But wait... there's less!

Yes, jewellery stores pump out the ads around valentine's day - that's no surprise. After all it's a made-up day designed to sell more stuff at higher prices. But this year they seem extra desperate to sell stuff we don't want, with the "You know what to do" campaign. I reckon the sales team are scared by the number of couples that have realised that love is not in physical merchandise but in quality time. So they've made an ad exactly about these people. The message seems to be aimed straight at guys to say "even if you and your partner agree not to waste money on jewellery, you should buy her some anyway". Apparently in a relationship it's important to ignore what your wife or partner says and do what profit-motivated corporations tell you to do. I tend to disagree. If you're interested have a look - it's interesting to see how transparent it is.

Did you have to pull one of these faces over the Christmas season? There's so much gift-giving. Secret Santas, distant relatives, and people we don't see that often. There's going to be more than a few unwanted and wasteful gifts. To save people's feelings we have to act as if we like it. It's a bit odd - that we have to show our love by being a little bit fake.

I like Christmas, but it's a little bit ruined by advertising that keeps telling us to spend more. This is one of the bluntest - it straight out says that the path to happiness is spending. Of course, more accurate (but less grammatical) slogans would be: the more the stressier the more the costlier the more the debtier the more the exhaustinger (from shopping) the more the wastier (of food and unwanted gifts) But of course it's not the shops' job to tell the truth. Their job is selling. Perhaps it's our job to realise that it's nonsense and to focus on what really makes Christmas merry. If you'd like your Christmas to be more about love and giving than about shopping and credit cards, why not grab my free Christmas Resource . It's got 5 websites to help your Christmas have less stuff and more joy. Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

I'm not the first person to suggest that we shouldn't give gifts to adults (they just result in stress and waste) but I can give you an example of why. The mid-way birth-day Midway between my wife's birthday and mine, my sister gives us a combined gift. That's a good idea - to cut present stress by half. So what was it? As gifts go it was a reasonable thought. My wife and I enjoy board games and the TV series Doctor Who, so the Doctor Who version of Monopoly seemed like a good gift idea. Except that another friend had the exact same idea. Now we have two of the same game. What to do with the extra gift? A gift is meant to be an enjoyable experience for the receiver, but here's what happened: We thought of re-gifting it, but can't think of anyone who's a big fan of both Doctor Who and Monopoly. We decided to sell it online. At least that way my sister won't have completely wasted her money. So far three people have contacted us but none have fol...

A friend shared this on social media. My first reaction was "of course you can". I do that every weekend. I work Wednesday to Friday. So Monday and Tuesday are my 'second weekend'. Sadly though, not all employers offer 3-day-a-week jobs. And it is sad. Sub-consciously we realise that we are spending a lot of time working and not so much time enjoying the benefits of that work. As a result we start to resent the work that we do (even though it's our chosen line of work) because it takes up so much of our time. Sometimes the standard weekend is barely enough to recuperate from a stressful week and catch up on household chores and then it's back to work again. We hunger for more time to actually live life and enjoy it. So how can we do it? 1. Hope that employers realise this great opportunity. Offering a diversity of work options can help them compete for the best employees. Working 3 days per week is also more productive . 2. Team up. Where I us...

October is Buy Nothing New Month , and that's their slogan: Shop Less. Live More. This quote about consumption is doubly true. There's the hours we spend to earn the money to spend. Then there's the hours bustling around shopping centres and malls searching out the thing we want (or that advertising has told us we want). Of course there's also the issue of where we put all this stuff we buy. Do we just buy a bigger house (with a bigger mortgage) or do we put it in storage? "The Japanese may have tidiness but in America we have storage lockers - our only growth industry." - Marge Simpson . I found these stats about the US storage industry . I find it such a waste that after spending so much to buy all this stuff we then spend another $22 billion to store it. Shocking. Clearly we need to be less addicted to purchasing. Buy Nothing New Month is a great way to start. Are you with me?

Do you feel like you have too much stuff? Is your home full of things you never use? Would you like to swap them for cash? We did My wife and I have sold more than 550 items online as we downsize and we've learnt a bit along the way. I've put some of our best tips into this handy ebook. I hope you can use these tips so you too can have less clutter and more cash. Enter your email address below to receive the book for free. Less Clutter More Cash Get my new ebook for free. PS. This will subscribe to the But Wait There's Less email list, so you'll know when the new updated version of the book is available. You can unsubscribe at any time.

As we downsize i'm finding some things I'd half-forgotten I own. Like this retro Casio handheld computer game. I decided to sell it - especially as it turns out they are a bit of a collector's item. I mentioned this to a computer-game-loving friend of mine. He suggested I hold on to it for "investment value but also because it's cool to have old stuff like this" but also said to put it online if I "really need the space". That last bit got me thinking. It's not really about the space - the game's only the size of a mobile phone. We have sold more than 200 items now, so I guess the space adds up. But the amount of space wasn't a big driving factor. The famous Kon Mari method says to give away things that doesn't bring you joy. I think I would adjust that slightly. This game still brings me a little joy. I play it for a minute or two every couple of years when I stumble across it - often when looking for something else in that dr...

My wife and I have sold more than 200 items online as we've been downsizing. We've made a fair bit of cash, and also learnt a thing or two along the way. I've put some of our tips in a small ebook. In the spirit of downsizing and less-is-more I've kept my cover design fairly simple. Which one do you prefer and why? Let me know in the comments. The ebook it will be a free download to those subscribed to But Wait There's Less . Update: The book is now available .

Now it seems that advertising doesn't even have to make sense. This vending machine at my local shopping centre has the slogan "let life surprise you". I guess it's aimed at people who find their life predictable and would like more spontaneity. But where's the surprise? A person puts money in and selects a drink. That drink comes out and the correct amount of change is returned. Still no surprise. Perhaps the slogan might be valid if your selection had no impact on the random drink dispensed. Or if every third customer got all their money refunded. Or if the vending machine was replaced with a children's lucky-dip. But as it stands it is far from a surprise. It's perhaps the most predictable activity you might do all day. Perhaps if people are looking for spontaneity and excitement they'd do better to spend less time in shopping centres and more time doing things that bring happiness . Also, don't bother paying $3.50 for fizzy drink j...