Did anyone else get a wave of full body fear when you realized there’s only four months left of the year? AND they’re the busiest months on the calendar.

Looking back on my vision board for this year has me feeling like what the actual f*ck did I do this year? I have very little recollection of completing anything in the past 8 months. But when I really think about it, I’ve been doing stuff, it’s just not the big stuff.

It’s been putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the every day. It’s moving my body 5 days a week and getting a tiny bit stronger each time. It’s learning one new recipe and implementing it into my routine. It’s reading one book and relaxing my brain for an hour. It’s the incremental stuff, the unsexy stuff, but also the stuff that over time will add up to something big. Or, if nothing else, the little stuff that will create a healthy habit.

That got me thinking about my home and how I’ve been on a mission to make my house a tiny bit more comfortable. At this point, we don’t want to do any more big renovations to our home, but there’s always something we can do to make it more comfortable. Organize that sock drawer, clean that door jam, pull out that random nail that stares me in the face every day. I’m just trying to make my home better, 1% at a time.

Here’s a few easy ideas for making your home 1% better:

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It’s very weird to be a marketing manager and also be anti-capitalist. I work with small businesses that share my values, of course, but it’s also my job to be on top of social media trends. And often these trends (whether it’s obvious or not) are trying to sell you something.

One trend that I’ve been seeing a lot of is “expensive things that are actually worth it.” Creators will often post their expensive designer bag, dinnerware or bedding. (With an affiliate link, naturally!) Sometimes higher quality items are more expensive. They are made with better materials or created by hand.

But sometimes these expensive things are just marketed well and they’re not worth it either. Or, you can find that quality secondhand for a fraction of the cost. When I think back on the pricier things I would 100% without a doubt pay for again, it’s often not a thing. It’s not tangible and it can’t be bought with an affiliate link.

Here’s the expensive things that I think are actually worth it…

(BTW, if you’re a small business with values looking for marketing help, I can take on one more client. Reach out: melanie at asmalllife.com)

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When most people think of “Preppers,” they think of guys that live alone in the woods hoarding resources. I think of a grizzled and paranoid mountain man too! But I’m also a realist who has lived through natural disasters, recessions and a rapidly changing world. I no longer think that prepping is just for the paranoid.

There’s also a growing number of “liberal” preppers popping up in response to gestures broadly EVERYTHING. When I’m in the right mind space, I enjoy browsing the TwoXPreppers sub on Reddit for advice on prepping for women’s specific needs. Fair warning: it can get dark, so only browse when you’re mentally sound.

Prepping, for me, was synonymous with hoarding, but I’ve come to see it as more than physical resources. It’s also learning, passing that knowledge on and sharing resources.

I told you at the beginning of the summer that I’d be tracking my garden harvest to see if I save money. But as the summer has rolled on, I’ve seen more reasons beyond just money-saving to grow your own food. (Enter: parasitic diarrhea?! What is this timeline we are living in?!)

And yes, it’s all connected. I know this and you know this. Our food supply is becoming more unstable with budget cuts and a dangerous food supply is a more expensive food supply.

The prepping community has a saying: Prep for Tuesday, not Doomsday. And what this means is that you want to prep for everyday disasters like job loss, car breakdowns, a storm, an accident, etc. Doomsday might not happen, but Tuesday definitely will.

Here’s a few easy, first steps to become more prepared for the most likely disasters (without buying a bunch of stuff.)

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I’m old enough to remember the beginning of the “Zero Waste” movement on Instagram, plastic-free influencers and folks who proudly photographed their trash jars. (Y’all, it was literally a jar they put their miniscule bits of trash in.) I also remember when people were suggesting we shouldn’t use medication because it comes in plastic packaging. Medications! The very thing that may be keeping us alive.

And while I’m grateful that the movement got me into sustainability, I’ve come to take on a more nuanced (and hopefully healthy) approach to my plastic consumption now-a-days.

I know that completely “plastic free” could never be me. I don’t even really promote things like Plastic Free July. (A challenge where people are encouraged to cut down or even stop using plastics for the month of July to bring awareness to plastic waste.) While I think that it’s important to bring light plastic use and the data about plastics and hormone disruption is deeply disturbing, I also recognize that it’s so ingrained in our lives that if I were to worry about every little bit of plastic, I’d have no time for anything else. And quite frankly, I’d probably be committed to a mental institution because that’d be A LOT of worrying. Spoiler alert: mental institution grippy socks are plastic too. Can’t even escape it there, friends.

That doesn’t mean I don’t make some efforts to reduce my plastic usage. I do! I also have some general rules around plastics and swaps I do while still remaining a (mostly) sane human being in the year 2026.

Rules I follow for remaining sane while still caring about plastic use, health and our environment.

(I really could’ve used a catchier title, but my brain is full of microplastics— kidding… kind of!)

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EDIT: This is an updated post as of June 2026. When I wrote this about 8 months ago, Google had started to use AI in it’s search results, but it hadn’t gone whole hog. Well, the hog is whole now and she’s COOKED. (I don’t know if that metaphor works, but it’s bad, y’all.) Now when users search, AI is not only the top answer, it’s also encouraging users to use more AI through their agents. In other words, instead, of the search result links people will focus more on acting on the information those agents provide. You can see that in this screenshot from a search about wildflowers.

See that ask anything? That’s becoming the default. Not links to the original creator whose data it’s using.

This is disturbing in a lot of ways. I’ve previously written about how AI is making us dumber and harming the planet, but this is also (further) scraping the Internet and the work of artists and writers and passing it off as its own with no benefit to the site owner.

In the past year, AI search has killed a lot of websites. It’s definitely killed ads on websites that creators and bloggers relied on for an income. I’ve never fully relied on ads, but I can tell you that I’m making hundreds of dollars less than I was due to a decrease in eyeballs on my website. It’s taken information that we little people have put freely online to teach, to learn, to connect and to share and profiting from it. It’s straight up stealing. It’s another big reason not to use it or at least attempt to avoid it in this capitalist hellscape that is forcing AI use upon us.

I heard it described as technological rape and now I can’t unsee it.

AI is harming the planet and it’s making us dumber. With daily threats to democracy, we need critical thinking skills now more than ever. If you haven’t seen the copious amount of articles that have been published lately, the gist of it is this: AI uses a sh*t ton of fossil fuels, creates copious pollutants, and alarmingly, uses drinking water to cool the systems. It’s also frequently bad information and atrophying our cognitive abilities.

Here’s a few highlights:

• An “analysis shows that 52% of ChatGPT answers contain incorrect information.”

• “…for the average high school student who wants help with homework, relying on powerful AI tools is like using a nuclear-powered digital calculator.”

• The global AI demand is projected to account for 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawal in 2027, which is more than the total annual water withdrawal of 4-6 Denmark or half of the United Kingdom.

• Used improperly, technologies can and do result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties.

AI is also is every.freaking.where. Folks seem to be using it as a stand-in word for helpful when in reality, it’s not. In fact, sometimes it’s actively harmful and a lot of the time, AI results and particularly ChatGPT just produce AI slop. It’s not helpful information. It’s uncreative and unsurprisingly, it’s wrong over 50% of the time.

I’m not a Luddite. I’m not opposed to all technology, but I truly think using AI irresponsibly and without critical thinking is dangerous. In a past life, I taught freshman students how to find and evaluate information. And although that was just a little over 10 years ago, how we find information today is staggeringly different. (If you want to learn more about how to identify misinformation, I’ve written some tactics here.)

Now, AI tools dominate the landscape and it’s seems impossible to avoid them, even if you’re trying to. But it’s still possible to do regular, degular searches and it’s still possible to use your good ‘ol brain.

Here’s some tips for Opting Out of AI:

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How to Quiet Your Media

How to Quiet Your TV

Nothing triggers my flight or fight more than the autoplay previews on streaming sites. A curse on whomever thought of those!

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Does anyone remember that “The Good Place” episode where they meet Doug Forcett? After a magic-mushroom-induced revelation, Doug is the one person on earth who has figured out how the point system to get into the “Good Place” (aka heaven) works. Doug lives a lonely miserable existence in a cabin in the woods. He only eats radishes he’s grown. He drinks his own recycled urine and he lets the neighbor kid take advantage of his good deeds— all in the name of gaining or keeping his points. Later, we find out that even Doug doesn’t have enough points to get into the Good Place because in modern society, the points system doesn’t work. As a modern person living in the United States, every single thing we do has a negative impact on the environment.

I’m typing this newsletter on a computer that is made of plastics (oil) and heavy metals that were mined from the earth with (most likely) shady labor practices. My computer is plugged in right now, so it’s using energy from mostly natural gas, nuclear power and coal. This newsletter lives on a server in a data center somewhere that is being powered by an ever-expanding “need” for energy. Even the meatless meal of avocado toast I ate this morning probably benefitted cartels. It’s enough to make anyone throw up their hands and give up on any kind of environmentalism.

In R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis, the main character travels to hell and her journey elicits all sorts of moral and philosophical questions. It’s a heavy and kinda depressing book, but one line has stuck with me for months:

Knowing our own self-destruction can be debilitating. I recently purchased a new (to me) car. I agonized over the decision for months. Did I truly need a new car? How long could I keep driving my 220,000 mile Honda Civic? The transmission was probably dying, but should I just wait until it died completely? If I did get a new car, is it feasible for me to get an electric vehicle? The best option would be to live in a walkable community, but I can’t afford to live in a walkable community. And how do I grapple with the fact that supporting the oil and gas industry is supporting a war that I do not support? So many questions, so few satisfying answers.

My day job is small business marketing.1 (Yes, marketing is problematic too.) One of my clients is a sustainability podcast with a large following. A part of my job is monitoring comments and one of the most common retorts I get is: “But you are posting this “sustainable” video on your phone. Hypocrite!” Or, “You clearly benefit from capitalism too— look at your house, car, random product I saw in the background of your video!” These folks try to pull a “gotcha!” But better than most people I know that modern life is intertwined with hypocrisy and the best we can do is harm reduction.

Harm reduction is a term typically used to describe “strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use.” But recently I’ve begun to think about sustainability as “harm reduction.” We could be the United States’ most sustainable person and we’d still have a negative impact on the earth. With harm reduction strategies, we’re encouraged to meet drug users where they are, in a non-judgmental way and understand that use is a spectrum. Harm reduction aims to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignoring or condemning them. This is how I want to think about sustainability.

I don’t want to be constantly ignoring or condemning my actions or the actions of my neighbors. I want to meet people (and myself!) where we are and acknowledge that caring for the environment in our current environment is really fucking hard.

Sometimes harm reduction is the best we can do.

If you don’t want to become a paid subscriber, you can send me a coffee via Venmo.

-Melanie

P.S. I finally settled on a used Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid that I named “Mel C” because she’s “Sporty Spice.” The process of buying her was incredibly painful and rife with moral and financial questions. But I’m relieved it’s over.

Today I turn 40 years old. When I was a kid, I thought 40 was SO OLD. Adults in my life had “Over the Hill” birthday parties at 40, complete with graveyard cake toppers and hearing aid gag gifts. Yuck. I’m glad we don’t really do that anymore.

But now that I’m officially 40, I don’t feel old. (Most days. Some days I look at my neck and think “where the ever-living-fuck did that come from?!”) Most of the time I don’t think about my age much at all, but birthdays especially “milestone” ones have a way of forcing reflection.

In some ways life is long. I’ve lived a lot of lives. I’ve been a librarian, a vintage shop owner, a prop stylist, a writer, a content creator, a teacher and a marketing manager. For one very weird, long weekend, I ran a hotdog stand at a motorcycle event. I’ve been a daughter, a sister, a wife, a best friend, a neighbor, a dog mom and a chicken wrangler. I’ve lived in apartments, an Airstream and a van. I’ve owned a small home and renovated it with my own hands. I’ve traveled to places my ancestors didn’t even know existed.

I’ve had crippling depression, anxiety and ADHD. I’m sure if I looked further into things I’d be diagnosed with further mental illnesses, but at this point it feels pointless. I’ve made mistakes and I have regrets, but overall I’m a generally happy person.

I do feel life is long. But it’s also short. I see my parents aging and I see my friend’s kids grow up and I know that this life (any life) won’t last forever. And that’s why I want my flowers now.

I’m throwing myself a birthday party this weekend. Is it “extra” for a 40-year-old woman to throw herself a birthday party on a flower farm complete with a grazing table and a photo wall of herself? Maybe, but I want my flowers now. I don’t want people to talk about my best qualities at my funeral. I don’t want a beautiful flower arrangement beside my coffin. I won’t be there. A funeral is never truly for the departed. It’s for the ones still on this mortal plane. I want to see my friends all in one place now. I want to reflect on my life now. I want my flowers now.

If there’s one thing I’ve realized it’s that we don’t do enough celebrating in life– especially for those of us who don’t have partners or kids. Life should be celebrated whether we have those external “success” markers or not. We are alive in this bright and terrible world and that’s enough of a reason to celebrate.

So on this day of my birth, I want to encourage you to give flowers. I don’t mean go out and physically pick flowers, but to compliment people, to tell them what they mean to you, to tell them how they’ve made your life better and to tell them you love them. Give the flowers now.

I’ve been a pretty adamant believer that home gardening for most people (myself included), doesn’t significantly save money. And that’s ok! We do it for different reasons:

• Gardening gets us outside.

• Gardening is a healthy hobby,

• Gardening is a learning experience,

• Gardening is a useful skill and most importantly,

• Gardening humbles us and gives us more respect for both farmers and food.

You’ll never see food waste the same way once you have a garden!

With another war, rising gas prices (which effects our food costs too!), and a cost of living crisis none of us can escape, I’m wondering if this is finally the year that a garden may actually save significant money.

In 2014, my first year of gardening, I kept track of how much my garden produced and how much money the veggies would have cost had I bought them at a grocery store.

Here was my 2014 Garden Cost Savings Chart:

I did end up saving money— kind of. I really should have added in the potting soil which probably would have knocked another $10-ish off the savings. Now is $270-ish dollars worth hours and hours of work? If you enjoy it, yes! If you don’t enjoy it, maybe not?

But let’s just take those numbers and update them for 2026.

Difference from 2014 to 2026: $49.10.

So, it’s not as significant as I thought it might be… The total savings increased, yes, but the supplies cost almost doubled. 😮‍💨

Here’s where I think I might come out on top in 2026:

I’m a much better gardener than I used to be. I can’t believe I didn’t get any squash in 2014. Something must have ate it because usually I have so much that I’m foisting it upon my neighbors, whether they like it or not!

I also now grow fruit which is WILDLY expensive. A small carton of blackberries is $3.99 and just last week I ran out of blackberries from my freezer. That’s almost a whole year of blackberries.

I also now know how to save seeds and to seed exchange with folks in my community. Although seeds aren’t super expensive (especially in comparison to buying a potted plant), when you buy a bunch, the costs do add up.

Potential Problems

I spend way more money on dirt and mulch now than I used to. I don’t have a lot of patience with weeding, so I love to employ a good mulch. I also grow a lot more stuff in pots than I used to. So, I can see those costs really adding to the “spent” category. Unfortunately as a two person household, we will never make enough compost to support all of my garden needs.

I also was hoping to build some pretty raised garden beds in the front yard this year, but any raised bed gardening is way more expensive. I usually just put stuff in the ground because it’s more cost-friendly. And it works! Don’t let anyone tell you that you need to do raised beds because you don’t. With the cost of everything (gestures broadly), I may hold off again on this for another year.

All this is to say that…

This year I’m going to attempt to log my garden production and costs once again to see if gardening can truly save me money. I’ll be updating you along the way!

What’s your experience with gardening? Do you do it for the cost savings or for the love of the great outdoors? LMK if you think it saves you money in the comments.

I recently went on a trip with my sister and it’s never been so clear that we’re living in the era of enshitification. Enshitification is a term coined by Cory Doctorow in his book: “Enshitification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.” This aptly-named term describes the inevitable decline of online platforms, where services first lure users, then exploit them to favor business customers and finally degrade both to maximize shareholder profits.

I don’t know if you’ve traveled lately, but travel services have gotten REAL SHITTY. It’s a long story, but the simplification is that we stayed in an AirBnB that lost water for several days. It’s been near impossible to get a refund from a 70-something BILLION dollar company for losing an essential service while we were on vacation. Not to mention that it made a trip that should have been relaxing into a stressful experience.

I also flew a budget airline (Frontier and maybe that was on me), but they wanted to charge me $20 to get help from an agent and I had to download an app to use their services. (The app didn’t work in the airport, btw.) Excuse me, what?

I am so tired of having to download an app to use a service, having to jump through hoops to get help and then being charged some bogus fee to receive some of the worst customer service of my life. It makes me what to never leave the house again.

Other than never using AirBnB again and telling you all not to use it, I’m at a loss as to what to do about the enshitification of everything. It seems inevitable, disturbing and dystopian. (Even “luxury” brands are falling apart as easily as fast fashion.) I will be reading Cory Doctorow’s book, but I have a feeling that the answer is systemic, hard to resolve and the best thing we can do is opt-out.

Instead of focusing on the negative, I wanted to share a few companies that have never let me down. I hope that you too will share your service-minded companies in the comments, so we can support them. Also feel free to shout out the baddies, so we can commiserate and know who to avoid.

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I need a new phone. I don’t want a new phone, but my battery is on it’s last legs and it’s increasingly clear that my camera isn’t cutting it anymore. A phone is necessary for my job—for better or for worse. (It’s worse. It’s definitely worse. There’s no question.)

I still have an iPhone 11 and I only got that one after I accidentally washed my other one. FYI, phones can’t make it through the wash cycle, even if you put it in rice after. This is the first phone I’ve bought that hasn’t been because my old one was irreparably damaged and I feel guilty about it. It’s a big expense and it’s not like my old phone is completely unusable. It’s just slowly becoming that way.

Here’s what I’m doing to ease my guilt and practice conscious consumerism:

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I was never a sports kid. The only trophy I ever won was for reading the most books in the entire school. When we played dodgeball, I would ask someone on the other team to tag me out with the ball. (Dodgeball hurt!) I did like to dance, but in middle school my dance teacher told me I was too fat to be a ballerina, so I quit.

After being a self-proclaimed Not-Sporty Spice for my entire life, getting into fitness this past year has been one of the most surprising things that has happened to me. But it’s not by accident. The day after Trump was elected (again), I committed to being physically strong. I remember walking on the treadmill at the gym, texting my sister about how unbelievably angry and sad I was, and committing to turning those feelings into action.

You might think, ok, but what does being strong have to do with fighting fascism?

EVERYTHING. IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH FIGHTING FASCISM.

1. We need mental resistance, but we also need physical resistance. We need to be able to outrun ICE agents and we need to be able to carry food for our neighbors.

   

2. I didn’t want to hear this, but physical health impacts mental health. My therapist has been telling me to exercise for years. Did I listen? No. I was sad and convinced that laying in bed and being sad felt better than exercising. I hate to admit that I was wrong, but I was wrong. Side note: Did you know that Joseph Pilates was a POW? If literal prisoners of war can exercise, I can too.

3. I know this sounds so, so bleak, but in an emergency situation, I want to be able to carry my husband to safety. I’m not kidding. I’ll probably never be able to bench his weight, but that doesn’t mean I can’t put his giant body on my back or drag him. One of my goals was to be able to leg press his weight and I did it.

4. Being strong as a woman is resistance. There’s a reason skinny is becoming fashionable again. When people are hungry and weak, they’re easier to control. When they spend all their time thinking about their body and the never-ending pursuit of thinness, they can’t think about anything else. (I have been there and it’s miserable.) Thinness is a means of control. “Fascism thrives on uniformity and control, and its relationship with body politics is no exception.”

   

5. The future is unknown. We have to take care of ourselves and each other. Healthcare in this country is a mess and I don’t have much hope that it will be resolved in my lifetime. I don’t know if I’ll eventually get a terrible debilitating disease, but I have to do the best I can to prevent it. I also would like to live long enough to see a better world.

So, how exactly did I go from hating exercise to kind of looking forward to it?

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You are not crazy. Nothing about the state of America right now is normal or even acceptable. Both your feelings and your needs are valid. It is absolutely wild that we need to go to work everyday and do our laundry when we are being gaslit by our own president.

So I’m not going to act like everything is normal and write a fun article about New Year decluttering or goal setting. That’s great and wonderful, but it’s not on my mind right now. What I’m thinking about is how we can resist. How we can stand up to oligarchy and tyranny and racism and murder.

Once again I’m offering this article free of charge because I think it’s important. When I offer articles for free, I almost never receive paid subscribers. And while I appreciate those free readers, I can’t work for free. We’re all a slave to capitalism in some way. Please consider becoming a subscriber. It’s $5 a month. That’s less than a cup of coffee now-a-days.

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What You Can Do When Everything is Awful

Refuse

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: our spending power is one of the most impactful powers that we have. When we don’t spend our money at big box retailers, the demand for new goods goes down. When we don’t spend our money on cheap AI slop, the demand goes down. (Here’s more tips on how to opt out of AI.) Hitting companies in the pocketbook is where it hurts them. They do not care about you; they care about your money.

Maybe refusing for you means participating in a Low Spend Year. Or, maybe this means just committing to buying used items before you buy anything new. (Here’s my best thrifting tips.) Refusing is an incredibly powerful way to resist.

Prepare

The madness won’t stop at Minnesota. Be prepared for raids in your area. Know your rights. (The Immigrant Defense Project has a comprehensive guide here. I’ve also seen folks printing these out, laminating and distributing them.)

Learn what to do in different situations. I know this is hard because we can’t prepare for what people with very little training and unchecked power will do, but here is a guide to Preparing for, Protecting Against, and Treating Tear Gas and Other Chemical Irritant Exposure.

Be prepared to stand up for your community. If you are white, you have a duty to stand up for your neighbors. I am white-presenting and I know this. I also know when I’m out with my mom (Native folks are being arrested too), or with my neighbors who are visibly darker than me, I need to stand up for them and I need to stand in front of them.

Stay Informed

It’s difficult to stay informed without spiraling straight into an anxiety pit of despair. I know this because I’m right there with ya. My therapist taught me this trick: Give yourself a time limit. Look at the news or trusted organizations for 15 minutes a day. Set a timer.

Then, do something actionable. Call your representatives (the 5 Calls app makes this easy), talk to your neighbors, reach out to a friend. Volunteer. Information without action is a recipe for anxiety.

News is well, the news and let’s be real it always has a slant. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post for God’s sake! So know that you’re never seeing the full story. (Here’s how recognize misinformation here. )

I’ve been paying close attention to what my friends in Minnesota are saying. (Sarah from Yes and Yes wrote about what it’s like in her area and it’s bad. She has all kinds of tips, suggestions and information there.)

And follow folks like How to Resist. They have more acts of non-compliance here.

Know That You Aren’t Alone

Cultivating a closer network of friends has been one of my greatest accomplishments this year. It’s a group that I know will protest with me, but also we can craft together and talk about the mundane life stuff that still exists amongst the madness.

Reaching out to other people in real life is so important right now and in the future. It’s one of the ways you can future-proof your life without money. (My friend Kara talks more about this often on her Youtube channel. Community is an essential part of retirement, especially when your childfree by choice like we are.)

Don’t Give Up the Fight

This onslaught of news and terrible thing after terrible thing is by design. It’s on purpose and although I’m hopeful for midterm elections, I’m not hopeful that the next three years will be anything other than a shit show.

Please know that we still need you. We need people to continue to live in America and resist. Now is not the time to fawn, it’s the time to fight.

In solidarity,
Melanie

My Low Spend Year hasn’t always been easy and my take-aways weren’t quite what I thought they’d be, but I am proud of myself. I do wish I had read more about other people’s experiences before I committed, so I’m sharing my best tips and tricks for you now. I 100% recommend folks try a Low or even No Spend for at least a month. You don’t have to commit to a full year if you don’t want to.

On to my best tips on how to do a low spend!

I’m making this post free since I think the info is so important, but please consider becoming a paid subscriber. It’s just $5 a month— less than a good cup of coffee! Subscribers get ALL of my content and it helps me to stay afloat in these wild times.

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How to Do a Low Spend

Make your own rules.
You’re the captain of your life and you know what is do-able for you. You don’t have to cut out everything good from your life. For me, I had a goal to make more friends this year. Part of making friends is going out and there are purchases associated with that. My low spend didn’t limit entertainment. I limited things like clothing, home decor and craft supplies. Those are all things I enjoy purchasing, but I knew weren’t necessary. And I still allowed myself 6 items, so I didn’t feel completely deprived. I know myself and when I feel deprived I get the urge to say “F it” and break all the rules. See my full rules here if you need some ideas.

Consider the Hierarchy
I know I said make your own rules, and you do get to do that! But, I would suggest checking out this hierarchy (below) and making any purchases you do make accordingly. You do you, but I truly think this hierarchy is a good way to evaluate your true needs.

Find your why.
For some folks, your why will be saving money. For others, it will be to evaluate your relationship with stuff. I’m a spiteful little thing, so for me it was a form of protest! Your why is essential because when times get tough, it’s what you’ll come back to.

Don’t buy a bunch of stuff beforehand.
Buying a bunch of stuff before a low spend feels a lot like binging before a diet. You don’t need to do that. The whole purpose it to help you reflect and question your purchases. If you anticipate needing underwear or something essential in the next year, add it to your “allowed” list! Don’t set yourself up for failure and don’t spend in anticipation of a problem that might not even happen!

It doesn’t have to be a year-long commitment.
It was difficult to commit to a full year. These past 5 years have really taught me that we can’t predict the future. We have no idea what’s going to happen in our country from day-to-day and that feels scary. If you feel overwhelmed or scared by a year commitment, try a quarter instead or even a month! For some folks, a month is long enough to realize their overconsumption and to reset. Or you can get to a month, discover it was a piece of cake and keep going. Again, you make the rules!

I hope this inspires you to at least evaluate your purchases. Purchasing power is one of our greatest powers and we can use it as a tool for good.

If you’re planning on doing a Low Spend, I’d love to hear your plans in the comments!

There’s just a few more days until my Low Spend Year is over. It’s been successful in most ways. I did technically break my Low Spend when I bought a pair of shoes to exercise in, but other than that, I’ve done well. I’m proud of myself for sticking with something and tracking everything I spent for a whole year. The lessons I’ve learned from the Low Spend surprised me and maybe aren’t what I thought would happen, but life has a way of surprising all of us.

Lessons I Learned During My Low-Spend Year

You can over-consume thrifted items.
For me, the hardest part of the Low Spend year was not thrifting. I previously had a job where I sold vintage items. I thrifted often as part of that business. I do miss it. I was good at my job, but it wasn’t profitable enough to continue. I miss the thrill of the hunt, but I also acknowledge that I was over-consuming thrifted items. I’d thrift for things to sell, but I’d also inevitably see things that I wanted for me. Realistically, I have most of the things I need and there’s not a lot of reason for me to thrift. In a few days, I will be able to thrift again, but I do think this challenge will help me to truly evaluate if a thrifted item is a need or a want.

No or Low Spends don’t inherently mean saving money.
Everything costs more now. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that grocery prices have skyrocketed. All of my bills are more than they were a year ago. While some folks may really financially benefit from a “no spend,” I didn’t save much money. To be honest, I’ve made less money this year too. I am underemployed and the reality is that I can’t out-save not making enough money. Even if I didn’t commit to a Low Spend, I would have had to spend less this year out of sheer necessity.

The desire to acquire new items is still there.
There are still items I see that I want. I don’t think the desire to make my life easier with stuff will every go away. As a neurodivergent person who is just trying to get by most days, I am a sucker for a product to help me. But after a year, I am better able to recognize that this is a pattern for me and I feel more capable in my ability to take a pause to really reflect on my needs vs wants. That being said…

Sometimes things do make your life easier.
For the past year, my husband has been asking for new dishes. Currently, we have dishes that are mismatched, chipped and beyond repair. We also don’t have enough bowls. We’re always running out and having to do more dishes. When this is over, I will be ordering us some new dishes because putting up with sub-par dishes is actually very annoying and I think this true need will improve our lives. And maybe prevent some arguments. 🙃 Not all consumption is bad.

The biggest lesson for me going forward is that I want to continue to spend according to my values.
Which is kind of what I did already! I buy most stuff secondhand. I try to support small businesses when I can. I think for someone who regularly shops on Amazon, this kind of challenge would be utterly and completely life-changing. For me, it was challenging at times— especially when I went on vacation or had something unexpected come up, but it wasn’t overly difficult. I ordered just one thing from Amazon this year and it was a gift off a friend’s baby registry. Suck on that, Jeffrey Bezos! 😜

In the next few days, I’ll be sharing tips and tricks for doing your own Low Spend, so be sure to subscribe to get full-access!

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Did this list surprise you? It certainly surprised me!

Does anyone else feel that we’ve reached peak capitalism this holiday season? It’s been evident to me for a while that the holidays have been rebranded as a time of shopping and rushing and “deals.” But this year it seems like more people are catching on to the fact that it’s all simply too much and we’ve lost the plot. The holidays are a time for gathering together, for cooking, for crafting and for bringing a little light into the dark months.

I love learning about how people celebrated the holiday season in the past. And I love this holiday special of one of my favorite BBC shows about how the Tudors celebrated Christmas. What struck me the most is that even for peasants (like us!) it was a season of simplicity and rest.

So what can we do as modern people living under capitalism to reign in the holiday season? I’ve got some ideas & I’m sharing everything I spent in November…

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Someone once told me that thrifted gifts were tacky. Yet, we live in a world where overconsumption is normalized, the holiday season sends people into debt for months after it has ended and there’s a floating garbage patch twice the size of Texas in the middle of the ocean. I don’t think we get to deem secondhand gifts as tacky. It’s classist and wasteful. And Mama didn’t raise no snobs!

Here’s my best thrifted gift ideas, so you can keep things out of the landfill and maybe save yourself some cash while you’re at it.

Thrifted Gift Ideas

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It’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that I love a challenge. I love a goal. My most recent challenge was trying to eat up the weird stuff I have in my pantry. You know the stuff— the protein powder you regretted buying. The weird can of beef stew that someone gave you. (I documented it on Instagram, if you’re curious!)

I knew going into it that this challenge probably wouldn’t “perform well” with my audience, but it’s something that I wanted to do for a couple of reasons. I wanted to draw attention to food insecurity. I 100% firmly believe that food is a right and no one should go hungry. I also wanted to see if I could do it. I’m a perfectionist when it comes to content creation. I don’t crank out videos like so many creators because my projects usually take a lot of time, a significant amount of editing and to be honest, my iPhone is not very good. I sometimes have to wait for sunny days or just the right light. But I did it anyway! I posted every weekday for a week and yeah, it didn’t perform very well. And yeah, it’s not visually my best work. But that’s not the point. The point is that I proved to myself that I could do it and worked on detaching from the outcome.

I’m working on detaching from the outcome in other areas of my life too. I’ve started writing a novel. (I know, it sounds so grown up and maybe a bit pretentious.) And my first instinct was to get ahead of myself. I started looking into how to query a book, the process of getting a literary agent, etc. But I stopped myself. I’m not in that part yet. I’ve only written about 30 pages and the plot isn’t even completely fleshed out in my head.

I’m trying to be ok with the fact that it might not get published. There’s so many good books out there that don’t get published. In fact, one of my favorite (new to me) authors started out as a self-published author. There’s also a lot of kind of bad books that do get published. (I’ve read lots of them!) So, I need to be ok with writing something that I’m proud of, regardless of the outcome.

So how can you detach from the outcome? I hate to tell you this, friends, but it’s just practice. Practice something low stakes. Try a new craft project and enjoy the process of crafting— the goal is not to have something worthy of being sold. That’s capitalism talking! Detach from the process and make the goal simply practicing something new. Remind yourself that the process is for you, your enjoyment only and the outcome is unimportant. I have to tell myself this so, so many times a day. Quite frankly it’s embarrassing how much I have to tell myself this, but we’re processing and that’s a process too!

On To… How Much I Spent in October

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Onward!

I’ve recently been cleaning up the photos on my phone. As much as I preach minimalism, I am not a digital minimalist. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever made a concerted effort to delete photos before. Yikes! It is exhausting mentally, but it’s also made me so, so aware of the things I value.

To trick myself into buying less or even trick myself out of temptation, I’ll often screenshot an item. And friends, let me tell you: I have almost never gone back to that photo. I’m now deleting them, but I’ll tell you what I’ll never delete: photos of my dog, photos of my partner and photos of the experiences we’ve done together.

Now, not all experiences have to be expensive! I value our trips together, of course, but I also value the time we’ve spent working in our garden, going to a museum or even just sitting on the couch together.

In a couple of months my Low Spend Year will be over and I’ll purchase a few things. But, buying things has never made me feel alive. If anything, it’s made me feel hollow. It’s a quick hit of dopamine and after, often there’s the crash of “why the hell did I buy this thing?”

What has made me feel alive? Growing flowers, cultivating vegetables, getting out into the sunshine, holding hands with my love, snuggling my dog, sitting with my chickens, observing another culture and the moment when I look around and think: “I’m small and insignificant and isn’t that wonderful!”

How are you cultivating more experiences in your life? Also have you ever deleted massive amounts of photos from your phone? How did it go? Let me know in the comments.

I broke my Low Spend this month.

According to my self-imposed rules, I’m only allowed 6 items and I’ve already gone through those. The pair of running shoes I bought this month makes 7 items.

But I’m not ashamed of it. It was for a good reason.

I workout often and I recently got shin splints on the front of my legs. I didn’t know that could happen on the front of your legs— for whatever reason I thought shin splints were on the back of your legs. (Did you know they can happen on the front of your legs?!) And a big part of the reason I got shin splints is because I was using inadequate footwear.

So, I went to Fleetfeet, got one of their fancy (free) shoe fittings and bought myself a new pair of workout shoes. I don’t regret it. I’m getting older and some things are just necessary. The flat shoes I wore for most of my life just aren’t doing it anymore. I could’ve used this as an excuse to keep spending, but I didn’t, at least for the time being.

Honestly, at the end of this Low Spend, I’ll probably spend some more money on…

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