How much is enough_Discovering Minimalism

What started as a random question where I tried to make sense of the logic behind the increased rush to buy toilet paper in abundance - like 35 packets of the 30 pack kind of abundance - rather than what I would assume to be essential to me in a time of crises (coronavirus pandemic in 2020) e.g. 20 tins of beans. I diverted and started to think of myself, and my journey with buying products in abundance.

When I first moved to Europe, I had a lot of changes and adaptations I had to make. One of the adaptations I had to make was that I had to buy everything. Unlike back in my home country, when I moved to stay by myself, I was able to inherit some things from my parents, and whenever I visited home, I would occasionally inherit some food items too - quiet your mind! I was still a student, hahaha. But if you know anything about using an aeroplane, then you know a lot about baggage size restrictions.

So, during my stay, whenever I needed to do groceries, I purchased in ‘bulk’. I mean, this is what I had grown up seeing, and I understood the logic - when you buy in bigger quantities, you save money - or so I thought.

I had forgotten to consider the fact that at home, the bulk buys were for a family, and I was buying goods for just one person. So this meant that I sometimes had food rotting, or while doing my routine shopping, I would buy more of the items I already had at home because I could not remember what I had and did not have (and I had obviously not drawn up a grocery list).

This changed when I visited another country for a month. During this time, the programme I had enrolled in, paid us weekly, not monthly as I was accustomed to. So that meant I needed to change my purchase habits. I had to buy only what would be enough to last me for a week, nothing more, nothing less.

I thought I would not survive, but I did.

I was so shocked at the results of this that I continued to do this when I got back to my host country.

But more importantly, it taught me a really important lesson: that I needed a lot less than I thought I needed. And that at some point, buying too much produced more negative (or no additional) effects, than it produced positive ones (i.e rotting food, purchasing food I already had at home).

This reminds me of the Economic concept called ‘The law of diminishing marginal returns’. In brief, it states that there is a point where adding additional inputs, produces a smaller output quantity. It’s important to recognise this point in business, but I now also realise how important it is to know what this point is in your daily life too.

I recently came across the practice of ‘Minimalism’ which then led me to a book titled Essentialism: the disciplined pursuit of less by Greg McKeown. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in delving deeper into the topic of 'less is more'.

The realisation that I could live on a lot less led to some self-introspection: I wanted to understand what it was that I am actually dealing with. Was there any possibility that there was deeper insecurity associated? Was there any chance that this was more about the fear of scarcity or even a quest for control. This is a whole topic on its own, but I would like to challenge you to dig deeper into yourself too and discover what the deeper reason behind the behaviour may be for you.

In closing, during this process, I was also reminded of the Israelites journey to the promised land. They were feeling discouraged by a shortage of food and cried out to God, to which God replied and told them He would provide food. So, they needed to go collect the food. They were also given specific instructions that they were not allowed to take anything more than what they needed. He emphasised that enough would mean more for some people, but that it would mean less for other people. But what was important was that everyone was required to take ONLY what would be enough for a day, and that God would provide for the other days (Exodus 16:4).

This was so deep for me because it also made me realise that perhaps, just perhaps, part of the reason I found the need to buy more than what was needed, was because I lacked the faith to believe for tomorrows provision.