’s. I can also borrow tools from other people if I need to.
- I get a get out jail free card. While I have tried to cover off any issues that could come up on this challenge I’m thinking I’ve missed something. So I get one free pass on buying a single item of stuff during the challenge. It will only apply once so I better be damn sure I NEED to buy it for some reason.
So while this challenge will keep stuff from coming in to my house, I still have to get some of the extra crap I already have out of my house. In this regard I will be trying to review what I’m currently own for stuff and sell, give a way or just toss it in the garbage. The end goal is to have more actual space in my house and less distractions in my life. To that end I will be purging one major area a month: my books and DVD collection, my garage and…drumroll please…the dreaded basement which includes the majority of my tools and other crap I’ve kept in storage over the years.
So now you can comment on just how crazy of an idea this is going to be or perhaps offer some tips on dealing with your own war on stuff.
Posted by Dave on September 14, 2011
This is a guest post by Dave, who is also looking to retire no later than 45, but unlike Tim has no kids and doesn’t want any. Dave is from Ontario and is working towards his CGA certification.
I have previously written of my desire to live in a Tiny House, something which my wife was not in favour of at all (I believe she mentioned I could live there by myself, but she had no interest in living in a little wooden box). In the past little while, we have again discussed alternative living situations that could work when we reach retirement age. Two living situations that she found suitable were somewhat surprising, since I think size-wise, they are smaller than the Tiny House that was previously kyboshed.
The first option came from reading the blog To Simplify– where the author, Glenn writes as he tours around the US in his camper-van with his cat. I love this guy’s stories, and became totally enamoured with the van-living lifestyle. The benefit of living in a van (from what I can see) is the ability to move around, and move someplace warm in the winter. My wife and I are not terribly attached to snow, and the ability to get away from it is a huge sell. Additionally, the ability to move around for part of the year is a huge sell – we would be able to have many different views to wake up to, different people to meet, and as an added bonus (for me, not so much my wife) year-round golf to be played.
For the rest of the year, my wife has agreed to (mainly on aesthetics and the “cool” factor) live in what boils down to a Hobbit-Hole (A nice example of this can be found here. This type of house would be fairly comfortable to live in for 8 or 9 months of the year. This type of house is cheap to build (depending on the type of house, they can be built between $10 and $25 per square foot). Besides being fairly (or ridiculously) cheap to build – they are low impact environmentally speaking (made mainly of dirt and wood) and easy to repair. Because of the small size of the house and increasingly better technology, I’m hoping that living off the grid will be easier and cheaper to do by the time I reach retirement age, making location of the land much less of a factor.
I was surprised that my wife has agreed (for now, our projected retirement age is around 14 years away) to these “alternative” types of living, as both are either smaller or the same size as the Tiny House that was previously rejected. With less space, we’ll have to get rid of most of our stuff (the square footage of the van is smaller than the king-sized bed we sleep in right now) which I am all for.
Cost-wise, I’m not sure how much different owning a touring van and a plot of land somewhere compares to my current situation, but I figure that if I sold my home, land can be had cheap depending on where it is, and a touring van can be found for a very reasonable price (and converted to a cheaper source of fuel if necessary)
What’s your idea of alternative housing? Would you live in a dirt house, or a van?
