My Thought on Minimalism and Minimalistic Life
Have you ever bought cheap things, but the goods did not last long, then it becomes easily damaged and eventually you have to buy new things again? I’ve been there, done that. Or have you ever on a trip that consider to always spend money as minimum as possible, always choose the cheapest option, but ended up don’t get a good experience, or even worse your trip was messed up. The initial plan is to save money, ended up spending more money. This super frugal behavior is often associated with a frugal lifestyle. There is nothing wrong with it if we tend to buy things that are not expensive, or at very low prices.
But the question is: Is it true that living a minimalist, frugal life, you have to buy the cheapest things?
In this article, I want to share my opinion and thoughts to address these questions. Actually, there is nothing wrong when we want to live a super frugal life. In fact, I also encourage everyone to live a life that is not extravagant. But that doesn’t mean we should always spend the smallest amount of money. If we’re always compelled to be like that, yes, maybe it can be said to be ‘pelit’ anyway. Especially without considering many other aspects that can create new problems for us. Which may not be a priority.
Put it this way, we need a vehicle for example for daily use. Since we want to save money, we finally buy an old-school second hand motorcycle. After several day of usage, the motorcycle often breaks down. Because we have no clue about the motorcycle, we ended up must go to the workshop frequently to deal with these problems. In the end, it becomes more expensive from various aspects, not even just from money. We have to spend more time, overthinking more, etc.
Sometimes some of you considers that frugal living is the same as a minimalist or frugal lifestyle. Even though it shouldn’t be the same thing. Then, what kind of minimalist life is like? then how to solve this overly frugal problem? It may be that we spend more money than people who buy things a little more expensive.
In this article, I will discuss what a minimalist life is. Basically, a minimalist lifestyle is when we prioritize everything that matters to us. Living a minimalist life by eliminating unimportant things or even distracting us from the important things. That important thing can be anything. The definition of each person’s importance is different. We will buy something when it is something that is important to us. Another example is that in social media, we’re not going to subscribe certain yotuber because we don’t think that their contents are important to us, right. Or we will not do certain activities if they are of no benefit to us. Simple, isn’t it? But in fact, it’s not easy to do.
Chances are, many of us are misrepresenting a minimalist lifestyle. Instead of happy, free and peace by using this lifestlye we ended up become overthinking, unhappy, or even extravagant because thinking too much to spend less money. I often see that a minimalist lifestyle has to limit the number of goods, quality, or price. Even though it shouldn’t be. The problem is not in the quantity of the goods, the price, or even the quality. But the problem is in our needs and what we consider important. It could be that this minimalism is more expensive than the lifestyle that is not minimalist. For example, my own case. I am a person who consider a practicality as an important thing. Finally, I bought an expensive laptop, for example, a Macbook Pro that is light, simple, the specifications can meet many of my needs. I bought a smartphone that is in the flagship class, so that it can last in the next few years and can do many things faster. Although the money I spend is quite large, but I can be considered to have a minimalist lifestyle. Why? Because it becomes more practical. I am able to work with my laptop for 3 days without charging, it can speed up a lot of activities as well. But if people who are too frugal or tend to be stingy, maybe they won’t buy a Macbook Pro that costs 40 million IDR even if they can afford it. But in the end, it distracts yourself because you may face the problem when the laptop often crashes when opening heavy software or even lags to just type documents on MS word.
So, it’s not a matter of saving. Financial management is sometimes how to optimize expenses so that our lives can be more comfortable and practical. It could be included as a form of investment. This means that investment is the investment of expensive goods and that can be achieved through spending money which can be quite large. Back to the original discussion, if it is important, it can increase productivity, and we also have money yeah go for it. It doesn’t always have to be the best specification, just adjust it to our needs. If we need it that is lightweight but doesn’t really need a great specifications, you can buy a Chromebook.
Considering a lot of things before buying something is something important. There is nothing wrong with buying things that are a little more expensive, but durable, and provide the best experience. That’s why sometimes people are said to be extravagant and unimportant. When in fact, it could be that buying expensive things is his passion, he already has money and indeed his needs are different from ours. Frugal life, it can be not worth it if for example every day we continue to feel stressed and do not enjoy life. I personally think that the ideal life is when we can indeed enjoy life. Enjoying life at its finest. I encourage everyone to be happy, one of them, by having a hobby, play games occasionally, watch a movie, exercise, travel etc.
Life is good bro, there’s nothing wrong with how much we spend money for our better life, even if it’s just having fun. Although the budget may not make sense for people, but yes, as long as it is still in our budget, just buy it. And this is also different. It could be that in certain areas, for example in rural areas, urban areas, offices, minimalist living will look different for everyone. So back again, it’s about the needs and values in our lives.
“How can I live a minimalist lifestyle better and according to what I want?”. Well, the answer is to live a meaningful life for us. Well, if I quote from the book ‘Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life’. This is an interesting book because there are 5 life values that he said can make our lives more meaningful. First is Health. This is the most important thing if I think so too. Physically and mentally must be healthy. The second is relationship. If you have a toxic relationship, just cut it. And if for example, fighting with parents, maybe you can apologize. The third is passion. Have a passion for something. Hobbies, work, or whatever. So we have the motivation to live, to do activities. The fourth is growth. Learn to continue to develop so that later our lives will not be stuck there at a certain point, and become boring. The fifth is contribution. Now this is like what we can do for others and for society.
Have a beautiful day!
