The reason I stopped spending money is because I learned that money doesn't exist, at least not in the way most people think it does. But before we dive into that, I just wanted to say hi there and welcome to Ages in Life. My name is Marissa, and I make videos about decluttering, minimalism, and frugal living. So if that sounds good to you and you end up enjoying this video, please be sure to give it a like and hit the Subscribe button if reality-based minimalism is your jam.

And my house has gotten a little bit messier than it typically is because I've been sick and my husband had to go away on a business trip. I actually lost my voice from all the coughing, so I'm hoping that by the time I'm supposed to share this video, it comes back in time to do the voice-over. But since I'm starting to feel a bit better, I thought it might be fun to take you along with me as we clean up my home together and chat a little bit about money.

After eight years of minimalism and over 15 years of living frugally, I'm a lot more intentional about money now. But I used to be pretty careless when it came to spending money back in the day. After losing my parents and my childhood home in my early 20s, I was working nights and weekends at minimum-wage jobs to get by. I worked at tanning salons, tattoo parlors, the grocery store—basically whatever I could find.

One of my favorite jobs was working in the fine jewelry department at the local mall. It was my favorite because not only did my best friend work there as well, but it also meant that I had plenty of stuff to do on my lunch break. Most of the time, lunch was either two slices of pizza or a big plate of Chinese food. But a few times a week, I would wash it down with a cinnabun to treat myself. Ah, those were the days where I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain weight.

After that, I would either head to the bookstore to buy a few books or go back to the department store that I worked at to buy some new clothes. I usually shop there because I get a 20% employee discount on top of all of the great sales they have. Back then, I thought I was being frugal, but I never realized I wasn't saving money—I was wasting it.

I lived like that for years until one day, not long after graduating from college, I heard something that completely changed the relationship I had with money. I don't even remember who said it or where it was that I heard it, but the words hit me like a ton of bricks: "Money is energy."

Up until that point, I had been treating money as if it were just, well, money—something to spend because you had enough or because you had bills to pay. But once I started doing the math and realized just how many hours of my life I had to spend working to earn enough money to buy a $20 shirt, I started to value my time a lot more and those cheap shirts a lot less.

I also stopped eating out so much and learned how to cook my favorite meals at home. After all, why would we want to spend $250 to go out for a fancy steak dinner when we could make the same meal at home for under 50 bucks for the four of us? Don't get me wrong, going out to eat is still one of my favorite activities of all time. But instead of doing it every day, we make it an occasional treat or save it for special occasions.

At one point, I even went on a spending freeze so that I could pay off my $225,000 worth of student loan debt as fast as I could. And even after paying off that debt, I continued to be as intentional as possible with money. I didn't stop spending money completely; instead, I stopped spending so much on the stuff that doesn't matter to me so that I had more time, money, and energy to spend on the things that I do care about.

Even now, with 15 years of budgeting and intentional spending under my belt, I still like to do no-spend challenges. Money wasn't something that was talked about in my family growing up, which is probably one of the reasons why I was so bad at making and saving it. So I want to make sure that I teach my kids how to save money and be mindful of their spending habits.

Not only do my husband and I talk about budgeting, saving, and investing with our kids, but once a year, we also challenge ourselves to stop spending money on non-essential items for an entire month. We're actually in the middle of a no-spend challenge right now, with the goal of saving money to put towards buying a new home.

Do you have any big financial goals that you are working towards? If so, I'd love it if you would share them with me in the comment section below, along with one or two of your favorite money-saving tips.

And I'm so glad that you stopped by to chat with me about money today. If you're interested in trying a no-spend challenge for yourself, you can go and watch this video that I've linked over on the left, which is part one in a playlist of how to set rules for your no-spend challenge and tips and ideas to save more money. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you next week. Until then, take care. Bye-bye.

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