Previews of Simple Living
Blogs, Podcasts and Sites
LITERACY
opening eyes
focusing views
paying attention
keeping perspective on
God's presence in the world.
Worship Alternatives Art 2 #3675
Index to this Page
Faith-Based
Dave and Sheryl Balthrop: Simple Life Reboot |
Paul Canavese: The Pastoral Center/Gospel Living |
Creation Justice: Capsules |
Melodie Davis: MennoMedia |
Clyde Griffith: New Celebrations |
Eileen Koff: Eileen Koff Ministries |
Joyce Rouse: Earth Mama |
Peter Sawtell: Eco-Justice Ministries |
Christine Sine and Andy Wade: Godspace |
Tom Sine: Mustard Seed Associates |
Bob Sitze: Simple Enough |
Kevin Tupper: Christian Simplicity |
Susan Vogt: Living Lightly | More
Secular
Samuel Alexander: Simplicity Collective |
Joshua Becker Becoming Minimalist |
Center for a New American Dream |
Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus: The Minimalists |
Carol Holst: PostConsumers |
Thomas Hoban: Social Solution Innovations |
James Howard Kunstler: KunstlerCast |
Janet Luhrs: Simple Living |
Northwest Earth Institute |
Kim John Payne: Simplicity Parenting |
Penny R.: Pynpinie |
Simple Living Forum |
Debi Taylor-Hough: Simple Times |
Sarah Wehkamp: Parents Who |
Jeff Yeager: The Ultimate Cheapskate |
Jeff Zaslofsky: Value of Simple |
More
Brief Intro
As Vicki Robin said in our podcast interview, there are lots of blogs about simple living on the internet. It's not hard to find them using an internet search. (My favorite search engine is Ecosia.org because their profits are used to plant trees.)
I'd like to help save you time by previewing some of the sites and blogs on my site. If you see something that interests you, click the link and enjoy. Some are faith-based, some are secular. I include both. I'll tip you off in my blog when there's a new batch, or you can check back here from time-to-time.
By listing a blog here, I am not necessarily recommending it. I have added a few gentle cautions about some of them.
Blogs listed or comments made after this service began on April 15, 2014, are given dates.
' * ' notes those whom I have interviewed on SLW! Podcast.
Current offerings by several of the following are listed in SLW! Quarterly Digest. (HOME, Window #2)
Faith-Based
4/16 -- Bible study workbook 'Organize His Way: A Christ-Centered Approach to Organizing Your Life' with support network.
EileenKoffMinistries.com
Blessings, not stuff,
Eileen Koff CPO [Certified Professional Organizer]
3/15 -- * Clyde Griffith's New Celebrations presents 'resources that reflect a more healthy, a more sane, a more theologically correct approach to more meaningful celebration of Christmas and other holidays.' While the Facebook page is updated frequently, the SITE has been a brief, static introduction. As of late 2015, Clyde has been re-populating the site.
Hear Clyde in SLW! Podcast #31.
2/15 -- Christian Simplicity -- Conversations about God, trust, and money.
Money Lies // God Ideas // Finding God // Mindfulness // Simple Living
NEW, being developed by Kevin Tupper: Five guides first, blogging second, and then money-help third.
1/15 -- Dave and Sheryl Balthrop: Simple Life Reboot -- Making Room for That Which Matters Most: Transformational, healthy minimalism. The Balthrop's 2-3 minute episodes are simple reading of their brief 'essays.'
* Bob Sitze - author, Besides his twice weekly Simple Enough blog, Bob has written several books and numerous articles.
Simple Enough blogger | Beyond Simplicity | BE (UN)AFRAID, BE VERY (UN)AFRAID!
Read more about Bob on my blog: Bob's Book
Hear Bob in SLW! Podcast #31
* Christine Sine - Godspace
Christine focuses largely on spiritual practices. Her several posts per week are often prayers. Her group also produces extensive lists of resources from a variety of Christian sources, as well as audio and video podcasts for Advent.
* Tom Sine - Mustard Seed Associates: inspire, connect, create
Read more about Tom and Christine on my blog: A Mustard Seed Advent
Hear Tom and Christine in SLW! Podcast #28
* Gospel Living from Paul Canavese
Appropriate for all Christians, Paul's site and blog come from a clearly progressive Roman Catholic perspective.
I've renewed a friendship with Paul Canavese and his spouse Ann Naffziger. They hosted Rita and me while we were on a speaking tour of Calif. Paul now operates GospelLiving.org and ThePastoralCenter.com. They contributed to the Supplement to Wedding Alternatives See their wedding vows) and the Travel Journal of that Calif. tour (scroll to POST #58).
- CatholicCreationCare.com - General resources
- CreationCareKids.com - Children's resources
- Advent/Christmas resources for families, some incorporating Alternatives.
- Easter resources for families
Hear Paul in SLW! Podcast #54 and #30.
Renovare' has been around for 25+ years. It uses the writings of Richard Foster and the late Dallas Willard. Though its occasional podcast is named 'Simplicity,' it focuses on spiritual formation for all ages.
Melodie Davis / MennoMedia / 540-574-4874 / melodied@mennomedia.org
Site: Third Way
Third Way Cafe
MennoBytes focuses on the authors, people and experiences behind the books and other media published by MennoMedia/Herald Press.
EXAMPLE: A young couple (with a two-month-old baby) are, as a Lenten discipline, cooking their way through Lent with the promise not to eat out (or even indulge in a coffee shop visit) and cook from More-With-Less cookbook.
(Included in Who's Risen from the Dead, Anyway? Additions/New/Bonus)
A new post appears each Thursday during Lent at our blog, Mennobytes. Readers can look for the tag' of 'Forty Days of More-with-Less.'
Follow Melodie's blog Finding Harmony, a blog looking for harmony, grace and wisdom in many spheres of daily living.
Author of Whatever Happened to Dinner: Recipes and Reflections on Family Mealtime (Herald Press, 2010) -- 100 more great recipes (not all hers). She's published 14 books, 1983-2013.
Besides a recipe-of-the-week, Melodie's blog is somewhat autobiographical, including archival family photos of her Mennonite heritage. Each post ends with a thought-provoking question or two.
Melodie's also a speaker. Concerned about family life? Help offer support for young families as they try to start or keep the tradition of frequent family dinner!
SLW! also promotes the Life Standard of Nurture People by asking families to pledge to eat at least five meals a week together. Read More | VIDEO | Simple Living Struggles & Solutions [AV index] | YouTube
Her blog categories are faith, family life, food, nature, recipes, writing life.
Publisher of Living More with Less -- Doris Janzen Longacre; 30th Anniversary Ed., Valerie Weaver-Zercher, ed.
* Susan Vogt's site FAMLY MATTERS and blog LIVING LIGHTLY have a strong faith-based simple living emphasis. I first met her through the Institute for Peace and Justice and its family peace component. I've added her books to the new SLW! Recommends Literacy Service.
Read more about Susan on my blog: Latest Additions to 'SLW! Recommends' Literacy Service
Hear Susan in SLW! Podcast #38 and #39.
Hear Peter in SLW! Podcast #18.
RUDE RECORD -- A journal to record the joy of our frugal lifestyle
Karen Ellis submitted to WHOSE Birthday? 2014
Karen Ellis writes about personal experiences, not about issues or causes. She includes one photo in each blog, which appears one-to-three times per month.
Enough covers numerous topics not covered in traditional SL blogs and is linked with The Common Good Podcast, both produced by Simple Living Works! in collaboration with Jubilee-Economics.org
- Episode 68 :: Convergence of OneEarth Living and Voluntary Simplicity (3/1/16)
- Episode 64 :: Paul Canavese: Why Pope Francis' Encyclical and Visit Matter (10/1/15)
- Three minute film: Ecology and Economics--Colleagues, Not Rivals
- Conversation about The OneEarth Project and Lee's book, Blinded by Progress: Breaking Out of the Illusion That Holds Us
- The Common Good Podcast, episode 42
- Lee's new Slide Show
Simple Living Works! blog is one of a suite of social media -- podcast, eNews, etc. that extends the mission of Alternatives, a 40-year-old voluntary simplicity organization. The blog is heavy with links and repeats main points from one post to another. It highlights some celebrations from the church and secular calendars and gives alternatives to the traditional and increasing commercial rites.
SimpleLiving.org - Alternatives' previous site is static. Its five pages, though helpful, haven't been changed or updated in several years. It appears to be occupied by squatters.
Living Simply. . . as Christ intended
Christian Simple Living
... Loving Through Our Daily Living
Christian Simple Living is a way of life that is based on Jesus' teachings of compassion, love, and service. It is a radical way of living that does not conform to our profit-obsessed consumer culture, but rather frees us to live joyfully in the service of others.
By following Christ into a simpler, more compassionate way of living we hope to contribute toward a more peaceful, socially just, healthier, and environmentally sustainable world.
MENU: What Is Simple Living, How to Live Simply, Transformation Puppets (puppet ministry)
'New' blog -- Confessions of a Consumer Addict -- goes back to 2006, posts are becoming infrequent
Connected to New Community Project
This site seems to have been converted to advertising links.
Secular
Not a blog per se, Simple Living Forum is one of the largest spaces for asking questions and sharing ideas on SL in the US, sponsored by the New Road Map Foundation, founded by * Vicki Robin, author the best-selling classic Your Money or Your Life. Read more at my blog, LET'S CHAT!9/16 - James Howard Kunstler - The KunstlerCast
The KunstlerCast is a free podcast about 'the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl.' James Howard Kunstler, author of 'The Geography of Nowhere,' 'The Long Emergency,' 'the World Made By Hand' novels, and other books about suburbia, cities and American culture. Kunstler speaks with guests about the failure of suburbia and the inevitable end of this living arrangement with no future.
4/16-- 16 Actions to Take Today to Live a Simple Life by PYNPINIE: Simple; Functional; Attractive (Penny R.)
8/22/15 - Simple Living: the Good Life - peace / happiness / ease. Author of The Simple Living Guide, Janet Luhrs blogs on Simple Recipes, Simple Things, The Simple Life, The Simple Mind
8/22/15 - Simple Times: 'Saving Your Time, Money & Sanity. . . since 1995!' Author of numerous simple living cook books, Debi Taylor-Hough now publishes her free newsletter every five days.
Also, The Original Simple Mom: 'Happiness is making the most of what you have.' FRUGALITY, SIMPLICITY, HOMEMAKING, FAMILY, RECOMMENDED READING
- Latest edition
1/15 -- Simple Life Together, a podcast dedicated to leading a simple life in the modern world by Dan and Vanessa Hayes.
1/15 -- SimpleREV Conference -- Revive and Rev It Up!
All Things SimpleREV Podcast with Joel ZASLOFSKY
* Joel Zaslofsky is the Chief Simplifier, Curator, and Founder at Value of Simple. He also hosts the popular Smart and Simple Matters show and spends a lot of time thinking about all things SimpleREV. When he's not enjoying nature, making his wife smile, or playing with his two young sons, Joel's busy minimizing, being Paleo, doing public speaking gigs, connecting, reigniting his personal renaissance, and Experience Curating.
Hear Joel in SLW! Podcast #40.
1/15 -- Joshua Becker is the Founder and Editor of Becoming Minimalist, a website with over 500,000 regular monthly readers dedicated to inspiring others to find more life by owning less. Motto: Caring for Your Whole Self. His rational approach to minimalism, focusing on passion and purpose, has made him one of today's most-influential simple living advocates. He has sold tens of thousands of his books, has been invited to speak all across America, and has made media appearances in TIME Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post Live, and the CBS Evening News. His most recent book, Clutterfree with Kids, consistently ranks among the best-selling parenting books in America. Currently, he lives in sunny Peoria, Arizona with his wife and two young kids.
1/15 -- Sarah Wehkamp is passionate about helping families find balance and simplicity in their home life. She and her husband, Chris, are founders of Parents Who, a website that equips parents with tools to create and maintain a simpler, more meaningful family life. She's the mother to the youngest firemen in the world, identical twin boys Mr. B & Mr. C, a fair trade chocolate enthusiast, a former elementary school teacher, and an avid traveler.
The Simplicity Collective offers an Overview of Simplicity and the Collective, a blog, helpful documents, extensive quotations from Thoreau, and a discussion forum.
* Jeff Yeager || The Ultimate Cheapskate
Jeff Yeager and writer Adam Lucas have finally emerged from sequestration in the cheapskate testing laboratory with the The Bodacious Retirement Budgetary Worksheet.
Hear Jeff in SLW! Podcast #43.
Jeff is really funny. Parts of his site are a bit out-of-date. For example, he urges us to pre-order a book that was release in 2012. He's one of the most high-profile simple livers, appearing on NBC's Today Show and writing for AARP. His books include Don't Throw That Away, The Cheapskate Next Door and mostly recently How to Retire the Cheapskate Way. His blog seems to have stopped in 2009.
He recommends TheDollarStretcher.com: Living Better for Less. The site is well maintained and contains MANY articles on topics for Food and Groceries, Baby Boomers, 20 Somethings, Money, Home and Auto, Family, Lifestyle.
Like so much Frugality and Cheapskate advice, it is largely based on price, not cost - what you pay rather than it's effect on the Earth or people in other countries or other social concerns.
Carol Holst's PostConsumers.com has no blog but offers biweekly eMail, INTERACTIVE HANDBOOK, ARTICLES, GET SATISFIED BOOK, CARTOON GALLERY. Read more at MY BLOG: Are You a PostConsumer?
- The Hidden Consumerism of Crafting (10/30)
- 37 Marketing Traps to Look Out For This Holiday Season
Frugal Living for the Family
You don't have to be poor to be frugal. There are many reasons a family can decide to be frugal. You may want to save money for your kids college, or retire early, or you may be trying to help the environment by not wasting resources. Whatever your reason, we want to try to give you the information, and tips you need to save money, get great deals, and recycle used items. Don't consider the names of tightwad, penny-pincher or cheapskate as derogatory, but as a badge of success. fru-gal - adj. 1. not wasteful; not spending freely or unnecessarily; thrifty; economical; 2. not costly or luxurious; inexpensive or meager [a frugal meal] -- SYN THRIFTY
Categories: home, children, links,house & yard, car, finance, coupons, books, debt, seasonal / 'What's New' sidebar. Tips are short. Funded by selling books through Amazon
COMMENT: Frugality is not a value all by itself. It is more a technique. It is best used with a suite of other values, such as the Five Life Standards of Living More with Less.
Stay a Stay-at-home Mom with Rayven Perkins
Reduce Expenses, Stretch Your Dollar, Supplement Income
Categories: Blog, New Pages, Money Saving, Money Making, Resources, Training Products
Frenetic feel; funded by selling her books, courses and consulting fees
Welcome to Down the Lane -- A website showing, through personal trials and tribulations, the results of a downshifting experience
MENU: Forum (active!), Frugal Living, Chicken Keeping, Earning Extra Money, Vegetable Gardening, Downshifting, Diary, The Blog
A personal downshifting experience (13 years so far) to seek a simpler, more frugal and self-reliant life
Richard Cannon, from Kent, UK
Pastoral, laid-back feel; funded by affiliate links to dozens of suppliers
Frugal Is Fabulous (formerly Living the Low Income Life)
Straight-forward blog, active till Jan. 2010; now 1-2 entries per month
Sells affordable eCookbooks by Sheila Buck
Categories: affordable cookbooks, business ideas, easy meals, featured author: Sheila Buck, frugal living, more helpful articles, my family and contact info, single moms, preserving food
My aim is to help as many people as possible live more frugally, whether they have to or choose to.I am a freelance writer, and a Front Desk Agent at an inn. Many of my articles are on eHow.com and GardenGuides.com, as well as a number of blogs, and elsewhere on the web. Story writing is my favorite. All of this keeps me pretty busy. Saving pennies wherever possible, incorporating sales and coupons, and shopping dollar stores are a few of my frugal habits. My goal is to help you live a more frugal lifestyle.
Warmest Wishes
Shannon Buck
Tightwad Blog, a Girl's Guide to Living on Less
Cluttered with advertising
ThriftyFun.com offers the blog 'My Frugal Life' and numerous guides, such as, 'Teaching Your Kids About Frugal Living.'
It's chatty and seems largely autobiographical. 'This is my story about frugal and tightwad living! To start, I live alone right now. I have been frugal my whole 38 years. I am also a tightwad.'
The blog seems to have been started in 2006 and is stuck there, though it's hard to tell because it requires a log-in to enter its contests.
ThriftyFun publishes tips, recipes and guides share by everyday experts like you. Categories to start exploring -- Better Living, Budget and Finance, Business & Legal, Consumer Advice, Crafts, Education, Entertainment, Food & Recipes, Garage Sales, Health & Beauty, Holidays & Parties, Home & Garden, Make Your Own, Organizing, Parenting, Pets, Travel and Recreation, Weddings.
Why Tightwads Everywhere Love Frugal Living & Living on Less
Learn about frugal living and living on less from the self-named Tightwad. She has tons of money saving tips and ideas for families to save more, spend less, and live ...
ThriftCultureNow.com has a team of weekly bloggers -- including, for example, LittlePeopleWealth.com -- and offers free daily Thrifty Tips by email. Unfortunately, many of the pictures on the site didn’t load for me.
MENU: Money Saving Tips / Frugal Living / Stories / Thrifty Quotes / Cooking Classes / Anti-Thrift / Practical Skills
Zen Habits, a really minimalist, highly popular blog by Leo Babauta
No advertising, no comments or guest posts
Inspiring but severe lifestyle
It also happens to be one of the Top 25 blogs and Top 50 websites in the world, with more than a million monthly readers, and is uncopyrighted. Zen Habits features a couple powerful articles a week on: simplicity, health & fitness, motivation and inspiration, frugality, family life, happiness, goals, getting great things done, and living in the moment.
One post on The Cheapskates' Bible: The Complete Tightwad Gazette
Hear NWEI's Mike Mercer in SLW! Podcast #48.
The Minimalists podcast
Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life's most important things -- which actually aren't things at all. At age 30, best friends Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus walked away from their six-figure corporate careers, jettisoned most of their material possessions, and started focusing on what's truly important. In this podcast Joshua & Ryan, known to their millions of readers as 'The Minimalists,' discuss living a meaningful life with less stuff.
Clean
002: How do minimalists handle social media and technology?
Joshua & Ryan attempt to answer the following questions: How do you minimize your social media feeds and not miss important information? How do you minimize your...
1/9/2016
Explicit
001: How can you gradually declutter your life?
In this episode of The Minimalists Podcast, Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus attempt to answer the following questions: What is one thing you always thought you wanted, but then, once you got it, you no longer wanted it? How do you...
1/2/2016
Clean
000: Who are The Minimalists?
In this introductory episode, Joshua & Ryan discuss their personal stories, as well as the format of their new podcast. MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST Ryan Nicodemus's Packing...
12/20/2015
Social Innovation Solutions
New & Improved Ways to Transform Society!!Social Innovation Solutions provides new ways of thinking and acting in order to change our society for the better. We are clearly at a turning point -- only creativity and innovation can buy us time as a society to make the tough choices we need to make. Clearly the true strength of the human species -- and American society in particular – has been our ability to innovate (i.e., turn creative ideas into practical products and programs.)
This BLOG -- Social Innovation Solutions -- is the creation of Dr. Thomas Jefferson Hoban, IV. For almost 25 years he was as a Professor of Sociology and Food Science at North Carolina State University. Dr. Hoban has also been a journalist, musician and consultant for three decades. For the past ten years, he has been a leader in website design, internet marketing and distance education. He looks forward to working with organizations and communities on a range of projects related to social innovation.
Social Innovation Solutions: Voluntary Simplicity
Copyright Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license
Page updated 1/28/22
Simple Living Works! * SimpleLivingWorks@Yahoo.com
BLOG: SimpleLivingWorks.WordPress.com
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MISSION: Equipping people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly // An all volunteer educational organization.