PowerSwitch

Any ideas on how to simplify/reduce costs in your life?

One idea is getting rid of the car, but what else?

Get rid of the internet connection.

Please.

Only kidding : )

OK, seriously. Learn to cook and start to cook from fresh. Start using the local library. Volunteer somewhere. Turn the TV off. Grow your own veg. Learn to make bread. Go for long walks with a copy of Food for Free at the weekends. Buy some handtools and start fixing stuff. Read Matt Crawford's The Case for Working With Your Hands. Start some mindfulness meditation.

Getting rid of the car would not make my life simpler.

It would cost me more on time and money to try to cope with public transport.

Ah, promising thread. Simplifying your life and reducing your costs is good prep for the future ahead.

Here's a couple of thoughts:

1. Do a budget. Start with a budget of actual spending, followed by flagging up what is essential and what is not. Even your bill for 'essential' expenses can often be greatly reducing e.g. changing energy supplier, growing some of your own fruit and veg, getting a bike etc.

2. Flog those energy-heavy, labour-saving devices (dish-washer et al); it should help your fitness levels and means there's less to go wrong. As a general rule, don't use something you don't know how to fix yourself.

If you haven't already done so, learn to live with indoor temps at 17 degC to start with and then lower if you can. Lower is perfectly possible unless, for some reason, you're restricted about moving about. I can't saw up wood (my preferred method of staying warm) with this dratted hand. It's probably put this month's heating bills up

Buy 2nd hand whenever possible.

Sell stuff you don't really need or want. Stuff that just sits around taking up space. Decluttering your physical space can help declutter mental too.

Replace land line with payg mobile phone. T-mobile internet only costs £20 for 6 months.

Lord Beria3 wrote:Any ideas on how to simplify/reduce costs in your life?

One idea is getting rid of the car, but what else?

Change your supermarket. Try Aldi/Lidl and see what products they sell that you like. They are guaranteed to be significantly cheaper than JS/Tesco/etc... You then alternate your destinations - you buy the stuff that Aldi/Lidl sell that you want one week and the other week you go to the other supermarket to get the stuff you can't get at Aldi/Lidl.

I reckon this scheme shaves about 15-20% off my food bill.

Also - grow a beard. Saves loads on razors and shaving foam.

UndercoverElephant wrote: Also - grow a beard. Saves loads on razors and shaving foam.

Did that in my twenties. Calculated how much time I'd not waste shaving. It was months over a lifetime.

Now I waste that time, and more, posting on internet forums, and looking up info on wood stoves etc.

Possibly, but that's far more constructive

I've always wanted a simple life.

That is why I have always avoided debt whenever possible, kept the number of gadgets low - fewer to break - always bought cars with lower spec - less gadgets to go wrong - prefered hand tools to power tools, etc.

Gave up shaving long ago, trim my beard once a month.

I have never enjoyed idle holidays - always did conservation working holidays when I as single.

I've noticed more beards around in the last year or two. On telly even...

And BBC4 are replaying all the episodes of Top of the Pops from 1977!!!!

I've got the beard .

Read, and get inspired by, this book. Too many American, and nowhere near enough British homes, but it's a start.

The only problem is that simplifying your life is complicated and stressful, thanks to a system that doesn't want you to do it .

One reason for that in the UK is the population density. It will not be simple until the population is greatly reduced, and that won't be a pleasant process.

Design your own life. Decide how you want to live, do something every day towards it and the chances are you will achieve it.

I decided 11 years ago now that I had had enough of the 'conventional' way. I set a date when I was going to quit the treadmill and did exactly that, to the very day. Some very hard times followed, but I now do exactly what I want, every day, well, pretty much so.

It does sound simple to do, which doesn't mean it is, but it is achievable.

As the saying goes "If you aim at nothing you'll hit it every time".

*EYV denies any connection to self help guru b*llocks.

Give up alcohol.

Or, if that seems too hard an option, home brew.

As long as you share it with friends.