Minimalism

This incident happened a couple of days ago. The schools were about to start. Nowadays schools provide list of stationery of their official vendor who sells the stationery and parents are required to collect the school supplies from there. I went with my sister to the stationery shop for getting my nephew's school supply, because there would be a lot of items to be purchased. When we got the list we were purplexed by looking at it. The school had provided a list which included 4 different sets of scissors, 3 packs of crayons from different brands, 3 type of sketch pens from different brands, 6type of paint brushes, different types of watercolors from 3 brands, rulers which were wooden steel and clear a plastic, this were the art supplies. It appeared as if tge school wanted to maintain good relationship with the brands. The question in our minds was is this really necessary?

This is not only limited to the school supplies. Overall nowadays minimalism is nowhere in the picture. Social media proudly supports maximalism. We see that social media influencers promote several products saying these are essentials. However being the customers there are certain questions we need to ask ourselves before making the purchase. Some of the questions that I ask myself are: do I really need five types of lipsticks? Do I need to have 10 different nail paint colours at the same time? Is this dress I am going to wear on multiple occasions? Or the simple question is this really an essential for me? Most of the times when I ask myself this questions I get the answer as no. If the answer is no then I do not proceed to purchase them.

I understand that maximilaism is sponsored because it leads to profit. It fills the pocket of the business but it empties our own pocket. There are several instances that after making the purchase we genuinely regret it. We end up in a scenario where we cannot return the product and also we cannot use the product. It sits in our homes collecting the dust.

My effort always is that I want to reduce such purchases. I try to spend money only on things that are really essentials. I try to minimise my expense on the things that I am not going to need or the things that look trending right now which will get obsolete in the near future. I myself do not promote maximalism. I do not want a tumblers in 7 different colours so that I can use it on 7 days of the week - just 1 is sufficient. Also my years old steel water bottle will just do that job fine. Another part is that we should not run behind the aesthetics. Rather we should focus on the functionality and practical use.

Now do I mean that we should stop the purchase of stationary or fashion articles? Absolutely not. But if we plan to save money for our future be made to think about reducing unnecessary purchases. Follow your instincts rather than impulses. Assess what is necessary and what is trending. Do not be embarrassed to wear and rewear the single fashion piece multiple times - you have bought itbwith your money.

So the final thought is that do not chase the maximalism. Understand what are your needs and make purchases according to that. Cut the word "splurge" from your dictionary if you want to save for your future.