Tag Archives: digital nomad

How I Save $10,000/yr. By Giving Stuff Away

My stuff was preventing me from living a low-cost lifestyle.

I knew I was addicted to shopping. I openly confessed to owning more possessions than I really needed. But for 3 months, I still hesitated to give away my stuff. I clung onto junk that wasn’t worth selling, stashing it away in my bulging closets. If I can’t get my money back anyway, I thought to myself, I might as well keep it all.

One day, as I was tabulating my next rent payment, I stopped to think about the burdensome expense of rent. Here I was, a person who claimed to be frugal, yet I was shelling out $1000 each month just to pay for my large apartment. I never cared about expensive housing, yet rent alone was accounting for half my budget. There was a huge discrepancy between what I valued in life and what I spent my money on.

Sometimes the most expensive part about shopping isn’t the cost of the item itself—-it’s actually the cost of caring for it. Every possession I owned required space to store, and storage wasn’t cheap.

Most of my apartment was effectively just storage. I didn’t do this intentionally; it just sort of happened. Because I owned so many possessions, they were indirectly competing with me for living space. The more I shopped, the larger my apartment needed to be.

Once I grasped this, I started giving away everything I could get my hands on. My family and friends were confused, understandably enough. I gave perfectly usable, expensive items, including a food processor, blender, vacuum cleaner, microwave, and wireless router. In my eyes, they were just dead weight. The faster I got rid of it, the quicker I could downsize to a smaller apartment to save thousands of dollars with no effort at all.

By early December, I was down to a single backpack’s worth of possessions. A family friend held a few suitcases of belongings for me, just in case I had any regrets. I found myself with no car, no bicycle, no furniture, and no spare clothes. I also had practically no more bills.

Today, instead of paying $1000/mo. for rent, I’m only paying $200 [while traveling in Taiwan]. That translates into a total savings of $9600/yr., just by giving away stuff I never used anyway.

Downsizing can work for you no matter what stage of life you’re going through. You can downsize even if you have a family, and you can keep your job, too. Just sell your house and car, give away your possessions, and move to a smaller apartment. Live with less so you can focus your life on what really matters.

It can mean the difference between a life of debt and one of financial freedom.

My Greenimalist Home Office

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I can work while traveling because my entire office fits into my backpack. (At Taichung Train Station)

Right now, my entire home office fits in my backpack. Here’s my set-up broken down by category:

Furniture

I don’t own any. When I stay in a furnished apartment, I’ll use chairs and tables. Otherwise, I just sit on the floor, lean against the wall, and prop my laptop on an old cardboard box. I use ambient lighting when practical.

Electronics

My electronics are not cutting edge. My Kodak Easy-Share camera is almost a decade old, and I’m using a pre-owned 2006 Macbook. I also carry a headset, a mouse, and an ethernet cable. As for cell-phones/smartphones, I’m currently not using any. In total, my electronics are worth around $500.

Phone System

I don’t have a single landline or cell phone subscription: my telephone is completely online. I signed up with Skype for an online number, which includes unlimited calls in the USA, for $60/year. My laptop has a built-in web-cam that I use for videoconferencing, and with my headset, calls are fairly clear. An alternative, Ekiga, works well with open-source.

Fax

I personally haven’t had the need yet, but I may use Fax1 or MyFax. I haven’t tested FaxZero yet, but it claims to offer free faxes with ads.

Mail

Sending mail online is extremely simple. snailmailr, snailmailme, and 1hrmail will print your letter–including color photos–on recycled paper and mail it for a $1-$3. I haven’t tested any yet, but I’m quite impressed.

Receiving mail digitally is much more expensive. Earthclassmail seems to be the most popular service. Besides scanning your letters for online viewing, they also send letters, deposit checks, and forward mail. I probably need to get this soon; my mail is currently just piling up at my old PO Box.

Books

I’m a web developer, so I read a lot of tech books. O’Reilly, Informit, Apress, PragProg, and PeachPit sell DRM-free PDF e-books. By searching around, I can often find free tech e-books licensed under Creative Commons or the GNU FDL. I hate DRM, so I avoid Amazon Kindle/Adobe Digital Editions. If I can’t find a DRM-free e-book, I search the local library.

Documents

I try to minimize the documents I receive. I don’t have auto insurance, magazine subscriptions, or cable, and I receive my bank and loan statements in digital format. Besides saving paper, it save space and headache.

I recycle as much as possible to avoid wasting storage space. I rarely scan documents. So far, I’ve been able to cram everything inside a thin folder.

Printing/Scanning/Photocopying

For those rare moments when I need a scanner, printer, or photocopier, I just borrow one. I usually print at the library ($0.10/page) to avoid the high prices at FedEx Kinko’s. I also try not to scan anything I’m sure I’ll never use again. After all, minimalism is also about removing digital clutter.

Productivity Supplies

I digitized my to-do list, memos, calendar, and address book. For my online whiteboard, I use Twiddla and Dabbleboard. Twiddla is more intuitive, but Dabbleboard includes videoconferencing. I’m using Google Docs for document collaboration, and Google Calendar for my to-do list. Basecamp is a popular alternative for simple project management. I experimented with Zoho last year, but the experience felt unpolished.

My home office is tailored to my needs, not yours. Go and discover the type of Greenimalist office that fits your lifestyle. Maybe your office won’t fit inside a backpack, but I hope I’ve inspired you to get more done with less.

Do you have a method that works better?

I Sleep On The Floor Now

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Recently, I’ve been experimenting with minimalist sleeping–which translates, in less poetic terms, to sleeping on the floor.

My reasons are half-philosophical and half-practical. Philosophically-speaking, mattresses are anti-minimalist. They’re large, heavy, and expensive; I can’t imagine packing one in a backpack. Practically-speaking, my shared apartment in Taichung can’t fit another mattress. I couldn’t use one even if I wanted to.

Many cultures throughout the world don’t use mattresses. The Japanese, for example, sleep on tatami mats. The modern mattress can actually harm your spine if it’s too soft. The harder the mattress, the better it is for your back. So I figure I should just use the hardest support of all and sleep on the floor.

The benefits of sleeping mattress-free are legion. Mattresses are extremely difficult to transport, which makes moving an enormous hassle. Professional moving teams are expensive to hire, but it’s grueling to carry a mattress by yourself.

In general, I dislike furniture, because it limits my flexibility and freedom to travel light. I don’t mind sleeping on a mattress if it’s offered, but I don’t want to have to depend on one. If I rent an unfurnished apartment of my own, I don’t want to own any furniture. I love the freedom that comes from minimalism; I can pack my bags and move in an hour. If I bought a mattress, I would lose that flexibility.

I’m also trying to reduce my pollution by reducing consumption. For all of this year, I’m trying to never buy anything new. I’d have to buy a used mattress, then, but this idea doesn’t sound appealing to Hsinya. She would be perpetually worried about sleeping on a dirty mattress.

For the last two weeks, I have been sleeping on the floor. The first week was terrible. I’ve slept on mattresses my whole life, so I didn’t expect the floor to be so uncomfortable. I had difficulty sleeping each night; I would spend an hour lying awake from back pain. Every three hours, I’d wake up feeling sore and groggy.

Maybe the problem was due to my poor posture. Because of the curvature of my spine, all my lower body weight rested entirely on my tailbone. The pain was unbearable at times, but I refused to give up. I was determined to adjust my posture and get used to sleeping on the floor. Eventually, I conceded to borrowing a thin bamboo mat to give my tailbone some cushion against the hardwood floor. In the future, I’ll try to use spare clothes for minimalist padding.

I’m gradually easing into it now. Sleeping on the floor definitely isn’t as comfortable as sleeping in a mattress, but I have now confirmed that it’s possible to sleep anywhere without paying a dime for a bulky, anti-minimalist bed. So the next time I spend the night at a friend’s place, don’t look for me on the sofa-bed; you’ll find me on the floor.

Do you think minimalist furniture is practical?