The art of hitting a financial groove with Miriam Zittell and John Honeyman

Rewarding Experiences is a first-person series that explores how real people are finding faster ways to save for the future, live well and travel more often

Miriam: We lived and worked in New York for 10 years before moving back to Toronto. John worked for an internet company and had stock options, so with the IPO we made a bit of money. As a result, we were able to buy this amazing two-bedroom, two-bathroom co-op apartment in Brooklyn.

We were looking to move into a brownstone and use part of it as a rental property, when we started thinking: “Do we really want to stay in New York?” Then we had a conversation about Toronto, which we never really considered before. It’s an incredible city to raise kids in and we both have family here.

Once we sold our apartment in Brooklyn, we were able to buy a pre-construction condo in Toronto and take a trip to Portugal, Spain and Morocco. We went with the idea of importing rugs as our new business. While furnishing our place in New York, it was a such a challenge and we wanted to make finding a beautiful rug easier.

John: We spent about three and a half months travelling. In Morocco, we started making partnerships with dealers and learned as much as we could about the rug business. It was huge learning process for us, that took several months before we bought a single rug. Initially we stayed within our budget and bought about 90 pieces. We shipped everything back by boat, which was going to take six weeks. That gave us time to renovate our store, Mellah, at College and Dufferin.

We did a lot of the work ourselves such as ripping up tiles and floors and pulling down the drop ceiling, and brought in professionals only when we needed to for painting and the lighting. We had a simple vision for the store so that the rugs would stand out – all white walls and racks made of copper piping – which made it affordable to build.

Miriam: We are still in the store almost every day including Saturdays and Sundays. We have two kids, ages 2 and 4, so we trade off on the weekend. Sometimes one of us would miss a birthday party or a brunch because we couldn’t take our foot off the gas. We need to be here to make sales happen. For example, soon after our opening, a big-name person in the fashion industry was in the neighbourhood and bought a rug. That’s when rapid-fire word of mouth started and our business really took off.

John: At home, one of the ways we budget is by doing our own cooking. Coming from New York, this is completely foreign to us because we ordered everything and never used our kitchen. We recently let go of our cleaning service too. That doesn’t go into savings, necessarily. Now I can buy organic and better foods without any guilt.

Miriam: Our place isn't huge – we live in a condo – so cleaning is manageable, although I would still love to keep the extra help. We live in 1,200 square feet. As much as it would be better to have more room, we never want to stretch ourselves.

We're also fortunate because we don't have to commute. Our shop, our apartment and our kids' school are all within a kilometre of each other. Thankfully, we have a lot of support from our neighbors. If John's at the shop and I have to be at a meeting, we have friends we can lean on to do school pick-up and bring Zelda to the store, which is only a few minutes away. She happily comes and sits in the shop, gives out business cards or if the weather's good, she plays outside with a neighbor until we get home.

We love consignment stores. In fact, so many of the kids clothes they sell are barely used or even new. Having worked in fashion (and I continuing to do some consulting), I love the playfulness of clothes, however as I get older, I’m adhering to buy good and buy less.

The store continues to be our long-term plan. We try to stay culturally relevant and show people that handmade vintage items are special; we recently loaned our rugs to a photo booth at the National Ballet of Canada gala. And we also made a real estate investment and bought a building with my parents. We’re always trying to think of ways to build our finances while enjoying each other, our kids and our business.