I just read this article gettingalife.org . It's a "recipe" for simple living. One of the things she says is to limit your work outside your home to 30 hours a week, 20 if you are a parent. I don't work outside the home, but my husband does and he works 40-50 hours a week. This is what we need to survive in our humble lifestyle. We don't do much extra at all. There are things we could probably cut out, but don't wish to. Also if he worked only 30 hours a week, there would go his health insurance. For him to work only 20-30 hours a week would definitely be going "too far" for us.

Is there anything you will not give up or not change because you think it is going too far?

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"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

Hubby is supposed to be working 3/4 time. That means he keeps all his benefits, which are important for us to have. He is supposed to work only 3/4 time because when he works he has to travel to many different customer sites, nationally and internationally. Since he can't come home for dinner when he is working, he has to be home sometime!

Now, if I could only get him to actually follow that schedule, life would be good. Sadly, he feels so much pressure to get the job done he all too often misses his time at home.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

I wouldn't go live in a foreign country for a few months every so many years or so like she suggests. Our dd has special needs and I have a big fear of going to some country where every this is "simpler" and needing emergency health care. When I'm sick I want excellent medical care- not some substandard and often unsafe/inadequate level of care that I would get somewhere like in Honduras, Africa, Romania, etc. I read stories from some of these countries where they have infected entire orphanages with HIV or Hepatitis due to horribly outdated practices of giving mass blood tranfusions to treat anemia. Ewww! Those poor children.

Dh and I both work 40 hours per wk. I don't think cutting back would simplify our lives. Fortunately, I have a flexible schedule and can work at home half the time. I also don't see how moving to a foreign country for several months would simplify. Planning, finding a place, taking off work & school, making arrangements, financing it, moving.... - sounds quite stressful to me. I get it that the idea is to see how other people live, but I don't think that's necessary.

As for the rest of the list - we pretty much do all of it.

There are some great points in this article but some of them are not realistic. If we paid some debt we could live on my husband's part time salary. But we also would be without health insurance and I just don't want to do that. I won't say it can't be done but I know how fast these health issues can pop up without warning and that would just not work.

But there still are some great points. Number 1 don't buy anything that you don't love! How many times have you found yourself at a store (book store for me) you're in a hurry, the kids are getting roudy, and you know you need to go but you don't have time to find that one great book -- so I pick up something out of the clearance section. I have a lot of books in this house that I haven't even read and that I probably have forgotten that I own.

Yeah the working only 20 hours wouldn't work, but I guess if one parent stays at home and the other works full time then the average is 20.

I totally agree with the tip to not buy anything you don't love. I try to do this with everything-- especially clothes and books. Don't buy something just because it is a good deal!

Well, we definitely can't cut our work hours!!! Also, my kids can do as many activites as they wish to do! I don't know how anyone is supposed to take a few months off and live in a foreign country when they are only working part-time. This woman must have inherited money or something!!! Also, while it definitely is not ideal, commuting an hour is a reality in our lives. If we did not, the quality of our lives would go waaaay down. We would definitely have to live in a much higher cost of living area.

Her suggestions sound good in therory, but are not realistic.

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~Happiness is a large family~

Okay, I didn't actually read the article before replying. I guess I should have. Here are the 10 points...

1. Don’t let any material thing come into your home unless you absolutely love it and want to keep it until it is beyond repair.

I have a couple of problems with this. First, there are some things that come into my house because they fill an immediate need and I only need them for only a short time. For instance, I'm not keeping a baby crib 'beyond repair'. When the kid is done with it, I'm getting rid of it. In our life, we're in this situation with DD's bedroom furniture. I simply can't find anything I LOVE but she needs a place to sleep and store her clothes until then. Most of what I have in my house, I do love. Some items are here because I haven't found anything I do love to fill the need. And some items are things I didn't know whether or not I'd live them until I already owned them and had a chance to try them out. Many of us have THOUGHT we'd love an item only to find out they aren't so wonderful once they've been in our house.

Simply, acquiring and disposing of stuff, definately takes far too much of our time. The most I can scale down on the activity, the better.

2. Live in a home with only those rooms that you or someone in your family use every day.

I currently live in a house like this, but it is definately too big! We need to scale down in this area. I'd like to have less house and more land.

3. Limit your work (outside of the home) to 30 hours a week, 20 if you are a parent.

Yes, working less is an absolute NEED. There are lots of part-time opportunities that provide access to benefits. Plus, the whole idea of having access to medical benefits ONLY through an employer needs to change.

4. Select a home and place of employment no more than 30 minutes away from each other.

I agree. Long commutes are soul-deadening.

5. Limit your children's extracurricular activities to one to three a week, depending on age.

Also agreed. I think it is unfair of us to build the expectation in our children that they can concentrate on multiple activities at the same time. They certainly won't be able to sustain that level of activity as adults. I believe we can only effectively concentrate on three areas of life at once, in addition to our daily personal life (grocery shopping, paying bills, doing laundry, cleaning, etc.) For most people that is our job, families and friends, and ONE other activity - volunteer work, for instance. For children those three main areas are school, family and friends, and ONE OTHER activity such as a sport or music lessons.

6. Take three to four months off every few years and go live in a foreign country.

Due to hubby's job, this is a goal we can easily do and one we're currently working toward. People who don't think this is possible, might want to re-think a few things. Right now our biggest barrier is making a decision as to whether or not we'll continue to have pets.

7. Spend at least an hour a week in a natural setting, away from crowds of people, traffic, and buildings.

Absolutely!

8. Do whatever you need to do to connect with a sense of spirit in your life, whether it be prayer, religious services, journal writing, meditation, or spiritually-related reading.

Yes!

9. Seek the support of others who want to simplify their lives.

Unfortunately, this would end up being the 'third' outside activity. However, I agree that having a consistent message of simplicity is benefitical. I'd like that message to come from my spiritual life.

10. Practice saying no.

Yeap.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

Wow! You read way more into a few of the things than I did. It does show that we all have different ideas of what simplifying our lives means.

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"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

Chickyhip -- do you know what this woman does for a living?