Minimalism & Money: 3 Secrets of How I Cut Our Budget by 2/3rds But Why I don't Recommend It

We had 4 pennies left one February exactly 13 years ago, and I was excited because we were in the black!! We hadn’t been in the positive budget-wise for months after I left my corporate job. Plus, my husband’s dream job had ended, our new baby was sick, and we were broke.

It’s a quiet snowy early morning here in our little log home, and I want to share all my frugal secrets but with one huge warning - I don’t necessarily recommend doing any of it. Our journey from completely broke to being financially free is not for the faint of heart. It’s been a crazy ride, with tons of complete miracles, and I’ve done insane things to save money. My husband calls me a professional “tight-wad” and he’s actually kinda right. I’m a professional financial coach in “real life” and work with private clients coordinating their personal and business finances with tax, insurance, and automation strategy. However, I’m also a minimalist mom of 6 children and I know what it’s like to have 6 little ones and a grocery bill to match! Let’s talk about ways to save those pennies!! But hang on to the end of the post for why I don’t necessarily recommend it.

Secret #1 Know where your money is going. This goes without saying, and of course isn’t a huge secret, but you need to follow the path of your money in order to make any serious adjustments. Whether you have a detailed spreadsheet or a vague feeling of what your numbers “might” be, you need to start where you are at. Now is the time to look! Check all the places those sneaky expenses and debits could be hiding in secondary bank accounts, cash purchases, minor credit cards only used for occasion items, a HELOC or line of credit, withdraws from life insurance or retirement accounts. Count it all! And be ready when you go digging - at least for me when we first began our journey to freedom - the numbers were brutal, but I knew I had to face the honest facts in order to create a plan to get out of the impossible situation we were in.

Secret # 2 Look for ways to save money in hidden spaces. I found a tiny health food store where I could buy in bulk and asked the grocery for a discount on over-ripe bananas and everything else I could. I switched to cloth rags instead of paper towels and made my own diaper wipes. We actually still use the same cloth diapers my cousin gave me - six kids later they are a bit thinner but still going strong. I saved soap shavings and melted it into new soap. Look everywhere and in each step of your day to find ways to save and better allocate your resources. It’s possible to see wealth in hidden spaces and make it a game to find ways to cut the expenses.

Secret #3 Get in unity with your family in terms of money. This is the hardest step, I’ll be completely honest, but the most worthy. We all have different money views when it comes to financial decisions. Every household has multiple viewpoints likely represented between partners, children, aging parents, and even co-parents not in the same house. It’s time to have those hard conversations and even harder moments of truly listening and valuing the other person more than the money involved. Full disclosure, I wasn’t good at this in the beginning. I thought I was always right and that my way was the only way to view numbers. Isn’t that silly? Of course, I quickly learned that not everyone agreed with me. Through those fiery “conversations,” I learned that numbers are about communication. How we understand the story they tell can either draw us closer together with those we love or drive a wedge between us. It’s up to us to choose how to use those numbers! Choose unity. Agreed to disagree sometimes, but set boundaries and a common vision, goal, and reward.

Why I don’t Necessarily Recommend Any Of This! Even though this is wisdom and is what I needed to do in order to be able to cut our budget dramatically, I don’t recommend it to everyone because it will lead you to serious and scary changes.

When we took an honest look at our numbers, cut our expenses by 2/3rds, and came into unity, we knew were doing something radical and against anything we’d ever seen done before. In those years, my husband landed another job, advanced quickly, and I started using my professional certifications to help business owners with their insurance strategy and finances on the side. We learned to live on “less” as a way of life and donated 560+ bags to charity to minimize our household.

And then we decided to make a change again. We took another honest look at our numbers, and we knew we had to choose a completely new life. Our kids needed their daddy to be home and not working 24/7. I needed to stop being a happily-married solo parent. We were sobered, o.k. terrified at the prospect of what financial freedom could mean for our growing family.

The process of growing in faith and letting go of past money views literally hurt deep inside my chest, and I could only breathe whispered prayers about the choices we were making. We had to learn to trust God and each other like never before. My husband risked everything and walked away from his job while I was pregnant with baby # 6 to build our businesses. By this point he had seniority, full benefits, and a high paying job with a international company, which was rare for our area. Because we had practiced minimalism in our home and our finances, we knew how low we could go budget-wise and still eat beans and rice! We tested it completely that first year living so far below the poverty level, we were looking up at being poor.

Yet, we were able to replace his income in a relatively short time and build a life that we love. We are grateful for all the incredible support from our family and our professional circles during those hard months of newborn diaper changes and business meetings and a ton of hard work. Please hear my heart; I don’t recommend this to everyone! It will take every last ounce of strength you have and then some. I woke up every day to face the impossible, conquer it, stay up all night with the newborn, and do it all again the next day. With a good attitude. Homeschooling six kids. Processing complex financial documents at 6 am before the children got up.

Staying in unity was a challenge, although my incredible man was working even harder than me to keep us going in the right direction. I had to change my bad attitude towards spending money and learn to invest large amounts strategically into our business. I had to look at different perspectives and consider other’s points of view. I had to believe deep down that I could do the impossible and then actually have the self-discipline to do it - and that’s how I know it’s possible for you, my dear friend, to change everything in your life. Because if you’ve read this far, you know that you are that kind of person, too. The kind who loves so deeply it hurts. The kind who hopes for something better, something radical and has the grit and determination to actually take the steps to do it.

So now you’ve been lovingly warned! If you want to cut your budget and decide to change your money, know that it will change more than just your finances. When you decide to pursue financial freedom, you will become a completely different person than you ever dreamed and it’s excruciating and exhilarating and freeing all at the same time. Anything is possible for you and you can begin right now!

If you’d like to read more about minimalism, you’re welcome to check out my book Minimalism Room by Room available now on Amazon. If you’d like to read more of our crazy story, check out this blog post.

Blessings for your journey,

Elizabeth