The way Cait Flanders got her financial house in order should probably come with a “Try this at your own risk” warning.

First, the Canadian blogger paid off $30,000 in student and credit card debt. A year later, Flanders threw out 75% of her belongings and put herself on a strict two-year shopping ban.

Since then, she’s learned a lot about money, budgeting, and why we spend — she even lost 30 pounds. Now she has some tips to share.

After becoming financially free, Flanders still didn’t feel satisfied with the way she was handling her money, so in 2014, she gave herself a short list of approved items she could buy outside of food, experiences and personal items, only allowing herself to replace necessities, such as a pair of ripped pants or worn out shoes. After her first year was a success, she went for a second year, this time keeping track of everything she purchased. She finished up her ban this past July.

Now Flanders, who is traveling the U.S. on a two-month road trip, is writing a book, to be published by Hay House, about her experiences and how to help others with their money. She is no longer adhering to the shopping ban, but is always aware of the lessons she learned from the past five years of debt repayment.

Here’s what she has to say about it all.

MarketWatch: What were your overall money habits like before you cleared your debt, tossed your stuff and went on a ban? When did you realize it was time to change those habits?

Cait Flanders: I paid off my debt in 2013 and the only problem with the way I did it was I did it too quickly. I self-imposed this goal to have it done in two years and it was too fast. I didn’t build any good habits in two years. All I did was aggressively pay off debt, so I noticed afterward I was overspending again. When I was paying down debt, I was putting up to 55% of my income toward debt, and when I didn’t have debt, I’d be lucky if I saved 10%. It took a year of being debt-free to really look at my budgets and realize how unhappy I was with how I was saving. I wasn’t going back into debt but I wasn’t saving a ton of money either. That’s when I decided I wanted to live off of as little as I could and not shop in that time.

MW: Do you see other people in similar situations as you were? What’s to blame for that?

CF: I am a firm believer that personal finance is personal. I do believe what you spend money on and why you spend money is always for different reasons. It is hard to generalize why people go into debt. Everyone is different.

MW: What was the hardest part of your ban? What was the easiest?

CF: The hardest part was having to change habits and constantly face them. It would be this thing where I wouldn’t even know I had a bad habit until I was triggered to spend money, and I would stop and pause and think of why I was spending money all of a sudden. It’s not just realizing you have triggers but trying to dig deep about what they came from. What was I thinking, what was I feeling, what was I telling myself? A lot of people said ‘you didn’t buy clothes or shoes for two years?’; and, realizing what my priorities were, it became clear. Every time I thought of shopping all I wanted to buy were books. I never had triggers to buy clothes or shoes, because obviously that’s not a priority for me, and now I know things about myself. You’re always learning something about yourself as a consumer.

“ “I was spending a lot of money on my idealized version of myself.” ” — - Cait Flanders

MW: How does getting rid of so much of your stuff help you stay on track with your finances?

CF: Every time you go to make a purchase you can very honestly answer the question of ‘when am I going to use this?’ In the second year of the shopping ban, not only had I got rid of so much of my stuff but I was tracking how much I was buying, like deodorant and toothpaste. It opened my eyes. I only need five to six deodorants in a year, so if I am thinking of stockpiling, why would you do that? It makes me honestly answer the question of when I am going to use something, if I am going to use it. It was especially helpful for books, which was unfortunately something I thought about buying all the time. I still do sometimes, but I have dozens I never read from years ago.

MW: I completely understand. I have so many books I haven’t read yet. One day.

CF: “One day” is the worst thing we tell ourselves when we do our shopping. I used to buy a lot of things for the ideal version of myself, so clothes I wanted professional Cait to wear, or books I wanted smart Cait to read. I would think I should read these books, but I don’t want to, and that’s okay. I was spending a lot of money on my idealized version of myself.

MW: You say on your website that you also took control of your health — you lost 30 pounds and quit drinking. Do you think there are any ties to money and health?

CF: 100%. I think it is all habit-based though, so I think that just realizing you are in control of one thing helps you take control of other areas. So paying off debt, the more I paid off a good chunk of that I thought I am in total control, what else can I change? I lost weight, I’ve been active. I definitely think it is all related and habit-based. Not to say it is ever easy to change a habit, some of them are really tough to change.

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MW: Your posts during the ban were very detailed with your weekly spending reports and budget. How did that help you stay on track, and what should those of us who are not quite as organized do?

CF: When I started the blog, it was anonymous. Publishing the reports on the blog helped me even more because I felt I needed to stay accountable. I would even second guess things then when buying something — do I want to admit I spent this much on something on the blog? So I would not purchase it. People do not need to start a blog or do anything as extreme as I have. The most important thing anyone can do is track spending. I did it in the back of a notebook — it was not fancy, not pretty. I scribbled things out and it looked awful. It was not about perfection. I was keeping track of what I spent and where money was going and constantly asking myself, ‘Am I happy with that?’ If I spent money on restaurants, was I happy with that? Did I get value from that? If it was ‘not really,’ then those areas would go down in what I spent.

MW: Do you have any other tips or tricks for how people can get started?