foreign hey you guys welcome to this episode of the Rachel Cruz show and today we're going to talk about things that minimalists never or rarely buy so the topic of minimalism is so popular right now and I've had the opportunity to interview several minimalists on this show and you guys always love learning about the tips and the tricks when I have them on as do I and how we can all learn to live with less and the decluttering trend has really taken off with organization experts like Marie kondo and the home edits and these people have just made things very aesthetically pleasing and simple and it's just a really great thing and I feel like a lot of people really started making changes when covid hit and we were all stuck inside for weeks and you look around and you're like oh my gosh we have so much stuff do we need all this stuff and people started questioning those things which is really great so one of my main goals on the show is to help you handle money wisely and we talk about budgeting a lot and one of the first things I encourage you to do when you're working towards your money goals whether it's paying off debt or saving up for an emergency fund is to cut things out of your budgets that you don't use like unused streaming services gym memberships expensive grocery stores those kinds of things so today I'm going to be reacting to a list of things that minimalists claim that they never use and I'll also share a few items of my own that I either stopped buying altogether or again limited since this idea of minimalism has taken over so I thought this could be helpful if you're trying to trim your budgets or maybe you've thought about doing a no spend month where you don't spend any money except for paying the bills but you don't really know where to start so hopefully this will give you some good ideas all right the first thing that minimalists claim that they never buy is single use items so this is anything that you use once and then you discard or dispose afterwards so things like plastic Ziploc bags grocery bags plastic water bottles single-use coffee cups paper towels disposable silverware or straws to-go boxes anything styrofoam even disposable razors gift wrapping balloons all the stuff so all of these things on that list are not great for the environments plus they take up unnecessary space in your house which again we all get frustrated you know with that like Tupperware drawer that's like missing lids and all the things so all right guys that's that's one of the first things that we see is the single-use stuff and I'm not gonna lie I am guilty on basically every single one of those items but I get it like when I read that I'm like yes that makes sense the hard thing for me always is like what's convenience what is quick what is something that I can do very fast and usually it's those single-use items so if you remove that stuff though again not only does it give you more space because you only have the things that you're going to use but it's good all around so I totally get it all right the second think minimalists tend to stay away from are trendy clothes so Trends come and go as we know and either they buy second hand items and they're like yep they get a great discount or they just invest in really quality pieces that are going to last so you know again you see people and they're like oh it's this or this or that and it's this look and that look listen for a lot of minimalists they're like hey we're gonna just kind of stick to one thing like we're gonna wear black the minimalists uh actually this is like what they're known for is they're black t-shirts because again you can look sleek and cool and it takes way less effort to dress in the mornings because you're like I know exactly what I'm gonna wear everything always matches you can do a smaller wardrobe and you don't have to keep up with the trends constantly so I think this is really cute now you all know I love clothes so if I do buy trendy pieces I do not buy very expensive ones I like you know whether it's Amazon or Target or whatever I buy them very inexpensive but it is it does you know take up room in the closet and I get that so I even go through and I'm like purging stuff because I'm like oh I do hate that feeling when you walk in you're like I feel like I have nothing to wear but you have a closet full of stuff so this trend I totally get not to buy trendy things and to go really simple with the Wardrobe because it does take less effort when that's your mindset so I get it all right the third thing that minimalists don't buy is excessive home decor so anything seasonal it's pretty much a tactic of consumerism these days because I take advantage of every single holiday you know when you walk into Walgreens in August and it's like Halloween and you're like what and there's Christmas and there's Valentine's Day all this stuff so minimalists would say do not buy you know themed candy or again spooky spider webs you know with stuff like it's like go very simple anything extra around the house you don't need now some people are very passionate about those throw pillows that are per season and all the things but man it just takes up so much time and again storage really is what it ends up being so this is one that I can fully get on board with I am not a seasonal decorator at all I mean Christmas is the one that I'm like all right we'll do some stuff around Christmas but I don't if you come in my kitchen in February and you come in my kitchen in October it's gonna look the exact same I'm not a seasonal decorator and again it's nice because you're not having to keep changing stuff out and buying things and storing things it's just very simple so I love that one all right the fourth thing that minimalists avoid is single-use kitchen gadgets and extra dishes this is a really good one so think about any tool that does a job that you know a knife or a spoon could do so just think about this apple slicers ice cream scoopers lemon or lime squeezers multiple types of glassware and drink wear and silverware and plates and bowls and all the things there's just a lot of stuff around the kitchen now I have some of the things on that list I'm not gonna lie and I love of a good lemon or lime squeezer I just feel like you get a lot of juice when you use those so I do like that but yeah a regular spoon can scoop ice cream like we don't need three different ice cream scoops Scoops you know so but there are these accessories around the kitchen that you end up buying and you pull a drawer and it's like all this stuff is just in there and you don't need it all so I can appreciate that one all right the fifth thing that minimalists rarely buy are single use beauty or hygiene items so cotton balls Q-tips makeup remover wipes multiple makeup brushes nail polish all that I'm not a very good minimalist on this episode because I use a lot of that stuff you guys I really do but it makes sense like I get it because it does it's wasteful and it takes up room and all of it but for me there are things that have like very specific use that I'm like oh yeah I do use that but then you get in your head and you're like oh you end up buying more and buying more and buying more and then you look up you're like oh we have drawer fulls of stuff that we really don't need so again it's all about prioritizing and asking like am I Really Gonna use this so here are a couple things that I can tell you that I definitely have stopped buying or really bought less of using this mindset so if you're trying to make some changes in your life just look for really simple things that you can even just take out of your monthly budgets to save money and then you end up not buying certain things in those categories which is really nice so for me cleaning supplies so I have kitchen cleaners that I actually make homemade and it's so inexpensive it's honestly probably way better just from like a chemical standpoint it smells really good it's easy to do all of it so I'll actually put a video a link to the video that I did for all cleaning supplies that you can make at home and again it's so less expensive and I love it another thing is I've learned over the years kids shoes y'all I used to buy so many shoes like my girls would have like I don't know three different types of sandals and all this stuff and it wasn't even for like looks it was just like oh the more quantity we have if something's lost we don't have to go look for like it's right there it's convenient it's quick but I've been done with that I'm like nope nope so I'm like every kid needs three pairs of shoes you need a pair of tennis shoes you need some like flip-flops or sandals running around in the summer and then like a nicer pair of shoes like if we're going to church or doing something kind of nicer but besides that we don't need the in-between shoes like this is all we need so for me I simplified that oh and it made life so much better and then I also simplified my beauty routine like even my skincare you know there are there was a time in my life where you would have I don't know five or six things I would do at night to my skin now 50 year old Rachel may regret all of this but now I'm like I just wash my face and put on some moisturizer and go to bed so I don't make it complicated and again saving money that way for sure so there are things I definitely pulled back from which has been very nice and simplified but I also find what's practical for you and your family is great and just make sure it's in the budget so there you have it you guys some practical shopping habits from me and definitely from all the minimalists out there so if minimal living it seems daunting or even impossible for you or you're kind of skeptical about changing your shopping and spending habits I challenge you to pick just one of these things that we talked about today do it for a month or do without it for a month and see what happens because you might be surprised about how you're really able to adapt how you may not miss that thing at all so make sure to send this video to a friend and challenge them to do the same thing and if you do it you know put it on social tag me because I want to see the progress because again I think trying new things and learning hey if I'm comfortable in something if I do do something and change it it actually may help me and my budgets so make sure to check all that out and remember you guys to take control of your money and create a life you love [Music]
