Being a minimalist is a habit I can never let go of because it has helped me in lots of ways than I could ever imagine. Sometimes we are often misunderstood and seen as people who find it hard to part away with money or do not want to spend money whereas we are only being prudent with our spending.
I once had my cousin stay with me for a month and I noticed that for starters, she loves to eat a variety of food. I am not against that but what I dislike is reckless spending.
There are some instances which confirm that she is a maximalist. Once, I wanted to get bread from the local bakery close to me(which sells at a cheaper rate by the way), but she told me she doesn't eat local breads as she only eats bread from big supermarkets. I paid her no heed and went ahead to get the bread only for her to take a bus to the nearest supermarket to get bread(with her money of course) because there is no way I would encourage such acts.
Another instance was that I noticed she prefers eating out to home-cooked meals and if she manages to eat home-cooked meals, she ends up wasting them. I don't know if that was how she does at home but I knew I would not be having any of it.
The next day she arrived at my place, she told me she wanted orange drinks with her food and I got her one because at first, I felt it was no trouble as I sometimes take my food with drinks as well but then I noticed that besides water, she always wants a drink with her food. It didn't take long before I took my stand against the way she spends and I showed her the full minimalist side of me.
I started with stopping her from using "her money" to get food outside as there is always food to eat at home neither is she allowed to buy things costly when there are places to get quality things at affordable rates.
At first, she was not comfortable and thought I was trying to treat her badly. I spoke to my aunt about it and she told me that she was glad I did that to her as it was her dad that continued to indulge her maximalist lifestyle and she, her mum had been trying to correct that for a long time to no avail. After the conversation with her mum, I knew I have to find a way for her to embrace the minimalist lifestyle.
I sat her down one day and decided to advise her on the importance of savings plus she is about to gain admission into a higher institution which means she would have to save more now because she might need to fall on her savings for somethings she might need in school. We talked at length as I advised her to the best of my knowledge and before she left my place, I saw she had reduced the way she spends recklessly and started saving.
Weeks after she got home, my aunt called and thanked me saying she is seeing some changes in her daughter as she is slowly letting go of some of her maximalist lifestyle and emulating some of my minimalist habits and that made me very happy.
I believe that it's good to have fun sometimes, even eat out if we want to but we should always remember that when we spend wisely, we tend to save more.
Thank you all for reading.
All Images used are mine.
