BOOKS BY SIMPLE TIME CONTRIBUTORS:

 A Simple Choice, by Deborah Taylor-Hough

• A practical guide to saving your time, money and sanity. Chapters include:  Finding focus for your life, financial health, practical kitchen ideas, simplified housekeeping, family fun, and lots more.

Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month, by Deborah Taylor-Hough

• Less time in the kitchen means more time for activities you really enjoy. This book will show you a step-by-step plan to simplify and revolutionize the way you cook.

Healthy Foods, by Leanne Ely

An easy and warm-hearted introduction to healthy eating. Another apt title for this book would’ve been “Healthy Foods Your Kids Will Love” — my kids have loved every recipe I’ve tried from this book!

Not Just Beans, by Tawra Jean Kellum

• Fifty years of frugal family favorites. Over 500 recipes and 400+ tips. Packed with helpful information and recipes sure to please everyone in your family.

 

MONEY MANAGEMENT:

Debt Proof Your Holidays, by Mary Hunt

• Frugal holiday ideas and tips for avoiding another after-the-holidays debt hang-over.

The Cheapskate Monthly Money-Makeover by Mary Hunt

• I highly recommend this book for those currently experiencing difficulties with consumer debt. The author’s personal story of overcoming $100,000 of debt is inspiring!

Taming the Money Monster, by Ron Blue

• Five simple steps to get out of debt … and stay out!  Christian perspective.  I strongly recommend all of Ron Blue’s money-related books.

Currency of Hope, by Debtors Anonymous

• 38 members of Debtors Anonymous share in their own words about their struggles and victories with compulsive debting.

A Simple Choice, by Deborah Taylor-Hough

• A practical guide to saving your time, money and sanity. Chapters on finding focus for your life, financial health, the practical kitchen, simplified housekeeping, family fun, and lots more.

Frugal Living For Dummies(R), by Deborah Taylor-Hough

• The perfect resource for people brand new to the frugal lifestyle. Makes an excellent gift for anyone newly experiencing a tight budget and unsure where to start (great for college students, newlyweds, new parents, unemployed).

The Complete Cheapskate, by Mary Hunt

• How to break free from money worries forever.

Homeschooling on a Shoestring, by Allee and Morgan

• A helpful collection of ideas for families on tight budgets wanting to educate their children at home.

Miserly Moms, by Jonni McCoy

• Practical steps for living well on a limited budget. Focuses on saving money on groceries. Quite a few simple, frugal recipes.

The Penny-Pinching Hedonist, by Shel Horowitz

• Hundreds of ways to save money on life’s “fun” things.

The Complete Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Dacyczyn

• Promoting thrift as a viable alternative lifestyle. This book is often referred to as The Frugal Bible.  A “must-have” for all true blue tightwads

 

SIMPLICITY:

Choosing Simplicity, by Linda Breen Pierce

• Stories of real people finding realistic paths to simpler, more meaningful lives. It’s refreshing to see the many faces of simplicity represented in this book. Well worth reading.

Finding Focus in a Whirlwind World, by Jean Flemming

• Examines the need to focus our priorities in life in order to find balance, purpose and joy (strong Christian perspective).

Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

• Elegant and wise meditations on a woman’s life: love, family, solitude, peace, contentment. A beautifully written book, and one of my all-time favorites. I always keep an extra copy or two handy to give as gifts.

Keeping Life Simple, by Karen Levine

• Seven guiding principles and 500 practical tips and ideas.

Living More With Less, by Doris Janzen Longacre

• The classic simple living book! No simple living library is complete without this one.

Margin, by Richard A. Swenson, MD

• Restoring emotional, physical, financial and time reserves to overloaded lives.

A Place Called Simplicity, by Claire Cloninger

• “The quiet beauty of simple living….” This book has inspired me more than anything else I’ve read on the subject of simplifying your life… a real treat! (Christian focus)

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families, by Stephen Covey

• Inspirational and practical ideas for a successful family life.

The Simple Living Guide, by Janet Luhrs

• Ideas and stories from real people who have simplified their lives.

 

CELEBRATING THE HOLIDAYS:
 

Simplify Your Christmas, by Elaine St James

• A collection of simple ideas for taking the complexity out of the holidays.

Unplug the Christmas Machine: Putting Joy Back into the Holiday, by Jo Robinson

• Don’t wait until December to read this book!  The earlier you start thinking about the holidays, the easier it will be to make any necessary changes in your celebrations (especially if those changes involve other people in your extended family).

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

• This book has been changing the lives and spending habits of people all over the world. A classic!

30 Days to a Simpler Life, by Connie Cox

• Practical tips, inspiring anecdotes and a step-by-step plan for simplifying every area of your life and your home in just 30 days.

 

COOKING:

Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month, by Deborah Taylor-Hough

• Less time in the kitchen means more time for activities you really enjoy. This book will show you a step-by-step plan to simplify and revolutionize the way you cook. Save time; save money; save your sanity!

Eat Healthy for $50 a Week: Feed Your Family Nutritious Delicious Meals for Less, by Rhonda Barfield

• Yes, it really is possible to feed you family healthy meals for $50 per week. Barfield shows you how (recipes included).

Make-A-Mix, by Karine Eliason

• Make your own healthy homemade mixes. Save time and money, plus you control the ingredients so you know the mixes are healthy for your family. Many mixes make great gift ideas, too.

More-With-Less Cookbook, by Doris Janzen Longacre

• Helpful and thought provoking book published by the Mennonites. Every kitchen needs this cookbook on the shelf.

Further Books for Busy Cooks 

• Recommended books for cooks with little time for daily meal preparation.

 

SELF-SUFFICIENT LIVING:

Making the Best of Basics, by James Talmadge Stevens

• Chapters on storing and using everything from water, wheat, and dried fruits and vegetables to vitamin supplements to maintain your family’s health, and emergency sources of fuel and energy. Includes over 200 recipes.

Back to Basics, by Reader’s Digest Books

• How to learn and enjoy traditional American skills. With so many urban and suburban dwellers moving toward simplifying their lives, Reader’s Digest has updated its popular Back to Basics series to provide the ultimate how-to book.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book, by Carla Emery

• How to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, catch a pig, make soap, work with bees and more.

How to Develop a Low-Cost Family Food Storage System, by Anita Evangelista

• Life is unpredictable. A sudden downturn in family finances can make food purchasing difficult. A severe storm can keep your family trapped at home for an extended time. This book can help even the most financially strapped families learn to store emergency essentials.

 

MISC. TOPICS:

365 TV-Free Activities You Can Do With Your Child, by Steven J. Bennet

• Do you have an egg carton handy? An old magazine? What about some toilet paper rolls or a milk carton? If you can find any of these things, there’s a world of active, engaging play open to your child — play so fascinating it beats “the tube” hands down.

Unclutter Your Home, by Donna Smallin

• Seven simple steps and 700 tips and ideas for eliminating clutter from your life and home.

Clean It Fast; Clean It Right!, editted by Jeff Bredenberg

• The ultimate guide to making everything aroud you sparkle and shine. Tips from 250 cleaning professionals. Also includes a good number of inexpensive alternatives to commercial cleaning supplies.

Clean House, Clean Planet, by Karen Logan

• A guide to planet-friendly housekeeping. Contains tips on safely cleaning a home, and simple formulas for nontoxic cleaners made from common ingredients.

Nature Journaling, by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth

• Learning to observe and connect with the world around you. A simple, educational, inexpensive and personally enriching activity.

The Stay-At-Home Mom’s Guide to Making Money at Home, by Liz Folger

• Are you thinking of staying home full-time with your children but still need some additional income? This book could provide some answers.

The Single Parent Resource, by Brook Noel (with Art Klein)

• What kind of help do single parents need most in their day-to-day lives? The authors asked that question to over 500 single parents.

Dirt Cheap Gardening, by Rhonda Massingham Hart

• Hundreds of ways to save money in your garden.

 

COOKING FOR THE FREEZER:

Frozen Assets: How to cook for a day and eat for a month, by Deborah Taylor-Hough

• My book on cooking ahead for the freezer.  Inexpensive recipes, step-by-step instructions, money-saving ideas, family-friendly recipes.  Contains a complete 30-day meal plan, a two-week meal plan, and a ten-day holiday meal plan.

Once-a-Month Cooking, by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Langerborg

• This book revolutionized the way I feed my family.  The recipes are a bit on the gourmet/expensive side.  Several complete meal plans including a low-fat two-week version.

Dinner’s in the Freezer: More Mary, Less Martha , by Jill Bond

• Contains general information on Christian homemaking, including information on cooking for the freezer.  Helpful charts.

The Freezer Cooking Manual , by Nanci Slagle and Tara Wohlenhaus

• Emphasizes sharing your cooking day with a friend.  Charts and planning sheets to simplify cooking with someone else.  Photos, humor, spiral bound.  This is the updated version of The 30 Day Gourmet notebook.

Month of Meals, by Kelly Machel

• Small, three-ring-binder format.  Family friendly recipes.

The Southern Living Complete Do-Ahead Cookbook, by Ann H. Harvey

• A large number of recipes for the freezer along with recipes that aren’t frozen but can be prepared hours (or days) ahead of time to be served later.

Prevention’s Freezer Cookbook, by Sharon Sanders

• Quick dishes for — and from — the freezer.  Over 220 recipes.