Today I’d like to welcome Jill and Mark Savage. Jill and 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.
Would you like to win a copy of Living with Less so Your Family Has More?
How can I win? Simply leave a comment on this post. If you are seeing this on Facebook, visit the post at http://heartofthematteronline.com/living-with-less-giveaway.
**Contest ends Friday, March 19th at 10pm EST, winners will be chosen and emailed by Monday morning and must respond before Friday, March 26th at midnight!
If you are not the winner, you can purchase a copy for only $9.35!
So funny to see this book reviewed today. I have recently begun thinking about how much we have given up as we homeschool our children. As I have added up what I could be making in a job if they were at school, I have been trying to remind myself that my ministry is to my kids.
I know that they don’t need all the STUFF, but sometimes it is a challenge to be content when it’s so difficult to be just barely getting by. I just keep remembering that God is good- all the time! His plan is better than mine ever could be.
[Reply]
This looks like another wonderful book – thanks for the chance to win a copy!
[Reply]
I’d love to read this book! I’ve read a few of your other books and really got so much out of them.
[Reply]
I really try not to be materialistic but I also just love giving things to my kids. We are a single income family with a mortgage. We chose to have children rather than accumulate money when we got married, and they are an absolute blessing, but I can always be reminded of the difference between wants and needs.
[Reply]
This book looks awesome. God showed us how to downsize through my hubby losing his job. He just got a new job. But through this all we have been trying to live simplier. I started making everything from scratch due to my son’s allergies around the same time it occurred, bad food allergies. This book would be awesome to read for us. God Bless you!!!
[Reply]
Looks like a very interesting book–right up my alley. I hope I win it, but if not, I will definitely have to get a copy.
[Reply]
This is SO where we are headed as a family. We live on one income so I can stay home with the kids and homeschool. It means sacrifices but it’s definitely worth it! I would love to add this book to my home!
[Reply]
Sounds like a great book and something that speaks to what we are trying to do. God Bless.
[Reply]
What a much needed message. I look forward to reading this book. Definitely in line with God’s Word and something I have been convicted about lately. Sounds like the perfect resource to learn more. Thank you!
[Reply]
We as a family are trying to learn to live more frugally. This is very hard after so many years of living the high life so to speak. So it is always great to be able to read how others have gone from spending and buying any and everything to learning how to live more frugally.
[Reply]
Sounds like a great book!
[Reply]
This sounds like a super book – I would love to read it!
[Reply]
Love this article! thanks!!
[Reply]
Thanks for the chance; sounds like a useful read.
[Reply]
Thank you for this chance to win such an amazing book. The interview was fantastic!
[Reply]
Thank you for this amazing chance to win this great book. I look forward to reading it.
[Reply]
This sounds like it would be a great book! I really am trying to simplify our life but it is so hard!
NerdMom´s last blog ..Saint Patrick’s Confession
[Reply]
I’m a Mum of 6 and grandmother of 4 and still homeschooling our two youngest children. I could really do with this book to simplify the chaos. Thanks so much for the opportunity to be in the draw.
[Reply]
Please enter me in this giveaway. Thanks!
Urailak´s last blog ..Giveaway: 500 Business Cards
[Reply]
I would love to win this book. We have 5 children and have been married for 20 years. 2 of our children have special needs and it can be quite a challenge at times. I find that it seems most of the time we are fighting over one thing or another….I want our lives to be more peaceful and happy.
[Reply]
I would love to win this book!!! Sounds like it’s just what I need!:)
[Reply]
This sounds like a wonderful book! I’m sure it would be a blessing for any family searching for the best use of time and finances. Would love to win a copy!
[Reply]
What a fantastic resource, I can’t wait to read it!
[Reply]
Sounds like a great book! It would be wonderful to win one!
[Reply]
This book sounds perfect. We changed to a 1 income household about 6 years ago and while we are heading that direction we still struggle. One of us is always more ‘there’ than the other. This book looks like a great opportunity to help us focus on this together. Thank you for writing this!
[Reply]
Sounds like something our family could really use. Love to win one and read it! Thank-you!
[Reply]
I’m just getting started on this journey and I think this would be a great resource. Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy!
[Reply]
This sounds like an interesting book. We need some help doing this. Being the mom, it seems like I am always “the mean one” saying that we don’t need that and we don’t need this” Dad tends to buy the children too much. Looking forward to sharing this book with them. thank you
[Reply]
This is just what my husband and I have been discussing as we chose to have a one-income family. We still fall trap to the stuff, but try to provide a loving home to our children. I would love to read this book to learn more and feel encouraged.
[Reply]
oops – typo on the website
[Reply]
Sounds like a very interesting book.
[Reply]
This would be a great book for us during this life transition.
[Reply]
Awesome! We are a family that has spent 10 years living with less. I wonder if this book would encourage me to continue with what I think is the right thing to do for our family.
Jennifer´s last blog ..Dad’s Idea of School
[Reply]
Sounds like a great book. As a one income family (and not a large income at that), this book could really help. I know in our own home, spending time together gives us better memories than spending money.
[Reply]
I’d love to win this giveaway! I can certainly relate to being discontent with the rat race … life seemed simpler years ago …
[Reply]
I have been reminded so often how much FUN we had as young parents and college students. The imagination we used in order to make sure our “adventures” were just that – adventures the kids will remember fondly. Getting into the workforce to have “more” found our family in a everso familiar lopsided scale: more money, not enough time. We then tipped the scales to see the more time, not enough money side of things again. It’s a challenge to keep the balance, especially when the economy may push folks to see the more time/not enough money side of things and not allow people to make that choice consciously.
This is a very valuable subject to be discussing as we try our best to walk this earth and not be of this world. Thank you helping us on that track.
[Reply]