how do my fiancé & I afford to live our slow life in 2024 as Canadians? to give some context: my fiancé & I run a singular photography / videography business (essentially 1 income), while prioritizing free time, travel, our style, and having a comfortable home. I know times are tough, so I thought I’d be a little transparent as to how we achieve this…and no, it’s not hustling & Im not trying to sell anything haha. to be honest, we sat down, had a hard look at our life, and defined what we wanted our life to look like on the daily, and cut the rest out. here are the ways we save money to prioritize what we do spend our money on: • we don’t buy new - all of our clothes & home decor, etc is purchased second hand. For us, this wasn’t even a sacrifice as we both love to thrift, as we live the uniqueness and the quality it brings. We get things for a fraction of what they’d cost new, and this saves us a lot of money. • we almost never eat out or order in - I would say this is a once a month occurrence for us. We save a lot of money by eating home-cooked meals and no pre-made convenience food. • we don’t buy meat or alcohol - while my husband-to-be grew up mostly vegetarian, I only recently went that way because I simply could not justify the cost. My health has also benefitted from adding more greens, beans, and variety to my diet. We also cut drinking as it’s just not doing anything for us anyways, and costs a lot of money. We also recently switched to shopping local, as after a cost comparison, we found it was more affordable in our area. My fiancé also recently started his sourdough journey, which has actually saved us a lot of money on bread, bagels, baking, etc. • we sold our cars - living downtown, we can get around without vehicles pretty easily. Paying for parking and insurance was quickly adding up so we chose to forgo the convenience of vehicles at the moment. • we travel in the off-season - our yearly trips to europe are only made possible by traveling outside of the busy and expensive summer time. I am a travel deal hunter and only book if I feel it’s good value. • we cut our hair at home - thankfully my hair training comes in handy as I cut both Calin and my own hair. I also save a ton on other beauty things like wearing minimal makeup, wearing perfume only for occasions, and sticking with more affordable brands while it may look like we’re giving up a lot, it doesn’t feel like it. We’ve traded off for things that make our life tailored to us. Saving in these areas allows us to spend in others, and prioritize being present and having more time together. Do you have any frugal tips?