Saturday, August 2, 2014

THE BLOG THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

When my SO and I started living together over a year ago, we didn't know that we were embarking on a lifestyle change. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, getting bikes and using them regularly, is what started us down the path of healthy living. The more we biked and observed our lives from that vantage point, the more we became interested in living our life in a way that would not only benefit our bodies, but our wallets and planet earth too. It became an intoxicating idea.

Once we started to explore this online, we were gratified to find out how many people out there were trying to do the same thing in their own way. Actually, it was my SO who first started reading blogs about alternative lifestyles. I started to appreciate blogs much later on, when I realized how inspiring and comforting it is to know that what you are trying to learn about and act upon is part of a collective effort to make this world a better place.

But as with anything, there was a pivotal point that sparked our imagination and made us believe that indeed, we could live a more mindful, sustainable, and fulfilling life in the midst of the consumerist, stressed-out, polluted, and disconnected society that surrounded us. The moment came when my SO discovered Mr. Money Mustache's (MMM) blog in October, 2013. In short, this blog is about how to take control of your finances, so that you can live a meaningful, creative, and healthy life, free from society's constraints and status quo pressures. The idea being that if you can figure out what you're spending your money on, what you'd like to have money for, and what you can afford, then you can proactively manage your finances in order to create the life you want.

MMM doesn't just discuss the idea in abstract. He is a living proof of the idea itself, and uses his blog to share his family's experiences, useful tools and tips on how to achieve an authentic lifestyle through financial freedom. So much has happened and changed since we started discussing and trying out some of MMM's suggestions a little less than year ago:

  • We started tracking all of our expenses using MINT.com and scheduling financial check-ins at the beginning of every month. 
  • SO fixed up and outfitted two bikes that we bought for cheap on Craig's List. I immediately started riding to work, while he worked from home. We did all of our errands by bike, including shopping at COSTCO and riding 90 lbs. worth of groceries back home in our "child" trailer. 
  • We decided that at least one of us would always be within biking distance from work. 
  • I biked to work and back, 12 miles a day, throughout all of winter season. It was one of the hardest and most exhilarating experiences I've had thus far in my life.
  • We gave "homemade" gifts to all of our loved ones for Christmas. Not one shopping trip at the mall or any (online) store, other than the grocery store, during the entire Christmas season!
  • We started tracking all of our grocery spending.
  • We moved closer to SO's work, so that he could bike to work and back (18.5 miles/day), while I started to work from home. 
  • We sold my car and are down to one car (see earlier post on this) now! 
All of the above happened in large part because my SO discovered the MMM blog. There are many other blogs and resources we discovered along the way that I will share in a future post. For now though, I just wanted to express how this wonderful journey of ours started and the power of blogging.  

Happy beginnings!
~Modern Akhmatova

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