The Year of Less: The book that inspires change.

When you move from your home country can you really keep to a budget?

I remember buying this book around the end of christmas time in 2019 in my parents home town. I then lost it in our house and found it again when we were preparing to leave the country. As we were in MIQ in New Zealand I read the whole book in a space of two days.

I have before reading this book tried to shop more consciously in 2020 before the pandemic. I would do this by doing things such as buying solid hair shampoo instead of bottled products. We would buy food items by weight instead of pre-packaged at our local independent supermarket. I’d even started buying several reusable sanitary products.

After finding the book again I have become inspired to do something similar to what the author of The Year of Less did. Although instead of a shopping ban like she did I’ve set myself more of a yearly budget for a set list of items. Along with this set list of items there is also a banned list.

This year will be an experiment that will allow me to examine how, where and what I spend my disposable income on.

I had been tracking how I have been spending my money, in the last three months before we made our move to New Zealand. I know where I tend to spend my money, and that I can impulse buy.

However, nearly all of Colin’s and my own possessions are on a ship. Now that we have reached Sydney we will still be a while before it arrives. Unfortunately this means we are going to have to buy even a few simple things to cook with, eat on and sit/sleep on.

We will also be buying a new bed, as we don’t feel comfortable buying this kind of item second hand.

There are charity shops that sell very good quality items for less than you’d expect, all over the world. Shopping for items this way means you are benefiting the charity, whilst being able meet your needs.

When you first move to a new country there are always set up costs involved. Whether this is expenses for travel, renting, buying groceries.

These are not necessarily things that can be budgeted for before you arrive unless you have pre-booked everything in advance. Even then, there might be unexpected costs like going to the doctor (depending on the country you’ve moved to and their medical system).

Today we got the keys to our new house. Within the next couple of weeks after we get our furniture and settle down a little bit we will be able to begin to budget properly.

So can you stick to a budget when you first move your life abroad? My answer would be no. Not unless you have a house set up already, you have money in the country already and you have enough savings to cover unexpected costs.

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