Living With Less Giveaway with the Savages

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 [email protected]

Budgetting Blessings,

55 Comments

  1. 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!

  2. 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.

  3. 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!)

  4. 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!

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