Why hello there friends and welcome back my name is Stephanie Safarian and you are listening to episode

151 of the Sustainable Minimalists podcast on today's show I am giving you 10 tips on how to live below

your means without feeling deprived. Now here in the United States we celebrate

Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November every year

so if you are listening to this episode at or near release date you are likely in the

throes of gratitude of the throws of

Thanksgiving and every year there's some irony to be had right because on

Thursday we celebrate all that we have and we feel grateful for all

that we have but then on Friday morning on Black Friday many of us wake up early

to imbibe in some Black Friday deals.

That irony is not lost on me and perhaps it's not lost on you either.

The day after we are feeling grateful for what we have, we go out and we buy more.

So today in honor of Thanksgiving, I wanted to explore what it means to not only say we are grateful with our imbutances around the dinner table, but also

act grateful every day of the year by buying less and spending less money. The benefits of living below your

means are obvious, right? Living below your means consistently may lead to increased financial security and decreased financial stress.

But in the context of this show and in the context of the themes we regularly discuss here, living below your means is a critical step toward

self-sufficiency because having a financial savings net is essentially a buffer against setback.

Buying less and even more important desiring less and needing less helps the environment

because living below your means means you're also requiring less stuff to be

manufactured for your happiness and that also translates into less stuff

being shipped less resources being extracted from our earth,

and ultimately fewer items to be discarded in a landfill at the end of their lives.

...