Back in 2017, we took on the challenge to buy nothing new for a full calendar year. We wanted to break away from the consumerism that surrounds us on a daily basis. Our hope was that if we could get through an entire year of buying nothing new that it would help us become more intentional with our money.

We came up with five strategies to help us avoid buying new items:

1. Wear out - don’t replace items until they no longer perform their function
2. Fix - where possible, fix broken/torn items instead of replacing
3. Repurpose - do we already have something that can fulfill that item’s usage?
4. Self-provision - can we make it ourselves from other materials?
5. Buy used - can we find what we need used instead of new

While those strategies were useful, we knew that there were going to be exceptions. Chris and I thought hard and came up with 4 exceptions that we felt were in line with our values:

• Underwear, Socks, and Shoes
• Photo prints (school pictures and for our road trip map)
• Car maintenance parts (we know we need new tires next year)
• Home remodeling (we needed to wrap up current projects)

Our Experience

Chris and I were really optimistic when we started January 1, 2017. We even stayed within the rules! We did buy new carbon monoxide detectors, which weren’t on the exception list. But it was a safety issue for our family and deemed a necessary new purchase. The following two months we stayed focused and never broke our challenge rules. We went into month four thinking this challenge was going to be easy for our minimalist family.

Then my computer’s power cord finally gave out. We debated buying used, but we had already done that and it had not lasted long. So we broke the challenge for a good cause, buying a brand spanking new mac laptop power cord! It was a justified purchase. But that’s the problem right? Once you make one excuse, a few more follow. I bought one of our kids a costume as a birthday present. I told myself it was an experience, but let’s be honest - it was an item! And either way it was new.

The following month I bought some stainless steel straws. I still love them to this day, but it honestly was an impulse purchase. A week later I found myself having a pity party. My clothes all felt worn and frumpy. I felt worn and frumpy. I had errands to run and decided I would just have a look in one of my favorite shops. I walked out with an $80 summer dress from Title Nine. I felt a little guilty, but I came up with an excuse to justify my expensive buy. This is what I said to Chris when I showed him the dress:

“Our buy nothing new challenge is supposed to help us be more intentional with our spending. I want you to know that I very intentionally bought this dress!” (Tweet this )

I was really proud of myself for that statement! It was also the downfall of our experiment. The second half of the year was full of new purchases. We had multiple issues with buying second hand clothes for the girls. One was that we would later find holes in unfortunate places - so we gave up on buying used pants. I struggled with Sciatica and purchased a stability ball and foam roller to help. They were more or less impulse purchases that I used to delay going to a doctor. I now visit a chiropractor and don’t use those items.

Buying stuff in the second half of the year felt like binging on food after a miserable diet. In the following months we bought a lot of new items. We continued to try avoiding buying new, but our resolve wasn’t as strong. Buying used takes more time and patience (sifting through thrift stores). We were tired and buying new felt easier at times.

Trying to buy nothing new for a full year was tough. We finished the year with 90 new purchased items. This is far above our goal of zero, but the challenge did have an impact on how much new stuff we bought. In 2016 we had purchased 153 new items. We cut that by 40% in 2017. We also learned a few lessons along the way.

5 Lessons From Our Buy Nothing New Challenge

1. There will be unexpected necessary purchases (carbon monoxide detectors)
2. You will have a pity party at some point (my $80 dress, that I still love by the way)
3. Be diligent when you purchase used (holes in pants we didn’t notice before)
4. Don’t use purchases as solutions (stability ball)
5. When taking on a new challenge, start small (a full year is a long time, a three month challenge would have been a better first step)

Have you ever taken a buy nothing new challenge? How did it go for you?

I’ve been dreaming up different house plans for years. The square feet, number of bedrooms, and layout always varied, but the one thing that remained the same was my desire to create a functional compact home. For us, smaller square feet means a smaller mortgage and less to clean! This frees up financial resources to invest in other things we love to do (travel). It also frees up our time - I would rather spend my Saturday hiking than cleaning bathrooms!

Now that we have taken the step to build, all those different designs have melded together to become the floor plan below. While my focus has been on creating a small, multi-functional home, there are two areas that I loosened that focus in order to emphasize our values.

1. The first area we wanted to focus on was our screened-in deck. While we could have kept it small or even delayed building this feature to save money, we dreamed of having a mosquito free outdoor sanctuary where we could relax and spend time with friends and family. So instead of limiting this space, we extended the deck to be 20x10 sq ft.

2. The other area we extended was the kids’ bedroom. While we know the girls can survive in a 10x10 bedroom space together, I know that their need for privacy is growing. With that in mind, I created a 400 sq. ft. oasis with individual retreats (built in queen beds with shelf, outlet, light, and curtain) and an ensuite bathroom that maximizes privacy with three separate zones (toilet, sinks, shower).

   Note: You may wonder why we opt for a single bedroom instead of individual rooms for our girls: This has been an intentional choice. For Chris and I, the girls sharing a bedroom builds their friendship while also putting them in a situation where they have to learn to respect each other and resolve conflicts. Plus, the giggles we often hear after 7pm melt my heart - I wouldn’t want it any other way!

The remaining areas of the little white shack were designed to provide the biggest bang per square foot. For us, this meant creating multi-functional spaces that work for our family and lifestyle. This is how we made our decisions for each space:

1. Our minimalist lifestyle shows itself in our kitchen - a small galley that leads to the screened-in deck! There’s little counter space, limited storage, no microwave, and no cooktop range. Chris and I prefer simple meals, stay away from single purpose gadgets, and focus on using up groceries instead of stocking up. We have just enough counter space and storage to match our needs, haven’t used a microwave in years, and are opting to use induction hot plates that can be stored when not in use. It is a kitchen that exactly meets our needs!

2. We love our long narrow IKEA table and designed our dining space to fit it perfectly. This is where most of our life happens - family dinners, gathering with friends for pizza night, building puzzles, kids art projects, work, homework, and so much more. This table is at the center of our home, overlapping with the kitchen and open to the living room. It is the heart of our home, pulling us all together no matter what we are doing!

3. Chris and I have always wanted a fireplace in our living room. Sure, it’s not necessary and would save us close to $5k if we eliminated this feature, but it provides an extra layer of coziness in the winter. And this is exactly what we want out of our living room - a cozy welcoming space that invites you to sink in and relax. We don’t need a large room to make this happen. Instead we’ll be focusing more on the decor to maximize seating and create an atmosphere that encourages family movie nights, snuggling up with a good book, and chatting with friends.

4. We designed our bedroom to be useful day and night by installing a Murphy bed with a desk so Chris also has an office. We wanted to keep our room compact, yet comfortable. So when the bed is down, there is just enough space to comfortably walk around the bed and instead of nightstands, we each have our own 9 ft high cupboard that houses our minimalist wardrobe.

   Note: We love floor sleeping so much and don’t want to give it up with the Murphy bed. So the company making our bed is customizing our unit to accommodate our Japanese floor mat!

5. I wanted a single bathroom on the main floor that functioned as an ensuite and main floor restroom. In order to do this, I added a door off the kitchen that opens to a small landing space. That landing space has a door to the bathroom and a separate door to our bedroom. This allows Chris to work privately in our room during the day while also allowing anyone to access the bathroom. At night, we can close the kitchen door to create an ensuite feel.

6. In order to keep our home small, I needed to keep the mudroom simple. With five people in our family a large mudroom seems ideal, but I decided on a small hallway with hooks that just accommodate the current season. Off season shoes, jackets, etc will be stored in our unfinished basement where our laundry will also be located. In the end, it wasn’t worth the extra cost to us to make space for laundry and storage on the main floor.

7. We love being a single car family and plan on sticking with this lifestyle choice. We don’t want a two car garage, but we do want extra space for bike storage and maneuverability around our van. With this vision, I designed a deep garage with a little extra width - 16x28 square feet.

We feel so blessed to be able to build a home that matches our minimalist lifestyle. Most places wouldn’t allow a 1,112 square foot home with a single car garage due to neighborhood ordinances and deed restrictions. So when a narrow lot with zero restrictions in the middle of our town came up for sale we knew it was a match made in heaven. We can’t wait to enjoy life in the Little White Shack - a childhood dream come true!

Here’s the Little White Shack Floor Plan:

Have you ever vacationed with your entire family in a single house? I’ve always told Chris that I think the best time to spend with extended family would be in a neutral setting at a neutral time (no holidays please). This idea became a reality when my mom surprised us with an amazing gift.

My mom and aunts recently sold my grandparents’ house. With my mom’s portion of the sale she decided to take her family on a vacation. We joined my parents, two sisters and their husbands and kiddos in a beautiful three story home with a pool right on Bradenton Beach, FL. My Nana loved nothing more than being with all of her family so it was a wonderful way to honor her and my grandpa.

Anna Maria Island, Florida

Our days in Florida were slow and relaxing. Mornings were filled with coffee, cartoons, and taking in the view of the waves. The rest of the day was spent between the pool, beach, and foosball table! Lunches were simple sandwiches and fresh fruit. My brother-in-law rocked the grill at dinner time. And as the sun was about to set we would head to the beach to absorb the last of the sun’s rays.

We rarely left the property - a few trips to the beach wear and grocery stores filled our needs. Halfway through the week we had a girlie with ear pain at 1AM. We didn’t realize that my dad (with the dog) and sister (with the baby) were up as well. Had we known, Chris could have brought the dog and our nephew in the car when he made his late night run to Walgreens.

Sharing this vacation with my family allowed all of our relationships grow. We all helped each other out. My sisters would take N to the beach when the twins wanted to stay in the pool. I grabbed the baby when he woke up from his nap so my sister could stay on the beach a bit longer. Chris taught our two year old nephew the potato fries fist bump. The girls cuddled on the couch with my niece when they watched movies. And on a few nights the adults would stay up with a glass of wine and chat!

Before the week was over my sisters and I agreed that we would love to vacation like this again! It was the most relaxing, fun time we’ve spent with family. And while this trip was free thanks to my parents, we would gladly split the cost in the future because a week in paradise with my family was priceless.

Here’s a scenario I bet you’ve encountered:

You’re on your way home. It’s a familiar route. You’ve done this trip hundreds or thousands of times.

Your mind drifts to other parts of your day. You think about the grocery list, the latest challenge with work or the kids.

The next thing you know, you’re home.

You don’t remember the commute. You don’t remember the turns, the signs, or the stops. You know they happened and you feel like you were reasonably safe, but you must admit that you were, in essence, on autopilot.

Why do we end up on autopilot? Certainly getting home safely is important to us. The last thing any of us wants is to get in a car accident or to hit a pedestrian.

Here’s my theory - subconsciously, we’re making a decision to optimize. We know we only have so many minutes in the day. We can’t avoid the commute, so we choose to optimize our time by balancing a “sufficient” amount of attention to the road with the rest on other priorities.

If we can give enough attention to driving, isn’t it the best of both worlds to be able to mentally prepare for other parts of our day as well?

Optimizing is a driving force in our day. We optimize our time. We optimize our money. We optimize our skills, our talents, and our relationships.

When Optimization Goes Wrong

But optimization has a dark side. When we let our optimization be subconscious (instead of conscious), we run the risk of optimizing for the wrong things and getting further away from the life we really want.

Optimizing your time on the road might be worth the safety tradeoff if you’re spending that time figuring out a cure to a debilitating disease. But is it worth getting into an accident because you were trying to decide whether your Instagram photo of tonight’s tacos would look better with white or orange cheddar?

You see, optimizing on autopilot is risky; especially when you’ve got celebrities, carefully curated social media profiles, and advertising telling you what you’re “supposed” to value.

When you start combining subconscious optimizing with “adopted” values from others, you can quickly find your life spinning in the wrong direction.

Modern Society’s Preferred Optimizations

So what do those celebs, influencers, and marketers tell you to optimize for?

Two big ones come to mind, both of which are recipes for failure.

First, they tell you to optimize for your “image”. You’re told to optimize for how others perceive you. Get this car and people will think X. Wear these clothes and you’ll give the appearance that you’re Y.

But if you optimize for your image, you’re optimizing on other peoples’ perceptions instead of your own. You’re inherently placing your personal value in what other people think of you, which is something you should never optimize for.

Your worth isn’t defined by what other people think. It’s not even defined by what you think. God loves you and no matter how poor your image (self or otherwise) is. God determined your worth a long time ago and no one can take that away.

Second, society will tell you to optimize for convenience.

Between fast food, internet shopping with 2-day delivery, on-demand streaming, and instant answers from your phone (or a digital assistant sitting in your living room), we’ve been trained to think that convenience is king.

But is our ultimate goal on this planet to “get things easily?” Is that what you want on your tombstone?

Here Lies Chris
Loving husband and father
Found innovative ways to avoid lifting a finger
Rest in peace

Come on! God made you for bigger and better things than finding the easiest and fastest way to satisfy your compulsions.

I had a beer with one of our readers the other week (BTW, this is something I’m highly for and would love to do with any of you that are swinging by Madison, WI) and he shared a great example of how he and his family flipped convenience on its head and found a much better thing to optimize for.

Here’s the rundown:

Their family has three kids (one college, one high school, one middle school) and two working parents. Their college-aged son is home for the summer and working a second-shift internship on the other side of town. With only 2 cars, transportation can get a little bit tricky.

The convenient solution would be to buy another car - even a junker - to help ensure that transportation is easy for everyone. But this family knows that convenient doesn’t necessarily mean best, so they came up with another approach.

Every morning, the dad drives to work. When the son needs to head to work in the afternoon, he rides his bike to his dad’s office. When he gets there, he drops off the bike and takes the car the rest of the way to his second-shift job. When the dad finishes work, he rides the bike home. When the son finishes work (late at night), he drives the whole way back.

Is this convenient? Definitely no. Biking is exercise and that’s hard work. But it’s also good for you. Rain and temperature could make for some pretty rough riding conditions. But those conditions aren’t impossible to tackle.

It’s not convenient, but it does align with this family’s values. They didn’t want to spend the extra money on a car, gas, and insurance. They didn’t want to add more pollution to the air or another set of rusted out parts in the landfill. So they got creative and found a better solution to the problem for their family.

Optimize for Your Values

I love that story - not because that situation and solution precisely matches us, but because it precisely matches them. This reader’s family thought hard about what was important to them and optimized on their values.

Over the last several years, we’ve worked to do the same in our own lives. Here’s a small example:

In our old house, we had four bedrooms. With three kids, that gave us precisely enough space to allow each child to have their own bedroom as they got older.

But as we build the little white shack, we are building with a floorplan that has just two bedrooms and two bathrooms. All three of our girls will share a single bedroom and a single bathroom.

Keep in mind, we’re going to have three teenage girls in our household in the not-so-distant future, so this definitely doesn’t sound convenient from most perspectives.

But convenient isn’t what we want here. We don’t want a situation where our daughters all shut themselves off in separate parts of the house. We don’t want our house to just be a place we all happen to live; we want to be present and supportive in one another’s days every day.

And we don’t want to let convenience drive our finances. More bedrooms and bathrooms mean a bigger mortgage, higher property taxes, and higher operating cost. That expense comes at the cost of other things we’d rather spend our money on - like charity and family travel.

Will sharing a room cause some extra sibling fighting? Maybe. Will there be times that they scream and tell us we’re ruining their lives for not giving them their own room? Probably. But will they be forced to confront issues, work through conflict, and connect as a family? Definitely.

This piece of our floorplan may sound massively inconvenient to some. But for us, it’s a reflection of the values we think are right for our family. And that’s the perfect thing to optimize for.

What are you optimizing for? How does your life reflect your values (or not)? What optimizations are you second-guessing?

What have we been up to over the past year? Our last post was in June 2019 and we dropped off the blogging world as we packed up our belongings, moved out of our apartment, and started a new season of our life.

We had planned to move straight from our apartment to our new home - The Little White Shack, but our house wasn’t ready. So we moved our stuff into the basement of the house, flew out to Alaska (our 49th state), lived with family and friends, Chris ended up in the ER, and we finally moved into our home on Memorial Day 2019.

Alaska was amazing. We hiked, walked on a glacier, and visited dogs who run the Iditarod. The highlight of the trip was hanging out with one of the kindest families ever - Northern Expenditure. We shared our life over dinner and our kids played. I couldn’t be more excited to have a friend in Alaska. I want friends in all 50 states. So if you want to be friends with someone in Wisconsin, email me!!

Have you ever lived with loved ones? I was worried about overextending our welcome or my introverted self going crazy, but our time with my family was great. My mom and I would chat over wine, the girls would play with their cousins, and we helped my parents get a much needed vacation since we were with their elderly dog.

Our builder had to rush Chris to the ER. While carrying our refrigerator into our home with our builder, Chris lost his grip. The refrigerator caught his lip and blood gushed from his face. I got a text from Chris: split lip, on way to ER. I was binge watching Netflix and hiding ice cream bar wrappers from my kids so I mindlessly responded: OK. Then the episode ended and I realized he said ER. Oops! I scooped clothes and toothbrushes off the counter into a bag, grabbed the girls, drove an hour to the ER, and found Chris sitting outside the hospital with 10 stitches in his lip.

We almost sold our home before we moved in! Two weeks before moving into our home, we moved in with our best friends. We all figured this would either destroy our friendship or bring us closer. After week one, I realized the joy of living in a commune. We were all in this life together. Our kids played, we sat around the dinner table together, Chris and I helped with cooking and laundry, and we shared how our days went every evening. Thinking about leaving made me sad. It sounded lonely! The day after we moved out, Gretchen and I went grocery shopping together! (Ok, confession, we didn’t almost sell our home, but it did cross my mind, lol)

The Little White Shack became a reality. I dreamed and drafted every detail of this home! The south side is mostly windows so we have great natural light. In the winter we cuddle on the couch with the coziness of the fireplace. In the Summer we enjoy bug-free days and nights on our screened-in-deck. We are coming up on a year in this home and we wouldn’t change a thing. Well, I could go a bit smaller, but there’s always my next dream home: The Mini White Shack.

We’ve missed the personal finance community and we are excited to be back. We plan on sharing our ongoing thrifty journey with you on a monthly basis. Now that I’ve caught you up, catch us up on your life in the comments! We can’t wait to hear what you’ve been up to!

Blessings,

Jaime + Chris

Before Covid

When our girls were toddlers I loved the idea of homeschool, but I was also terrified by it. We weren’t confident in how to homeschool and decided to give public school a try. Overall, I’ve been content with our decision, but I do think the school day is too long and wished there was more flexibility. I still dream about the homeschool option, wondering if it could help us life our best life.

Covid Hits

The schools closed. Our girls were sent home with their iPads and Chromebooks. It wasn’t perfect, but everyone was doing the best they could. Then our school district decided to stay 100% virtual this year. I decided to embrace it. I saw this as an experiment. If we could make online school a success, then maybe we could take a year (after covid) and travel around the world!

I was confident that our girls could learn online. I also knew that it would be lonely. I reached out to two family friends to see if our kids could do school together a few days a week. Even better, Wednesdays were going to be extra short days, providing flexibility for adventures! I was thrilled!

4th Grade Virtual School

Virtual school has worked out awesome for N. She spends everyday with her best friend. Some days at our house; others at hers. The girls are super independent and responsible. I love it so much! Last Wednesday we walked into town to get ice cream, letting the girls walk ahead while Chris and I chatted.

I see N in a new light - more grown up and responsible. I can honestly say I love her online experience more than when she was going to the building.

3rd Grade Virtual School

A and B’s school year has been very different. Their best friend was invited to join a pod of girls and they extended the invite to us. Each day the girls would do school together, rotating homes. I had mixed feelings about this set up, but the girls were excited.

Academically, A and B are doing awesome. The girls enjoy the friend time, but some days one or both don’t want to join. On my end, I enjoy having a few quiet days at home, but navigating differing parent expectations has spiked my anxiety. I also feel like the pod structure prevents us from taking full advantage of this unique time.

With a new month upon us, I’m not sure what to do.

Chris and I need to talk. We need to talk with A and B

I have a feeling we will be mixing it up.

Are your kids doing virtual learning? How is it going?

I would love to hear about your experiences - whether this is new to you too or you’ve been doing it for many years.