A YEAR IN!

At this time last year, we had instituted for the first time our annual "No Spending November" activity for the month. We had just started experimenting with our new-found lifestyle ideas: spending less and saving more; driving less and biking more; running around less and prioritizing quality time with each other and our  loved ones; and eating home-cooked food instead of processed and restaurant food. Here we are a year later in another "No Spending November" month and it's exciting to look back at how much we've done over the past year to turn our dreams into reality.

We continue to be committed to this lifestyle and we're finding out what works best for us and our preferences. There is a lot of information out there about "alternative/green/sustainable/etc." lifestyles. This is great, but every person, couple, and family has to figure out what works best for them, because you won't be able to do everything that you come across, that you like, that everyone else is doing, and in the same way that they're doing it.

What is more, most of the blogs and books we've read about this suggest that lifestyle changes, as with anything really, work best when you embark on the journey in a gradual and experimental sort of way. After all, there is a lot of self-inquiry that has to take place in order to change one's habits for the long term, and this takes time, energy, and commitment. Thus, prioritizing too many great ideas at any one time is probably not going to work out in the long run.

And so here we are, a year into our "lifestyle-change" journey and I'm delighted and proud to say that we've done a lot to align our daily life with the four aspirations I listed at the beginning of this blog:

Saving is the key to financial success.

We've achieved a 75% savings rate, primarily because we've been brutally honest with each other about our spending habits. Using the Mint software and Google spreadsheets, we sit down at the end of each month to review, discuss and analyze our spending and savings activities during the past month.  During these discussions we figure out whether there is anything that can be cut out in the future and plan for upcoming expenses that are unusual in nature. This has been a very powerful and revealing exercise for us over the past year.

Our bikes and trailer in front
of our old apartment.

Biking, walking, trains, and metro are our main forms of transportation. Seven months into our experiment, we sold my car (for more details check out this blog post). At that point we had already moved closer to my SO's work, so he could bike to work, and I negotiated with my company to work from home full-time. Then, nine months into our experiment we sold my SO's truck, and are now left with a Volkswagen Golf that we only use on special occasions or when we need to go somewhere that we can't get to easily with our bikes or public transportation. We see ourselves getting rid of this car too, once we decide where we want to settle down.

SO and my nephew playing music
in a Baltimore park.

Prioritizing quality time and experiences over things is our daily mantra. One of the primary reasons we embarked on this lifestyle exploration is that we were fed up with the constant accumulation of stuff and the way consumerism wreaks havoc on people's sense of presence and joy within everyday life. We observed people around us and ourselves running around in cars from one thing to the next, constantly busy and stressed out, and shopping without end. So we decided to STOP and SLOW DOWN.

• Nowadays, we don't plan to do anything after work during the work week that requires us to drive anywhere. We also try to have at least one or two weekends at home in any given month. When we do make plans to go somewhere for the weekend, we try to have only one engagement per day. 
• When it comes to holidays and any sort of gift-giving tradition, we either make a gift ourselves (i.e., arts and crafts, food, etc.) or arrange for an outing/meaningful experience with the person.  We apply these rules to our own relationship, as well, and it's been wonderful each and every day.

We cook 99% of our food and compost almost all of our food waste. Both SO and I care a lot about our health, because we can't imagine living without being physically and mentally active pretty much all the time. In addition to wanting to make sure we ate nutritious and delicious food, we realized over the last year that we needed to get smart about buying food, because organic and locally-sourced can be pretty expensive (ever tried shopping at a farmer's market, Whole Foods or MOM's Organic Market?). The more we researched this the more we realized that our food consumption habits directly impacted our environment. As a result, we've tried to buy as much food as possible in bulk and unpackaged, and then whatever food waste we do have has gone into our compost tumbler (for details check out earlier blog posts on composting, landfill waste, and grocery tracking).

It's really inspiring to look back and realize how much we've been able to accomplish in just one year. I'm excited for all that we'll discover and do over the next year as we continue to experiment with our crazy lifestyle.

Happy Living!

~Modern Akhmatova