What Sacrifices Can You Make To Become Financially Strong?
After eight months of practising minimalism, my monthly expenses have decreased to one-tenth. I am shouting (in my head) at the top of the terrace right now. At the start of every month, if I have to pay bills of around INR 5000, that number went down to 500 for April. It’s crazy how one “zero” can make a difference!
If you are desperately waiting for money inflow from your job at the end of every month, then you know my happiness level right now. And if you have only one source of income where you have to work for the sake of financial security, then I understand your stress level. Sometimes there is a balance between job satisfaction and job security. I’ve found mine, you’ll find yours!
Six years of useless spending
Two years of Kota life, followed by four years of college with continuous financial support, gave rise to crazy expenses. On top of it, I am the youngest in my family. I will get anything I want as long as they know I am using it for career prospects.
Before I started earning on my own, I was dependent on my father for financial support for six years while being away from home. I can even ask him for money right now. He will rain it. But I don’t want even a smidgen of insecurity to worry him about my financial well-being. That’s why I decided to make a sacrifice as soon as I realised the need to do so.
Realising the value of money the hard way
When I got my first paycheck on the last working day of June 2019, I realised how quickly it evaporated. I took a long breath and consoled myself, “You have sprayed money like crazy for a long time. It will be hard to recover. You will get through anyway because you have to do it sometime eventually.”
June and July went like this. I was waiting for salary at the end of every month, trying to survive the next month and back to nuts again waiting for money shower by the month-end. I wanted to get out of this loop.
When I finally went home on August 11 (The Independence Day week), I decided to do another experiment.
Giving up dad’s debit card
I have only seen it on television. Rachel (from FRIENDS) inspired me when she cut her dad’s credit cards to get back on her feet finally.
I took a less aggressive approach to it. Instead of cutting my dad’s debit card and wait for him to javelin-throw me, I took a more practical approach that won’t invite slap-claps. I returned his debit card. I convinced my dad that was the best time for me to understand the importance of money.
I miss being a hot mess in those six years, but it had to end sometime.
The challenge
I was scared like hell. One time, even the balance went to INR 9, and I asked for friends for financial support. But that was it. That single-digit fired me up.
Around October last year, I saw my credit card statement of September. I just skimmed through and found out what burned my finance. There was one single addiction to online shopping that I am still struggling to fix.
Like every other addiction, it took time to recover from the constant shopping too. It has many faces: fashion, electronics, personal care, grocery, essentials, etc. You name it, Flipkart has it!
It required some thinking to understand what “essential” means, and I stuck to them for a few months. It is the most challenging experiment so far. After seeing my finance improve with time, I realised everything on top of essentials is just gravy. You want it badly sometimes, but if you live without it for a few months or however long it takes for you to embrace minimalism, you will let go of the clutter!
If you follow sticking to essentials for some time, you won’t just survive financially; you will thrive peacefully!
This article belongs to a set of posts I am publishing in this 100-days streak. Navigate to the end of the article 22 for the references from day 23 onwards. If you would like to read the ones before day 22, here is the first one that documents them in the end.
~ Sanjeev