It's so good - we DIDN'T buy one

Even if things are wonderful, we don't have to buy them.

The pregnancy dress

In the Minimalism movie, one woman tells a story of needing a nice-looking dress to wear to an event (while very pregnant). She had pregnancy clothes and nice clothes, but nothing that was both.

Rather than buy something (for a one-time wear) she called up a few friends and borrowed a dress. She avoided a pointless purchase and hours in a shopping mall and instead spent time with her friend.

The travel pack

Amongst holiday stories, my sister-in-law mentioned her handy mesh travel bags. You can categorise and separate your items within your suitcase while still seeing what is where. No more rummaging through the whole suitcase to find one particular item.

the handy travel pack you don't need to buy

They sounded very helpful. For her next trip my wife, rather than buy another set, borrowed her sister's collection.

Triple benefits

There's three reasons this turned out to be a great move.

Shop-free - We didn't have to go to shopping to find them.
Enjoyable - The three of us caught up for a nice afternoon when my sister-in-law dropped the bags around.
Clutter-free - We returned them after the trip and don't have to store them. (We've got plenty enough items in our house already).

Reason 2 brought more joy to our day. Reasons 1 and 3 were about less. Less stress and less clutter. Even a handy travel item is clutter for the 50 weeks a year when you're not travelling.

How can we do this more?

Family members are helpful. Sharing between friends can also be great. My wife has also borrowed a friend's dresses for weddings.

It's easy to put a call out on social media. Couple friends of ours requested moving boxes. We had quite a few left over from our last move and were able to help out. I was so glad they didn't have to buy any.

When good neighbours become good friends

Taking it a step further, Streetbank is a site that helps neighbours share with each other. I've listed a tennis racquet, a basketball, DVDs, and tools. People can use these items when they need without having to buy their own.

For more about Streetbank, see my story The Keys to Happiness about our best borrowing experience. Also check out the Streetbank short films made by students to promote the idea.

Comments

Simple phone

I get my fair share of teasing for still using a Nokia phone. So I feel quite vindicated that someone has now invented a new non-smartphone . It's pitched for those who want a decluttered life. Instead of features, its selling points are things like "reclaim a little quietude from the constant intrusions of technology", "no internet connection, no app store and definitely no camera for taking selfies". One quote from the article said "as smartphones get bigger and bulkier, there is a place for something small and simplified, without all the functions." That kind of statement resonates with me. Not just for phones, but for so many areas of life - including the houses we live in.

Why own a car, when you can go get?

That's the slogan of one company providing an alternative to car ownership. Here's our experience with them. Why not just have our own car? Another time I'll write a full post about that, but suffice to say that car ownership is a pain in the neck. The servicing, the maintenance, the repairs, the parking, the traffic, the registration, the insurance, the cleaning... For my wife and I, about 98% of our transport needs can be done on foot, by bike, by train, bus or ferry. Maybe 99% if you include rideshare. So we choose to avoid the pain (and cost) of car ownership. However, car use (I think of it separately from car ownership) can be handy in certain situations. We had one of those situations last weekend. Here's how it went. Booking a car My wife signed up for GoGet , and booked the car online for the time window she needed it. As a first-timer, she received her little membership card in the mail. On the day of the booking, GoGet sent her a reminder email about 20 minut...

The Latte Factor

For the first time ever I'm reviewing a novel. Latte Factor is a short story - around 120 pages - and is equal parts of inspirational story and financial education. The combination of the two is quite rare, and done quite nicely. The story is about Zoey Daniels, associate editor for a travel magazine. Although she's never been outside the USA - "a travel editor who's never travelled". She struggles with money and is considering a higher-paying job at the company her friend Jessica works for. The job would provide more income, but would also be more stressful and demanding. She already has a nightmare about being on an increasingly-fast treadmill that she struggles to stay on. Her current boss Barbara - aware only of the money situation - suggests she talk to Henry at the coffee shop. This peculiar suggestion is where Zoey's life begins to turn a corner. Spoiler Alert Being a book of fiction, I don't want to spoil the story for you. It's a book you ca...

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