Living With Less Giveaway with the Savages
Published March 15, 2010
I just returned from an exhaustingly wonderful weekend speaking at the Hearts at Home National conference. It is always a blast to connect with old friends there like her and her, meet new ones like her and her, go out to for a scrumptious Italian dinner with authors like her and her and then stay up late in the hotel laughing til my Depends needed to kick in with funny gal her. And always, I get to spend time with Hearts founder Jill Savage. Jill and husband Mark’s newest book Living with Less so your Family has More just released and I’ve invited them to share a little bit about this great resource!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
We have been married for 27 years…17 of them happily. After finding ourselves in a marriage counselor’s office around year 8 or so, we realized that we really didn’t know how to be married. We worked hard to turn things around and now we like to share that hope with other couples.
We have five children ranging from 13 to 25. Our oldest three are married. Anne (25) and her husband, Matt, live in Zion, IL, and are expecting our first grandchild in April. (We are very excited!) Evan (22) and his wife, Julie, have been married a year and a half and they live just a few miles from us. Erica (19) married her husband Kendall last September. They live in Augusta, GA, and wherever else the Army takes them.
We have two teenagers still at home. Kolya just turned 16. He’s learning to drive and we’ve nearly worn a hole in the carpet on the floor in the passenger seat trying to find that non-existent brake pedal. Kolya is the newest member of the Savage family. We adopted him at the age of nine from Russia.
Austin is 13 and in the 8th grade. He wants us to make sure and tell the world that this “living with less” life is a real bummer because he’s the ONLY kid in 8th grade who doesn’t have a cell phone.
Tell us about your newest book Living With Less So Your Family Has More?
The world screams the message that bigger is always better, but we have found that is not often true. When it comes to raising a family, less materially can actually result in more relationally. Children don’t need the best houses, the best lessons, the best cars, or the best clothes. What they really need is the best home life and the best family relationships we can give them.
Why did you want to write this book?
We didn’t start out with the “less is more” mindset. We started as a double income family wanting to have the “best” of everything. Then Mark decided to pursue ministry. We went from the “high life” to the “frugal life” very quickly as we moved to another state for him to go to Bible College full-time.
That experience introduced us to the concept that less is more. We definitely had less money, but we had more time. We had less stress and more peace. We had less activities and more fun.
Since that experience, we’ve continued to live primarily on one income for the past twenty years. We’ve had to battle cultural peer pressure and make different decisions for our family than many other families in our neighborhood have made. But we’ve never felt that we were materially depriving ourselves or our kids…instead we’ve focused on what we’ve actually been able to provide for them emotionally and relationally.
What do you hope your readers will gain from this book?
We hope the reader is encouraged to evaluate how they are living their life, spending their money, and thinking about family matters. Our goal is to introduce families to the “less is more” concept and then equip them with the attitudes and actions to actually make that happen.
For families that are already committed to less is more, we hope to bolster their resolve and help them stay focused on the long-term goal of providing relationally for their kids.
In today’s economy, there are many families being forced to live with less. We want to help them see the opportunity they have with this unexpected downsizing they’ve been forced to do.
And for those who have just been a little discontent with their life and saying things like, “I’m tired of the rat race of life,” or “Is there more to life than drive-thru meals for dinner?” we hope to help them see other choices they have and how they can lead their family in a different direction.
What unique elements will the reader find in Living With Less So Your Family Has More?
For couples who want to read the book together, we’ve included discussion questions at the end of every chapter. This helps move the readers to discussion and eventually actions. Even a single parent can use the discussion questions for personal evaluation.
Readers will find this book a practical guide to changing your attitude and your actions to live a successful “less is more” life. They’ll find our writing style to be a warm, casual, honest discussion where we not only share our victories but our mistakes along the way. We are an average couple living successfully on an average income who want to help others to see the possibilities before them.
This is a Hearts at Home book. What is Hearts at Home?
Hearts at Home is an organization that encourages, educates, and equips women in the profession of motherhood. Hearts at Home encourages moms through annual conferences, our extensive website (www.hearts-at-home.org), a free electronic newsletter, a radio program, and an entire line of books designed to meet the needs of moms all over the world!
Any closing thoughts?
It’s healthy for parents to occasionally pause and evaluate their vision for their family and the choices they are making. We hope this resource will help them do that together and that it will lead them to live a life of little regret.
Now for the giveaway…..
The Savages are giving a copy of their book to one of you and I’m throwing in some gold chocolate coins for the kiddos. (okay…if mom doesn’t snatch them up first– your call!) Simply leave a comment on this post related to the topic of money. How do you save it? Where to you blow it? What questions do you have about budgetting? Why would you like this book? Or, if time is short, just leave a $$$$ and you’ll be entered! Seriously! The drawing is random 
Winner announced Wednesday.
Well, I’m back to my wonderful, daily life with the kiddos and hubster. Check back in later this week for Weight Loss Wednesday and more. And if we just met at Hearts at Home, please let me know that in the comment section. I’d love it if you said “hi!”
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By the way—-Thanks for all the birthday wishes! The winners of my birthday cupcakes are as follows:
*Candle: Susan; timestamp 3/10 at 10:46 am
*Homespun Memories book: Olivia; timestamp 3/10 at 10:43 am
*Chocolate: Gabriela; timestamp 3/10 at 4:25 pm
*Starbucks card: Debbie; timestamp 3/10 at 3:24 pm
*Herb tea and heart diffuser: Laurie; timestamp 3/10 at 12:189 pm
Congrats friends! Send me your mailing address at karen@proverbs31.org
Budgetting Blessings,
54 Responses to Living With Less Giveaway with the Savages
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My Family
My husband and I have always prided ourselves on not being “normal”. I stayed home for 9 years with my kiddos until they went to school. I would love to learn ideas for how to live on less, as I am wanting to return to staying home. Every little bit helps!!!!
We try to be satisfied with what we have…old cell phones, old (but perfectly fine) tvs, no video games. Always trying to keep up with others costs a lot of money! And with no video games, we play a lot more board games!
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I’m more of the “saver”–we’ve talked about this. My husband grew up with very little and I grew up with a lot and I’ve seen what over-spending can do to a family first hand. That being said, we do balance each other out quite well!
~Amy
I would love to read this book! It is something my husband and I have been talking about more often as our kids get older and the pressure to “keep up” grows. We try not to give in to every “gimme” request. But I will not lie – the pressure to provide the best for our kids is great. I try to remember that it is not the “stuff” that they have that makes them happy in the long run – it is the love of Jesus in their hearts that really matters. We are attempting to structure our lives in a way that is honoring to God and preserves family time and money. It requires constant evaluation and effort. Thank you Savages for writing on this important topic!
I am so interested in this book and am thankful you featured it! I only work per diem, so we mostly rely on my husbands income to meet our familys needs. We are always looking for ways to save money and stay out of debt. One way we’ve recently started saving money is by making our own laundry soap – just last week my daughters and I made what would’ve been $150 worth of laundry soap for about $2.00! That said, we do love to go on family outings, and that cost can really add up. I would love to get my hands on this book to learn other ways my family can do more with less! Thanks for letting us know about it!
Most our money goes to food. Is that considered blowing it away.
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ABreading4fun [at] gmail [dot] com
I stay home so this one income family can always use fresh ideas on how to get by.
I stay so busy volunteering that I don’t have time to shop for clothes and other things! My big splurge is on vacations. I love family time, traveling, and making memories. I could use some tips on budget travel!
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I stay at home and we live on one income. Most of our money goes for food. I’d love to learn ways to save money.
Very excited about this book. We have been filling boxes and bags with our ‘extras’ for a couple of years now. The less is more theme has been ringing strong here. Ironically, I actually bought a sign that says ‘Simplify’ to help me remember that goal. Of course my girlfriend gives me a hard time.
We made a move across states one year ago. As we are STILL unpacking boxes, we keep asking ourselves, what is all this STUFF?!? So, we’ve been on a mission to get rid of the stuff and focus on each other.
10 moves in ten years, a baby born with a chronic illness (yet amazingly healthy Praise the Lord), and a house still on the market from two towns ago has wrecked our finances. It caught up to us this last move, and we began the process of re-evaluation and restructuring (new budget for the new year) at the end of 2009. I feel like my dreams of staying home with my babies have been shot, but I know that the Lord can use me where ever I am. Still, I am ever hopeful! This book sounds great, and I’ll probably buy if I don’t win! Looking forward to it:) Oh, I have learned you can save a LOT on food by combining sales with coupons. I bought $85 worth of groceries this weekend for $50… yay! The fact I’m excited about that is proof I’m getting old!
this book sounds wonderful…i can always use tips on how to save $$
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My husband and I went throught Dave Ramsey’s Money Makeover class last year and learned a lot of great things. We could still use more ideas on how to live with less though. I work only part time and my husband is a pastor so we primarily live on his income as well. My position is currently not available for next year due to money issues at the school where I work so we may be living on even less come fall.
Rebecca Ann
One thing we have recently gone to is a cash-only system (with the exception of paying bills, etc). We are using Dave Ramsey’s cash envelope/budget system that we learned about in his Financial Peace University.
It really does help you to NOT spend as much money. Seeing your *tangible* cash fly out of your wallet hurts!
Just went to Hears @ Home this weekend . . .worth every penny!
We live on only one income because it is important to us that I stay home with our child. We’ve been trying to have another baby for over 2 years. We are trying to find ways to save up the money to pay for these dr. bills we are having . . .hopefully leading us to having another child.
My husband recently found out he’ll be losing his job in May. He’s returning to school in the fall, so we’ll be a one-income family. I’m learning to be a coupon maniac and really shop the grocery sales.
One of my best changes is to set aside all $5 I get. I put them in an envelope, and use them for our “fun” money. So, if we want to go out to eat, to the movies, etc., we’ve got to check the envelope. If we don’t have it in there, we have to wait. It’s a great way to be able to have some fun & not bust the budget.
Would love to learn from this book. Thanks for the chance to win!
We are going to be a dual income family but both part-time and living on one of the incomes while saving the other.
It seems simple enough, but two things we do to save money: 1) we stick to just the local television channels (and don’t feel like we miss a thing — in fact, we gain more time together!) and 2) I menu plan for about 3 weeks at a time (which reduces my trips to the grocery store and helps me buy only what I need). I do catch sale items at smaller stores in the area, but again — I only buy what we need. Just because it’s on sale, doesn’t mean it’s for sale.
This looks like a must read! Thank you for featuring it today. We too are going through financial peace and anything I can do to stay on track and be an encouragement would be helpful to my family right now.
We currently drive two cars with over 200,000 miles each! No cable or dish, pay as you go cell phones, used “new” bikes for kids.
I find that consignment stores and yard sales are great for items that are “new to me”, I clip coupons and watch for the sales at the grocery store as much as possible. My husband works and I am a SAHM with 3 kids. It can be a challenge at times, but have learned the difference between needs and wants over the past 8 years.
Thank you for giving this book away. This is something my husband and I have been wanting to do.
We try to save money where we can. I rarely buy “new” clothes for myself. When I go shopping (which is rare) I go to Goodwill or garage sales. I think we blow more money on DVD’s and eating out.
I was a stay at home mom for about 15 years. Now that my kids are high school and college age I have gone back to work part-time to help with the college bills. We are still trying to live on my husband’s income and put mine into savings. My two daughters have always shared a room (which I found is rather rare) and all 3 kids share one bathroom. We have 3 cars (2 adults and 3 kids need transportation), but all 3 have well over 100,000 miles on them and all were bought used. I would love to get more money saving tips from this book.
This looks like a great book. I am a stay at home mom. So we live on one income.
I am a SAHM to 5 children. We try to save $ with coupons, watching for sales, etc. Watching for upcoming sales helps to plan for the future (eg. a sale on ground beef might mean I purchase a few extra pounds and put those in my freezer to be used for a future meal).
This is so ON TIME! And confirms what I’ve always believed… that my children do not always have to be involved in some kind of sport/activity. My family and friends are always asking “are the boys playing baseball this year? soccer? anything?” and when I answer no they aren’t doing anything, they have this puzzled look on their face or tone in their voice that says “well why not?” or they even say “you need to get them involved in something”. Spending time with them, building their faith, teaching them the things of Christ… just being kids… SIMPLICITY!
My husband and I were a two income family until I was diagnosed with DVT. I am just glad that my parents always drilled into my head and that of my siblings to save save save. I haven’t really gone back to work as there are some physical limitations I have encountered.
I do help with the finances of the household but things are a bit tighter since it is a one income family. We are the normal clip coupons and shop the grocery flyer sort of amily.
Bummed I couldn’t make it to Hearts At Home. Too far. Michigan misses Hearts At Home already!
I stay home with our three kids. It’s hard feeling like we live “pay check to pay check” but am thankful that I can be here for the kids and so is my husband. Even though I get discouraged at times because I don’t have_______ I can see how God takes care of our every need. I’d love to read this book at this wonderful budget price!
Living on less…simplicity…all of these “kinds of things” have been becoming more and more a passion of mine as of late. I look for ways to do that more effectively! This book sounds like it’s right up my alley!
Hearts at Home Conference was awesome. Thanks Karen – I really enjoyed your workshop on a Life that Says Welcome. And it ties in so well with the Living with Less, because it is not about your home looking catalog ready, but creating a space that makes your guests feel refreshed (not impressed)
. And it is so true with how many people who live humbly and have made me more welcome than those with fancy things.
Living more simply is my goal, not just buying things we want or doing more because we can. And followed up with Growing Grateful Kids. A great trifecta of workshops to begin my Friday!
My daughter’s college tuition cries out for $$$$, second daughter’s orthodontia cries out for $$$, furnace fuel and gasoline cry out for $$$. Therefore, I work way too much. My doctor read me the riot act last Thursday to make changes in my stress level if I want to be around for the long haul. HELP!!
Hey all, I’m so thankful to Karen for sharing our new book with all of you. I’m so inspired to read all of your wonderful living with less suggestions! Thanks for sharing!
I can so relate to Crystal . Brain refusing to shut down , therefore I loose sleep . Always looking opprtunities for more work/money , therefore more stress . I have found ways to save money but still need more ideas . Two more to get through college and how do we save for retirement ? Yes , Help Please !
We are struggling with downsizing. Neither of us knows how to budget well, and we both need to do better and especially need to teach the kids that new isn’t always better.
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We definitely live frugally, although I probably wouldn’t say money is “tight” for us (and I praise God every day for His blessings in that area!). However, one area I’ve learned that “less is more” is the area of stuff: the less stuff (toys, papers, clutter, etc.!) we have in our house, the easier it is for us to keep up with things, and the more we can enjoy our family and our peaceful home.
I’d love to hear their perspective on it! $$$$$ I’m a natural saver, but I also love giving gifts so not being able to shop for that is hard for me and my love tank!
Thank you for this post. We have been living on a tighter budget for almost a year. My resolve has started to wane a little. I would love to read this book for a little boost.
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This past year my husband and I participated in the Financial Peace Class by Dave Ramsey. Let me tell you, that 13 week course really opened our eyes to how everything that we did financially was so worldly. We have started putting most of those lessons into practice and are continuing to strive to please God with our money instead of our neighbors or the way the world does things with money. We are finding that it is really ok to not drive a brand new car or to only eat out once a week (actually this is so much healthier for our family!). I would love to receive more advice and continue improving our family financially. I am thankful to Jill for sharing her story of finances to encourage others who are going through similar situations! Thank you and God bless!
I’d love a copy of this book. Our biggest frivolous expense is restaurant meals. But getting on the same page financially is our biggest challenge. I’m a saver, he’s a spender and it can be hard to meet in the middle.
Thanks,
Sherry
I think the key to being able to be a stay at home mom is living the less is more lifestyle.
Unfortunately, sometimes our kids feel like Austin! I’d love to receive a copy of this book to pass on to my oldest daughter. Though we lived it, she is having a hard time implementing it in her young adult life! (I think that she saw the more part (like a family trip to Europe when she was in high school) but didn’t recognize the years of living on less to provide it. Wish I could have gone with you to Hearts, Karen. Miss you! Jeanne 
I am now home with my two boys and we are living on less than half of what we did before we had children. It is hard an God is helping me learn how to use coupons and enjoy free family fun. I could greatly benefit from this book. Blessings to you!
I am attempting to do the cash/envelope system to help me budget. My husband pays all the regular monthly bills, but I do all the grocery shopping and clothes shopping with cash. I’ve still got a ways to go, but we’re getting there! (by the way, I regularly read your blog, and attended your “Marriage Made in Oz” workshop on Saturday. Thanks for the encouragement!)
My husband and I are always looking for ways to make the dollars stretch especially this year as I started homeschooling and we added our 4th child to the family. Would love to receive this book, read it, recommend it, and pass it on to others.
i so desire to “live on less”. this book sounds so practical & i would love the opportunity to read it with my husband. thanks for sharing your story of success in this way!