Posts tagged with "minimalism" - page 2
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Laptop Price Inflation
Last time I did a review of my electricity bill inflation. Conveniently I was tracking the utility bills since 2012 so I had enough data. That got me thinking. May be I can find other expenses for which I have long enough data to calculate inflation. Remember, inflation is different for different products. For example, your food inflation will be different from your medical bill inflation, or electricity bill inflation etc. So you will need to find the inflation for each category of expenses. Since I recently purchased a laptop, I thought if I can dig up some old bills, may be I can calculate my laptop expenses inflation. Which is exactly what this post is all about.
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Purchased A New Laptop
The festival season has begun, well at least for Amazon and Flipkart. So it is time to find some good deals on all those things that you wanted to buy. Err, I mean the things that you needed to buy. Strictly speaking for a minimalist it should not matter whether it is sale time or not. If you don’t need something, don’t buy it. But of course we are all human and we fall prey to some temptations. At least I do. I have been wanting to buy a laptop for sometime now. Astute readers of my blog might already know that I have a budget. And according to my annual budget, I am allowed to buy a new laptop every 5 years. Now, I know it is probably too frequent to be buying a laptop every 5 years. But since I spend a considerable amount of my time on a laptop, it would be nice to have a decent upgrade. You know where I am going with all this don’t you? As if the title didn’t already give you a clue.
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Giving Up Satellite TV
As part of minimalism, we try to reduce stuff from our life every now and then. Like Bruce Lee said, “hack away the unessential”. You may recall some of our minimalism activities from the past like selling our car or the minimalist wardrobe. This time around we wanted to experiment with cutting out satellite TV from our life.
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On The Other Side Of Early Retirement And Minimalism
It is interesting to know that the options for work increase dramatically after you announce that you retired. I did not know this fact. Not just that but people generally tend to have a different outlook about you. I will share some interesting observations I made after my retirement.
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How I Spend As A Minimalist
Minimalism in general sounds a bit odd to most people. Most of the time they tend to think that minimalism means being too miserly or living on a tight budget. But the reality is not even close to anything like that. Of course we do run on a budget, but certainly not on tight budget. Likewise, we spend quite a bit where we think it makes sense. Where we don't see value, we tend to spend less. Minimalism is not about being a miser or not spending at all but about spending on stuff that is important to you.
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More Ideas On Minimalism
I have already written a few articles on minimalism. Yet, from time to time people still ask me to teach them how to get started on minimalism. Unfortunately I don't know how to help them. There are perhaps some books and youtube videos on the topic. May be that will help. But here is one way to go about it.
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The Minimalist Wardrobe
If you have read the post on my expenses, you would have noticed "wardrobe" expenses conspicuously missing. I quietly shoved them into the miscellaneous expenses. Still, a few people noticed and asked me -- "what about your clothing, shoes etc expenses". Well, I am not much of a shopper and after the brush with minimalism, the desire to buy more clothes has vanished into oblivion.
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What Does Minimalism Mean To Us
Like many things in life, what something means to you may not mean the same to others. Take minimalism for example. It has a different meaning to different people, but the core tenets remain the same. Some people confuse minimalism with cheap or frugal. While it does help to be frugal, it does not necessarily mean minimalist. What does minimalism mean to us then? We'd like to think that minimalism means owning or buying the minimum amount of things that will let you lead a comfortable but simple life. That's a mouthful. Lets break it down.
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My Expenses Compared with MMM
Some of you might have heard of Mr. Money Mustache (MMM), who retired at the age of 30 in the US and is quite popular in the F.I.R.E world. I have always wanted to compare my expenses with him and see if I can be as good as him with my expenses. I always believe that there are some similarities when I compare myself with him (like workouts, DIY, minimalism etc). My expenses should also be similar then? You know that I have this habit of looking back at my expenses in the past year and write a post on it in the beginning of the new year. This year, MMM also posted his expenses on his blog, so it was easy for me to compare my expenses with his. So am I better at managing my expenses compared to him? Lets find out. The results may surprise you!
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My Search for an Ideal Phone
I have always used some of the more expensive android phones up until my brush with minimalism. After that, I decided I need to buy something for what it is really worth for me. I have always been a value conscious guy, which means I try to get the best value for my money. But nobody ever said that the money needs to be a small amount :) . So I used to buy moderately expensive stuff, but still with good value. I considered a $2100 gaming laptop a worthy buy because of the value of the components. Which is also the reason I don't buy Apple products. Don't get me wrong, the products are absolutely beautiful and well crafted and the attention to detail is impeccable. The engineering and innovation that goes behind those products is commendable. But I always feel that the value could be better spent at something other than the good looks and perfection. Anyway back to the point. So after trying to practice minimalism, I decided to go with things that are less expensive but still value for money.
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