Last year, I quit my well-paying corporate gig to try my hand at being a freelance creative. Because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get by on a hugely reduced budget, I did some digging around into different approaches to streamlining spending. I found financial minimalism, the practice of being very intentional with spending and doing so in a way that aligns with our values.

That resonated deeply. I didn't want to cut down my expenditure with brute force because the crappy teenager trapped in my brain would stage a major rebellion and throw all the best laid plans out the window. So the best way was to gently ease into values-led spending.

The only way to begin properly is to do a brutal audit on current expenditure. So before I started my financial cleanse, I spent one month being ridiculously detailed in tracking every single penny on a spreadsheet. Then I categorised my spending, analysed each item and created a priority list on categories to start cutting.

First item: Expenditures incurred for anything I have no emotional connection to

On this list were subscriptions, for example Spotify, YouTube, some exercise apps and a bunch of publications. I don't have issues encountering ads because of the way I use these platforms. And I also don't mind having less control over my listening and viewing — like in Spotify, I'm ok with not being able to repeat a song or choose a song.

So expenditure items like these, which I paid for out of convenience in the past, were the first to go. Once I got rid of them, I felt quite good — an easy win!

The total of the items I cut in this category totalled up to around $80.

Second item: Things that I can get cheaper versions of elsewhere

These were for things that I still want in my life, probably because they represented routines that I didn't want to stop. The two main things here were coffee and pastries.

I love — LOVE — my morning coffee runs. I don't enjoy making coffee at home first thing in the morning. Getting out of the house, feeling the morning sun on my face and getting in my first steps of the day is crucial to starting the day right for me.

But I was getting really expensive coffee — $6.5 a cup for some single-origin thingamajigs. That was unnecessary because honestly, I'm not a coffee connoisseur. So I swapped out my coffee buys to a cheaper one of around $2.5 per cup.

Ditto pastries. I love popping out for a tea-time pastry at around 4pm. It was a habit I started when I got my first job, and I still enjoy it for the same reasons as my coffee runs — the walk, the fresh air, the sunshine. I was also getting very pricey baked goods which were around $5 each. I found cheaper little bread buns with fillings that cost $2 a pop and they're fun to eat too.

Savings from coffee: assuming 25 days a month, I saved $100 here.

Savings from tea-time pastries: also assuming 25 days a month, $75.

Third item: Things that I spend money on because of poor time management

Oh, this gets more and more difficult!

But not impossible, because now that I've switched to being a freelancer, I have better control over my time. The expenditures here, of course, are all transport related.

I confess that in my craziest corporate girl days, I was spending $1200 a month on private car hires because I was always running late. And I was always running late because I was always sleep-deprived due to working very long hours.

That, of course, stopped once I left my job, but I was aghast to realise that the habit of calling a car had been ingrained in me after years of whipping out my phone whenever I wanted to go somewhere.

Going private-car-cold turkey was pretty painful for this addict, but I'm pleased to say that I've drastically cut down my expenses in this area. In my first month, I reduced the expenses to $1,000, then $700, and this month I might be able to keep things to $500 (also because February is a shorter month, heh).

I mainly achieved this by setting a ton of alarms to remind me when to leave the house, which I needed because I was so used to leaving at the last minute.

Savings: $700

Fourth item: Expenditures that seem too big and scary to tackle

These are the big ticket items — your mortgage, insurance policies, and investment policies. I knew for years that I was overspending on all these things, and that there were better rates out there, but I was such a finance-phobe that I couldn't bring myself to take action.

And so I took the plunge and hired someone to do a thorough audit on all these pieces. Now I'm kicking my own ass for not having done so earlier. My financial advisor was phenomenal — he got me great deals, streamlined my portfolios and redirected my investments. This story is discussing savings, but I'm also making more money from the investments than I've done previously.

When I average out themonthly savings across my portfolio, I'm paying $550 less!

Fifth and top item: Eating out

This is its own category because I absolutely love eating out. I love trying new places. I love the feeling of walking past a restaurant or café I've never been to, just breezing in and sitting down to a full meal. I love being able to order anything I want from the menu and not worrying about the price.

The entire practice has a lot of emotional attachment for me, because growing up we didn't have a lot of money. I remember not being able to join my friends at Macdonald's or various cute cafes because I just didn't have enough money. I'd walk with them to those places after school, and we'd chat along the way and in front of the cafe until they went in. I usually left because it was hellish to sit at the table and not order any food.

I also remember being a uni student on a scholarship, working three jobs, and once having to walk home for two hours because I had spent my last few dollars for the week having a latte with my friends at a trendy café. I remember crying a little bit (well, my shoes were also a bit uncomfortable) and telling myself that once I started work I would never, ever restrict myself from eating whatever I wanted. I had spent my teens and early adult years always having to order the cheapest things or the side dishes. Never again, I told myself.

And so I've left this to the last to conquer, because it comes with so much baggage. There was a therapy session or two in this, but I've managed to overcome the huge emotional resistance I feel every time I think about cutting down my eating out expenses.

One useful thing my therapist taught me was to reframe this from "cutting down" and "restricting" to "opening up new possibilities". With the savings, I have the freedom to do more things, like increase my investments, which would bring me closer to my financial goals.

I also refrained from cutting down my eating out too drastically. My typical eating out budget was around $1000 a month. I got it down by $100 increments. This is my fifth month, and my current February eating out expenditure is hovering at $450. I'll probably finish the month at $500.

The swap technique worked well here, too. I still eat out — I just choose cheaper places. Weirdly enough, the psychological benefit I get from eating out has not diminished. Who would have thought that it would feel just as satisfying to have $50 meal compared to a $100 one?

My current savings is $500.

So my total monthly savings, after a few months of practising financial minimalism, is $2,005. With more intentionality, I can streamline my expenses even more and probably achieve a stable balance down the line.

My biggest lessons for anyone keen on following the financial minimalism lifestyle are:

1. Cut your expenses based on spending category, not items. Feel free to use my categories above, or suggest your own!

2. Slow, steady progress. I felt minimal pain because I cut expenses slowly and looked for swaps instead of going cold turkey. I don't feel that I've lowered my quality of life at all, and therefore I'm unlikely to implode and sabotage my own plans.

3. Be aware of expenses that occur because of emotional attachments — unpack those bags first, or they'll keep resurfacing to wreck your journey.

Tell me about how you manage your finances, and feel free to link to your stories! I love reading about and talking about money management, so I'd love to hear all your tips.

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