This book is a part of our #divasreading52 book challenge for 2015.
In Ruth Soukup’s book Living Well Spending Less 12 Secrets to the Good Life, she shares practical tips on reducing your spending and decluttering your life.
The insatiable desire for more is a disease that permeates every fiver of our being. ~From Living Well Spending Less
What is it that makes us want more? Spend more? Clutter our homes with more stuff? This book is a pleasant surprise because it not only talks about spending less but also living well. Sometimes it is our emotional well being or lack thereof that makes us spend more in order to feel better. Retail therapy.
Soukup mentions her original blog title (before the book came about) Living Well Spending Less The Adventure of Finding Style and Luxury on a budget and her original goal was to see how she could stretch her budget. Haven’t we all been there? Champagne taste with a beer budget anyone? But the reality is that sometimes less is more and cutting back while putting things in perspective is the way to go.
We are constantly being fed by media and our surroundings that more is more and that less is just simply not enough. Wrong! You have to live within your means. In Living Well Spending Less, Soukup teaches readers how to save on their grocery bills and stresses the importance of creating and keeping a budget. How many of us are creating a realistic budget and sticking to it? It’s time ladies.
You may also like: Purging 101: 5 Steps to Decluttering Your Closet
A great feature added to this book is that after every chapter Soukup offers a challenge to her readers. She provides a bar code and links to where you can get more information, worksheets etc. from her website. This is great branding by the way and very helpful to the reader.
Have nothing in your house that you don’t know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris
Less Stuff Equals More Joy! Secret #6 of the 12 Secrets is one of our favorites. Soukup shares a story about a family trip to Reptile World in Orlando, FL and how one of her daughters really wanted to go to the Build-A-Dino workshop and couldn’t get past it when she had to tell her she couldn’t go. She missed out on an amazing dinner pouting about what she couldn’t have. I’m sure we have all done this and not just at a young age. We are probably doing this now in our 30s, 40s and on. You can’t always Build-A-Dino but you can have joy in the things that you do have. Pick up the book to see how that story ended.
Have you ever been in a moment where you have so much joy and it isn’t because of the stuff you have? The best moments are the ones spent with family and friends. Where laughter and love fill the room with abundance. These moments are often free ones. But moments we take for granted because we are too caught up acquiring “stuff”.
Soukup’s honest and open tone, practical advice and faith are what make this book a great read. Her tips on Giving Yourself Grace are spot on. Ones we all know we should do but need a good reminder to do them. She even provides a cleaning routine to help readers get their homes organized.
Pick up Living Well Spending Less on Amazon and dive into a new world of less spending and living well. Walk through Soukup’s personal stories, faith and the will to have something better in life than just more stuff. Let’s all live the good life.
We give this book 5 Pink Hearts!
Have book suggestions for our #divasreading52 challenge? email info@thedivainc.com or use the hashtag on social media. XOXOXO
