Simplicity in Action: Emma
Editor’s Note: This is a post in the new series, Simplicity in Action. If you’d like to submit your story of how simplicity has worked in your life, please read more here. You can write about anything from decluttering a junk drawer to simplifying your diet. Let your small and big changes inspire others.
Emma
I would never have thought that I could be more with less. If you’d have seen me in 2005, you’d have seen someone working three jobs, taking regular trips to London to advise the government, working a 90-hour work. I managed a 7-7 day and then added a couple of hours of high-intensity training either before or after, just to keep myself fit. I had an expensive gym membership, a very expensive shoe habit, and my life was all about appearance. If you’d have said that seven years later, I’d be living on a sixth of my income (about $12,000) and that I’d be working a 30-hour week, I’d have thought you were crazy. I think I thought I’d rule the world by now, dressed in Gucci and Prada, driving a Mercedes and taking holidays in Mauritius.
No. I don’t rule the world.
Well, if the truth be told, I rule a very small piece of land, big enough to feed me and my nearest and dearest. Downsizing was more than just a pay cut, it was a completely different way of life. It was about growing up. Now I spend my 30 hours working to live, not living to work. I enjoy my work and it leaves me a life, which I love. Now I have the time for dogs, for cats, for chickens, for friends and for family. Instead of indulging myself with expensive meals out or take-out meals, I cook.
It just wasn’t possible for me to do that in England. I’d never have been able to afford to live as I do there. I needed to go somewhere where I could sell my house in England and buy a good-sized piece of land and a house, as well as benefiting from a climate where I could grow my own vegetables. That meant a change of country.
So, seven years on, I find myself living in rural France. It’s a different life altogether. The rat race seems a million miles away. For a start, rural France works on a very strict timetable. If it’s not Tuesday-Friday, between 9-12 or 2-6, it’s not open. The supermarket is shut on Sunday. The only thing to do on a Sunday is go to church, see family and friends or indulge in some gardening. Most of my friends take two-hour lunch breaks and have small evening meals. I do the same now. No more rush. I sit down and enjoy what I eat. Before, it barely used to touch the sides on the way down, if I stopped to eat at all.
It also helps that I don’t have a television, although the internet is a big distraction! I also needed to get all my worldly possessions over here in a 7.5 ton truck, so I sold most of my suits and shoes on eBay, had lots of yard sales, gave most of my furniture away and I arrived with my precious book collection, a laptop, some clothes and my photograph albums. In fact, were I to come these days with a Kindle e-reader and digital photographs on a memory stick, I’d probably have been able to move here with a truck a quarter of the size. It really made me prioritize what was important.
I think the most important things I’ve learned is that the simple life is the happiest. Watching seeds germinate, seeing a deer run across the fields, taking the dogs for a walk, paddling in the river… they’re all free. I don’t need the expensive IMAX 3-D cinema tickets or an expensive satellite television system with 900 channels. Eating sweetcorn or peas straight from the garden, making my own wine and grape juice, making an apple pie with home-grown fruit, collecting the eggs and making a huge omelette… very low-cost activities that not only distract me but enhance my diet and quality of life. And I realised I didn’t need the pizza take-out menu or the daily latte and muffin.
I smile much more these days. I take days out when I do nothing but go on epic walks or bike rides, or go canoeing with friends. I left my friends behind, yet the trips they’ve made and the new friends I’ve made here make up most of my life. I might not see my sister as much, but the week we’ve just had together more than makes up for the snatched half-hour phone-calls. We make memories now, rather than just cruising the shops over and over again.
It really is a dream life, and yet I quit my job to get here. That was a momentous decision, but one I’ve yet to live to regret. I never thought that being more with less was at all possible, yet here I am.
Read more from Emma at Lady Justine’s Blog and follow her on Twitter.
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“Watching seeds germinate, seeing a deer run across the fields, taking the dogs for a walk, paddling in the river…eating sweetcorn or peas straight from the garden, making my own wine and grape juice, making an apple pie with home-grown fruit, collecting the eggs and making a huge omelett”
I think that when someone names these small, seemingly mundane happenings as some of the best things in life, that’s when they’ve discovered the miraculous nature of our existence. Stars exploded and all of the diversity and complexity we see was formed from that. Amazing.
Inspiring story, Emma. Glad you made the move. Thanks for sharing.
I think you’re so right, John. It really is a miraculous existence. And it costs nothing to watch.
Wow. Sounds like you’re where I’m headed. I took a similar move career-wise a few years back and simplified my life. Haven’t reach the point you’re at yet, but I’ll get there. Thanks for the inspiration.
Dan Garner
Dan, it’s seriously the best decision I ever made. Thanks for your comment.
Emma – YOU are my hero!
Aw, Laurie, that’s the nicest thing I think I’ve heard all year!
Emma, I loved to read your story
The description of your current life is idyllic… I admire your courage to take such a giant leap, towards a simpler and more meaningful life.
Thanks for sharing!
It’s definitely more simpler and more meaningful, and yes, much more idyllic than it was. Money really doesn’t buy happiness, but that’s only something I learned through experience.
Oh wow, this was beautiful! I now have a blog post scheduled to publish Monday that will include a link to this. It made me think of the movie A Good Year, which I adore! Such a fabulous example of what can be gained by having “less”.
I’ll have to watch the movie – I’ve never seen it. And thanks so much for the link!
What a huge turn around! This is the kind of story that shows us anything is possible! Having spent oodles of time in the South of France, I know about shops closed at lunch and on Sundays. Hard to believe in the “modern” world but such a sweet way to live. Thanks for the great inspiration.
It’s a very old-fashioned world, but I’m glad the French would rather not give up their two-hour lunch breaks and their consumer-restricted life! It certainly makes it easier NOT to buy.
Great post,Emma! Very inspiring
Thanks Donna! It’s usually me inspired by these stories!
No disrespect intended, but I’ve noticed that the people who wax rhapsodic about giving up working so many hours a week and moving to an idyllic, downsized lifestyle have the initial chunk of money to buy (land, tiny house, insert your preference here) to set up with; and usually have some kind of partner/lover/spouse to provide emotiona/financial support, thereby reducing the stress factor even more.
Try this:
• Start working at 13 (your family is poor)
•Graduate from high school, knowing to your grief that you can’t go to college even if you get a full scholarship-you still have to support your mother and siblings.
•Repeat this cycle of crappy, exhausting,low paying jobs for the next 40 years, feeling like an orphan outside in the snow looking in at a family tucking in to the Thanksgiving turkey every time you go past a college campus (college being not only the sure way to climb up out of this grinding existence, by getting a better job, but it’s beloved access to people who actually USE their minds…and who love learning!)
• When you’re in your 50′s, still working at labor-intensive, crappy low-paying jobs, your mother develops dementia but is not eligible for assistance, because “you make too much money”(hah!)…and to save your older brother from living on the streets and getting killed because he’s developed mental problems, you take him in, too.
•You managed to pry $50.00 out of your budget –it took 7 months to accrue–to buy a trashed 6′x12′ travel trailer, which you take apart with a hammer and a borrowed drill over the course of a year, down to the trailer, which you repaint with black rattlecan enamel. Your progress to try to build your own house ( that no one can suck inappropriate amounts of money out of you for ) has stalled for another year, because you are still laboring hard, taking monetary and physical care of two adults, and your body is running out of time and energy….and there’s no loving “other”; you literally haven’t had the actual time to yourself to even meet any one.
—-Accomplish your lovely life in France, Italy, Ireland (insert bucket-list destination here) from MY end of reality.
Okay, let the uncomprehending comments from others commence.
Athena, perhaps you might like to read my blog? I started working at twelve :/
I earned every penny I spent here and worked 90 hour days to do so, often with very difficult and uncooperative people, in challenging and difficult situations. I certainly know where you’re coming from – more than you could ever imagine. I was the first person to graduate in my family and my uncle and mother went to night school to get their degrees. If you read my blog, you’d know I came from nothing.
Perhaps start here? http://ladyjustine.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/ch-ch-ch-ch-changes/
I guess my post must come across as some smug, self-satisfied rich girl, and I hope you know that I’m not, not at all.
90 hour weeks, not 90 hour days
My apologies, Emma….your description of your life made me see that I’m not going to win my personal battle, and it made me cry. May you continue to provide inspiration to many people.
Athena, you never know. You just never do. But don’t think for one minute anyone gave me any of it financially. As for the other stuff that helped me get here, other than my parents who gave me the determination and the confidence to know I could, and the luck of having free schooling in England to 18, then a scholarship for university. My education and my parents’ support have been everything. I think, too, about the sacrifices my parents and grandparents made – my gramps worked in a print factory and my Nana was a machinist in a factory – my Gramps died five years into retirement after three years of being very ill, and it made me even more determined to live out what he would have wanted to do, and to do it in his name. Believe me, there are lots of nights when I eat egg on toast, and even a night when I went digging for the last potatoes so I had enough food to feed me and my family for dinner that night. Please let me know if you ever want to chat via email or skype – I’d be more than willing to let you know how I got over some of the real hardship.
I’m sorry your life has been so hard Athena. I mean that. I wish you well
Hi Emma,
Strong, enjoyable and well-written post. I’m new to your site, and ready to sink in my teeth. Any suggestions on where i should start?
Like all frugal people, start by paying off your debts. Start with the small ones. Use the money you save from those to pay off the bigger ones. Keep paying until you’ve paid them all off. Owe nobody money. Once you’ve done that and you aren’t paying ‘the man’ all the interest on mortgages, loans, credit cards and overdrafts, you’re in a much better position. If you can cut out all the non-essentials too, the television, the things you buy, and have a year without buying anything (or anything new, at the least!) the money soon won’t matter as much. And then think about what makes you happiest. And do that!
Thank you for sharing your story Emma! You should be very proud of all you’ve accomplished. I’m currently working towards being able to work part-time, while pursuing my dreams with the additional free time that would afford. I count my blessings that I am able to do this. No one’s life is perfect…some of us just struggle in different ways. All you can do is the best with what you’ve got.
Absolutely, Sandra. That’s exactly what I believe too.
Oh and A Good Year is a great movie!!!
Can’t wait to watch it!
Hey Emma,
I enjoyed reading your story which I can relate to 100% – my wife is French so i know a lot about rural France and love the way (and pace) of life over there.
I particularly love:
…very low-cost activities that not only distract me but enhance my diet and quality of life.
take care & best wishes,
Alan
I enjoyed reading your ‘Simplicity in Action’ as well… it’s all good.
Thanks Emma!
take care & best wishes,
Alan
Emma…..this post was lovely and is a great example of exiting the ‘rat race’ and having the intention and mindfulness to appreciate the moment you’re in now. Thanks for the inspiration. Mrs. P.
Thanks Mrs. P. The best bit about my post is all the great blogs I’ve been able to access as a consequence of all the comments, and yours is one of them! I’m just about to get a cup of tea and start at the beginning!
Your story really resonated with me, Emma. I feel like so many of us get caught up doing what we think we should be doing and buying the things we think we need to be buying, that we don’t focus on what actually makes us happy.
I’m in the process of downsizing and making more time for the things that matter, like family and friends. And I’m excited to be able to take more pleasure in the small things of every day life. Thanks for sharing your story!
I’m also doing ‘stoptober’ for the month – where I have a set budget and only buy on that budget. No treats for me, I’m afraid! Half my budget has gone on charity events as well, but they’re worth every cent!
Emma, your post is so inspiring! I am trying so hard to simplify our lifestyle so my husband doesn’t have to work so hard. We only owe our house but we are considering downsizing to a much smaller home or maybe a Rv to lower expenses. I love that you grow your food and have fresh eggs. You are living my dream!
Sky
Thanks Sky. Sometimes, it feels like a lot of hard work and effort, but living off the land definitely means my shopping bill is a lot smaller and I’ve got stuff to trade.