Shadowing Practice: Living extremely frugal for 30 days changed my life. - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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How much does it cost to live a good life?
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How much does it cost to live a good life?
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In my 20s, I thought the answer was simple.
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Just make as much as possible.
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That's how I was going to afford my dream house,
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the Pinterest wardrobe, go to nice restaurants,
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travel around the world, and make my parents proud.
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So, I signed up for the rat race and tried to climb the corporate ladder.
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But during the hustle of it all,
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I started to realize something.
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That ideal life I was chasing was slowly costing me the life I actually loved.
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I'll never forget my work commute on Maui.
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Every morning, I'd drive past the most beautiful golden sand beaches,
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and I kept thinking to myself,
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why am I not out there?
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Instead, I was inside, and I was spending more time with my co-workers than my husband.
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The question became impossible to ignore.
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Pursuing this idea of a good life pulls me away from the things that I love the most.
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What am I really working towards?
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I do think that it comes from a deep-seated belief
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that we think we need to work hard and earn a good life.
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But what if it's already in front of us?
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And what if the only way to have more of what truly matters to us isn't to earn more,
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do more, chase more, but to need less and to actually notice it?
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I think we underestimate the freedom that we can have when we have a low-cost, low-maintenance lifestyle.
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When your needs are simple,
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you don't have to depend on a high paycheck and you just have a lot more options.
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In fact, we were curious to know how little we need to spend in order to live a good life.
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So at the beginning of last year,
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we made it a little challenge to cut back as much as possible.
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Just 30 days of no spending,
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just on the essential stuff.
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And every time I do these financial resets and these low buy challenges,
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I feel like it gives me so much clarity.
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And this time was no exception.
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I feel like I was really able to see all the blessings in my life
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and how I want to be even more intentional with my time,
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energy, and money moving forward.
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So back to the beginning of the video.
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How much does it really cost to live a good life?
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Are you willing to find out?
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I promise you that if you do this challenge with me for 30 days and live as frugally as possible,
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it will give you a lot of clarity about your own life.
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I always want to make things as simple as possible.
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So I think the easiest way is just to go through your monthly bank or credit card statement,
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line by line, and highlight or just write down your essential expenses.
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For me, these are my housing expenses,
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utilities, phone bill, internet, gas,
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things related to my business, and groceries.
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For your lifestyle, it might include daycare,
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minimum payments on a debt,
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gym membership, or a prescription.
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It's anything that is needed to function in your current life.
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And even if you think you know how much your expenses are,
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I feel like our lives are constantly changing
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so it's a really good chance to go over everything to make sure you know what you're paying for.
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And of course, we're not just rushing through this,
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but we're doing this intentionally,
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asking ourselves some mindful questions.
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When you total up all of your expenses,
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do you feel like that's kind of high or do you feel like it's low?
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What surprised you and do you already start to see patterns?
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Although sustaining this number isn't really the goal itself,
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I feel like everyone should know what their baseline is because everything else can build from here.
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Now look at all of your other expenses.
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It's probably things like subscriptions,
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streaming services, apps, eating out,
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coffee shops, self-care, pet services,
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gifts, and other miscellaneous stuff.
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These are often the things that add comfort and joy to our lives.
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But take a closer look and see which ones feel truly worth it.
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You can check yourself.
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When did I last use this service?
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Does this genuinely improve my life?
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Or is it just a convenient thing in the moment?
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If I go without it,
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how much would my life change?
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These are the expenses that I cut out from my life for this month.
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Cut out my coffee, my farm delivery,
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going out for drinks and going out to eat for that month.
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Obviously, I didn't cut it out because it's not important to me.
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But I just wanted to take a step back to see how much value it really adds to my life.
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And we're not just cutting it out to lower our expenses.
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but what we're actually doing is creating space to go from the life we have now to the life that we want.
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So you might be thinking,
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how do we spend our time for this month
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when we're cutting out all of these expenses and all of these things that occupy our time?
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And this really is the opportunity to look inward and see what's already present in our lives,
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things that we might often overlook.
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And instead of defaulting to spending,
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we can ask ourselves, is there a more creative way to do this?
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Just for this month, could you skip the gym and maybe work out at home?
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Could you go for a walking date instead of going out?
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Could you invite your friends over instead of going out to eat?
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I finally read the books that I got for the holidays
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that was just sitting on my bookshelf for months and made a few paintings for the house.
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My husband and I made some snacks and made a date out of watching all of our past trips together.
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It really wasn't about finding free things to do just to fill the time,
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but it was more about feeling my life again.
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I made a list of fun things that you can try for absolutely free for this month.
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I hope that it can give you some inspiration and fall in love with your life again.
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After a month of slowing down and not constantly adding more,
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you will start to feel how your life really is.
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The life that was underneath all of these distractions.
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Because when so much of the external noise is removed,
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what's left becomes visible.
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Quality of your relationships, the state of your health,
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the way that your days are structured,
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how you talk to yourself.
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And if something feels off, you'll notice that too.
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This is the time to ask yourself some honest questions like what have I been putting off?
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Do I like the people in my life?
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Do I feel a connection to the things that I used to love?
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Do I like spending time with myself?
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What really matters to me in this season of life?
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I truly believe when our foundation is solid,
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when we are happy with ourselves,
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when we have a deep connection with the people in our lives,
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we are doing meaningful work.
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We feel connected to the space that we live in,
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the town that we live in.
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Then we're not constantly looking outside of ourselves to fill the empty spaces.
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And when we start bringing things into our lives like traveling
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and apps and going out to eat and spending money on this,
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that, and whatever it is,
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we'll do it because it adds so much joy,
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not because we need it for our joy.
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So, how much does it cost to live a good life?
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I feel like we can't really answer this question until we know what a good life means to us.
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A good life to me is how much love and gratitude I felt at the end of every day.
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That's it.
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I know the cost of living is going up everywhere in the world right now,
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and maybe in many ways this is a perfect time to cut back on our spendings
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but do it in a mindful way.
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So even if you challenge yourself for a week,
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I hope you notice how cutting back makes space for what truly matters.
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I hope you get clear about what you're actually working towards,
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and I hope that you can get clear about what adds to your life versus what just fills it.
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Context & Background
The speaker shares a personal journey reflecting on the significance of prioritizing a fulfilling life over a financially driven one. Through a challenge of living frugally for 30 days, they discovered that simplicity can lead to a happier existence. This narrative serves as an eye-opener about the common misconception that financial success equates to a joyful life. Instead, the speaker emphasizes the importance of appreciation for life's simple pleasures and the value of being intentional with time and resources, making it a relatable topic for anyone on their language learning journey.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- How much does it cost to live a good life? - A powerful question that prompts reflection on personal values and priorities.
- I started to realize something. - This phrase indicates a moment of clarity and self-discovery, useful in daily conversations.
- What am I really working towards? - This question reveals deeper motivations, encouraging thoughtful dialogue.
- We underestimate the freedom. - A strong expression that underscores the importance of recognizing personal freedoms in discussions.
- Live as frugally as possible. - Useful for discussing lifestyle choices and financial planning.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
The shadowing technique is an effective method to improve your speaking skills while learning English with YouTube. Here’s how to apply this technique using the video transcript discussed above:
- Choose a segment: Start by selecting a short, manageable section of the video—ideally 1-2 minutes long. This allows you to focus on specific vocabulary and pronunciation.
- Listen and repeat: Play the video and listen to the speaker. As you hear each sentence, pause the video and repeat it aloud. Focus on mimicking the rhythm and intonation to enhance your pronunciation.
- Use a shadowing app: Consider utilizing a shadowing app to record your voice as you practice. Comparison with the original will highlight areas needing improvement.
- Practice phrases: Specifically target the top phrases listed above. Understanding their meaning and how to use them in context will enrich your conversational skills.
- Reflect on your progress: After a week of consistent practice, take note of any improvements in your speaking fluency. You may find that engaging with everyday themes, like those from the video, enhances both your English skills and personal insight.
By following these steps, you can effectively integrate the shadowing technique into your English learning routine while making the most of resources like YouTube. This method aids in IELTS speaking practice and will prepare you to engage in meaningful conversations.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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