The way Cait Flanders got her financial house in order should probably come with a “Try this at your own risk” warning.
First, the Canadian blogger paid off $30,000 in student and credit card debt. A year later, Flanders threw out 75% of her belongings and put herself on a strict two-year shopping ban.
Since then, she’s learned a lot about money, budgeting, and why we spend — she even lost 30 pounds. Now she has some tips to share.
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CF: I am a firm believer that personal finance is personal. I do believe what you spend money on and why you spend money is always for different reasons. It is hard to generalize why people go into debt. Everyone is different.
MW: What was the hardest part of your ban? What was the easiest?
CF: The hardest part was having to change habits and constantly face them. It would be this thing where I wouldn’t even know I had a bad habit until I was triggered to spend money, and I would stop and pause and think of why I was spending money all of a sudden. It’s not just realizing you have triggers but trying to dig deep about what they came from. What was I thinking, what was I feeling, what was I telling myself? A lot of people said ‘you didn’t buy clothes or shoes for two years?’; and, realizing what my priorities were, it became clear. Every time I thought of shopping all I wanted to buy were books. I never had triggers to buy clothes or shoes, because obviously that’s not a priority for me, and now I know things about myself. You’re always learning something about yourself as a consumer.
MW: How does getting rid of so much of your stuff help you stay on track with your finances?
CF: Every time you go to make a purchase you can very honestly answer the question of ‘when am I going to use this?’ In the second year of the shopping ban, not only had I got rid of so much of my stuff but I was tracking how much I was buying, like deodorant and toothpaste. It opened my eyes. I only need five to six deodorants in a year, so if I am thinking of stockpiling, why would you do that? It makes me honestly answer the question of when I am going to use something, if I am going to use it. It was especially helpful for books, which was unfortunately something I thought about buying all the time. I still do sometimes, but I have dozens I never read from years ago.
MW: I completely understand. I have so many books I haven’t read yet. One day.
CF: “One day” is the worst thing we tell ourselves when we do our shopping. I used to buy a lot of things for the ideal version of myself, so clothes I wanted professional Cait to wear, or books I wanted smart Cait to read. I would think I should read these books, but I don’t want to, and that’s okay. I was spending a lot of money on my idealized version of myself.
