Living in The Land of Enough- A Book Review

Once again, I bring you a very simple, inspiring, quick, inexpensive read. This book focuses on 7 ways to live in the land of enough.

From the book:

1. Save Your Money. There is no need for credit cards or therapeutic shopping in the land of enough. There are also no overdraft fees or ATM charges. Just put your cards away for 10 days. Then, keep a list of purchases you would have made if you were using your credit card, or if you were shopping for sport, and take note of the money you didn't spend.

2. Take Your Time. In the land of enough, you have time to breathe. Stop trying to squeeze so much in. If you are always running late, falling behind,or trying to catch up,try slowing down. Cancel a few unnecessary appointments and don't schedule any new ones if you can help it. Hen, make a little time everyday for solitude.

3. Disconnect. Set a specific time to disconnect each day. In the land of enough, there is less need to be plugged in. If you can, commit to not using a computer after dinner or before lunch time. Be mindful of how much time you spend online and are virtually available. Protect your time and your mind.

4. Eat Real Food. Only eat food that you prepare. Now is the perfect time to eat fresh, seasonal. Do not eat anything from a box, restaurant or drive-thru. While you may choose to eat less when eliminating processed foods, you may find that you naturally eat just enough.

5. Make Space. Clear out some space in your home. You don't need to take on big purging projects during this time to make space. Simplify one room (or even just the corner of that room) and keep it as clean and clutter free as possible. Even if the rest of your house is cluttered, this area can be a great reminder of how you might feel living with less.

6. Entertain Yourself. Unplug your TV and plan to enjoy your friends, family, the great outdoors, or a book you have been meaning to read. Do not spend time and money on expensive shows, travel or recreational activities. While the land of plenty calls you to spend more money for entertainment, you already have enough right where you are.

7. Say Thank You. As you go through these steps, you will find enough time and space to be grateful. Through prayer, thank you card, or a kind gesture, share your gratitude every day.

There is an entire chapter written on each of the 7 steps and how to implement each one into a short term, long term, or permanent goal. 

Here is a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

"When you can get anything you want, anytime of day, you become unsatisfied, uninspired and kind of lazy."

"Do not buy to feel. If shopping gives you a rush, you are missing something else."

"Keep in mind that open time on your calendar doesn't mean that you aren't important, it means that you value your time."

"Gratitude makes everything smell sweeter, taste better and feel softer. being thankful for something is like enjoying that something all over again."

I downloaded this book on my kindle app for only $.99 back in February. When we were doing our 30 Do Nothing Challenge I was tempted to buy a cheap book. Instead, I looked on my Kindle app to see if there was something I hand't read. Viola! I loved the simple, straight forward format of this book. It believe it only took me about 30 minutes to read. 

(photo source)

As I read the book, I pondered on the name: Living in the Land of Enough. We live in America. We have enough. We have enough time. We have enough food. We have money. We have enough space. We have enough to keep us entertained w/out electronics. We have enough sense to disconnect. We have MORE then enough to be grateful for!

Please, share with me what you are grateful for!

The Minimalist Within, FREE book!

I just finished reading this e-book. I think the best part of it was the fact that it was FREE and didn't create any clutter in my home. =) But seriously, it is a great read and a quick one too. It took me less then 30 minutes to read. It is a motivation on why to become a minimalist with some beginner steps on how to start. It's not as much as a how to as much as it is a why.

From the book:
This Book Is. . .
- A guidebook to help you get started on a journey toward minimalism
- A conversation starter to introduce minimalism to people
- A tool to determine your personal “why” for minimalism
- A reminder of the reasons we pursue less in order to discover more
- A method for learning to ask the right question

This book was written by Faith Janes. She is the author of Family-Sized Minimalism which I wrote about in a previous post. She also had a blog Minimalist at Home Her writing is simple and inspirational. You can read the book for free here.

Hungry For Change

So I've watched this movie two times now. The first time I watched it I was alone in a quiet house. The second time I watched it(tonight), I had my hubby and six of our kids watching it with us. I really can't emphasize enough that you NEED to watch this film. The cost to buy the DVD is around $35, but they are offering a FREE viewing of the entire movie with NO strings attached and no gimmicks for another 5 days. PLEASE take advantage of this opportunity to see this film for free! Watch it with your family and spread the word as soon as you can before the free viewing time is up.

Just a few notes from the movie:
Sugar is as addictive as drugs. Sugar and MSG will make you fat. Oh yeah, and MSG has aprox. 40 different names, so good luck figuring those out. lol!

The basic run down to become healthy according to the experts on this movie are as follows:
Eat gelatinous foods (i.e. chia seeds, aloe vera, and see weed)
Eat high fiber foods
Drink plenty of pure water
Eat lots of green foods filled with chlorophyll
Exercise
Love (especially yourself)
Get more sleep and less stress
Eat LOTS of veggies and fruits

Some of my favorite quotes:
"I am by nature a dealer in words, and words are the most powerful drug known to humanity" ~Kipling

"Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life." ~Anthony Robbins

And the daily affirmation you should repeat to yourself while looking in the mirror: "I accept myself unconditionally right now."

I LOVE this film even though I do think it was a little lengthy for children. Thank you, Thank you FOOD MATTERS for allowing us to see this film for free! =)

Copy and paste the link below to watch it.
http://www.hungryforchange.tv/

Minimalism, How did it save me so much $$$?

With all that we did to save money, the carpooling, shopping less often, doing a menu for shopping, making homemade products, and etc, we were still scrimping each month. I wanted to share what it was that finally helped us to get ahead. I really started several months ago, but I just didn't know what I was starting.

We live in a very large home with 4,600 sq ft of living space. Within that space, we have 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 living room areas, and 2 kitchens. I have always been a person who cannot stand clutter and mess. However, in a home this size we really started to collect a LOT! There was so much space to put it. Out of sight, out of mind. That wasn't the case though. It started to crowd in on us! We were spending so much our our precious time and money cleaning, organizing, and rearranging our "stuff". As a matter of fact, I spent most of my time while the children were at school cleaning! I hated it. We were spending 90% of our time cleaning and organizing, and well over 40% of our income on this "dream house". My dream home had become my prison. How did this happen? How did I not notice this? So we decided to put the house up for sale.

In the preparation to get the house ready for the market I decided to do some "down-sizing". Well, 7 months later that down-sizing turned into minimalism! We went a little overboard. I became addicted. I was falling in love with my home again, but not enough to keep it. I started reading and studying about minimalism. I didn't even realize that is what we were doing. Once, I realized that I made a new goal. For the most part, my family was on board (with the exception of a few teenage girls:)).

Reducing the things in our home changed our lives, especially mine. But how did this save us money right? First off, I sold enough stuff to make us a few thousand dollars! I gave away a lot too, but I sold big and small items that we had double and triple of; cars, furniture, clothes, kitchen appliances and more. I sold enough to get us out of our small consumer debt. Immediately that saved us enough to reduce our monthly bills by $511! That is a HUGE savings for a family our size (or any size). Also, we have just stopped consuming. We only buy what we need to live. I cannot even put into a number what that has saved us each month. I spend less gas driving to the stores 1 or 2 times a week (I mentioned before that we live 20+ miles from shopping), less money on splurges, and NO money on bookshelves, baskets, and dressers to organize our stuff.

Despite the enormous amount of money we have saved from minimization, I have saved so much more. My time is so very precious and priceless to me. I have more time w/my family and for myself. My days are no longer consumed w/cleaning and organizing. The peace, the calm, and the time are my true and everlasting reward for becoming a minimalist family. I'll explain in another post someday how I did, what I got rid of, and how to do it with a family. It can be done, and your kids will thank you (eventually). My life has never felt so free.

Radical Frugality

Source: alternativeviewspublishing.com via Melissa on Pinterest

When people hear I am raising 7 (2 already out of the home) kids on one budget w/a mountain of student loan debt, a mortgage, AND we eat healthy, the question is always the same, "How do you do it?" I really couldn't answer that question until I read this book. We are a radically frugal family. I don't clip coupons, I don't work part-time, I still go to the occasional movie, and we don't eat beans and rice everyday (although we do love beans and rice).

Don't get me wrong, when the student loans came due, my hubby went and got a second job and nearly killed himself working 90+ hours a week. That only lasted a few weeks before we realized there HAD to be something else! As a mother of a large family, I didn't have time or energy to work another job. . .my job takes up as much time as I can spare. There was another solution though. I created my own little "part-time job" by doing some research. I studied and read lots of blogs and books on how to save money with a large family. Clipping coupons wasn't really an option as we were already established in healthy foods/products. Coupons are not available for fresh produce and all-natural products. I'll write another post another time on my feelings about couponing in my area.

The first thing I did was stop buying my Melaleuca products. That was hard for me to give up, but was costing me a whopping $50 or more a month. I love Melaleuca and I loved cleaning my home and clothes w/their products, but the price is a little steep for us right now. I set to work to make my own laundry soap, household cleaners, tooth powder, and even my own dish washing soap. WOW! The savings were instant! Then, I discovered how to use baking soda and vinegar as a shampoo and conditioner. Again, w/our size family, that's another big savings! I was already making my own skin care line. I'll share that another time too.

I began to make strict menu plans w/shopping down to a science. With a few supplemental foods, I was able to lower the grocery bill to about $150 a week. This will increase a little when school is out because then we will be feeding them lunch as well. I stopped shopping once a week and went to twice a month w/NO shopping in between. I even carpool with others as much as I can. Saves me on gas, and makes shopping more pleasurable (it is my least favorite chore). Being that I have to travel 20 + miles each way to shop, this really saved us a lot on gas! I also started a car pool w/2 other moms to help off set the cost of gas driving kids to and from school. Now they can start walking with the weather so nice.

So how much did doing menus, shopping less often, doing car pool, and making my own products really save me? A LOT, but not enough! I'll write in another post to tell you what it was we did that REALLY gave us financial relief. It's an entire post in and of itself.

Family-Sized Minimalism

Source: google.com via Melissa on Pinterest

As an effort to consume less and live with less, I just finished reading this book a few weeks ago. As I researched and studied the life of minimalism all I could find is how a single person or a couple could live this kind of lifestyle. How can a family live like this? Do families really live like this, and is it really possible? I am so very grateful for Faith Janes and the work that went into this book. My family is a lot larger then hers, but our family is on this path and loving the extra time we have from not having to clean so much! You can follow her blog at http://www.minimalistathome.com/

Only 48 Hours left!!

I am SO excited for this movie to come out! You can register to watch the movie for free from March 21-March 31. Go to http://www.hungryforchange.tv/ to resigter today!