Dear Friends of The Simple Living Network,

Welcome to the Holiday Issue of our free on-line Newsletter. We hope the season finds you well and warm and enjoying the simple pleasures in life with friends and family.

Discussion Forums: Our Discussion Forums from will be closed Monday November 13 through Friday November 17 for routine maintenance. Thank you for your patience during this closure and continued CyberAngel support that makes this free Community Service possible.

OnLine Study Groups: The year end is fast approaching. A new tax season will soon be upon us. As such, this is a great time to begin thinking about transforming your relationship with money — starting out fresh as it were — and getting a handle on your finances so that they are in alignment with your values. We still have a number of spaces available in our popular OnLine Study Group for Your Money or Your Life. Click here for all the details about how you can participate.

Important Initiative: Our good friends at the Center for a New American Dream have launched an email campaign asking individuals to send emails to Channel One and Bus Radio advertisers urging them to stop advertising in schools. We encourage you to participate in this important initiative. Parents should have a right to determine when and where their children are exposed to advertising. Unfortunately, Channel One and BusRadio undermine that control by using compulsory school attendance laws to force a captive audience of children to listen to advertising. New American Dream has joined with more than 100 organizations and advocates (including The Simple Living Network) from all across the political spectrum — from the National Parent Teacher Association to Susan Sarandon to Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum — to call on companies not to advertise their products on Channel One and BusRadio. Find out more at: www.newdream.org/noschoolads.

It is almost that time of year again. Every January and February we remind you that The Simple Living Network does not charge membership or subscription fees, nor seek out government, foundation or industry funding. We are a private, home-based business with only one full-time employee, a couple of part-time helpers, and many volunteers. Our financial support comes from modest Resource Directory sales and, more important, from small, individual CyberAngel Contributions.

We are getting an early start on our Annual Funding Appeal for 2007 as we have come up a bit short for the 2006 fiscal year. I, Dave Wampler, can only fund so much out of my own pocket! (I live simply on a modest income of $12-$18,000 per year and The Simple Living Network is my full-time job.)

Our goal, between November 1, 2006 and the end of February 2007 is to raise $14,000 to cover the upcoming expenses of providing Internet bandwidth and equipment upgrades for our free services — the Discussion Forums, this Newsletter and its Archives, our Study Group Database and SimpleRadio.

So, if you like what you see on our web site, use our free services, and have the ability, we ask you to consider making a financial gift contribution to The Simple Living Network. We know it is sometimes difficult to contribute, especially when you are trying to live simply and keep expenses down. But, we trust you can put a fair dollar value on your use of this web site. We trust that you know, every contribution, large or small, counts! Without such volunteer support, this web site would not exist!

The last thing we want to do is support the purchase of more stuff and junk — we are decidedly anti-consumerism. In fact, this issue of our Newsletter is loaded with simple, often low or no cost, holiday gift ideas, plus a whole lot more. (Table Of Contents.)

Nonetheless, we know that some of you will purchase holiday gifts this year and will probably think long and hard about the social, political and environmental impact those purchases will have. If that is the case for you, you can further support The Simple Living Network by shopping through this web site. We stock almost 1000 simple living and do-it-yourself resources in the spare bedroom — Books, DVDs, CDs, T-Shirts, Posters, Bumper Stickers and more.

By purchasing your gifts through The Simple Living Network you are not only supporting the free services you use here, you are also making a statement that says you believe in small, home-grown businesses that do everything in-house on a local level.

Thank You!

Finally, this edition of Simple Living News is dedicated to Dave Wampler's Great Grandmother, Bessie Cornie, who passed on Thursday November 2nd at the age of 105. She made the choice herself and was present until the end. She was a kind and loving soul who knew the value of a dollar and how important it was to help those less fortunate. She lived a long, fruitful and joyous life. She will be missed by all who knew and loved her.

Here's hoping you have a joyous and simple Holiday Season,

Dave Wampler, Founder
Fred Ecks, Editor

• New Resources: Books, CDs, DVDs, Posters, T-Shirts, Stickers...
• Simple, Sustainable, Clutter-Free Gift Ideas
• 10 Ways To Eat Organic On The Cheap: Living Green
• In Celebration Of Idleness: Time For Contemplation & Renewal
• The High Cost Of Working: The Bohemian Diary
• What Matters To You This Holiday Season? Center For A New American Dream
• The Care & Feeding Of Your Credit Report: Keeping It Simple
• Mutual Funds For The Little Guy: The Dollar Stretcher

New Resources: The Latest Additions To Our Resource Directory
Click the headline above to see all new titles. Click the individual links below for specific information.

New Books

From SLN Partner Alternatives For Simple Living

• Songs & Stories Of Simple Living, edited by Jym Kruse (also available as a CD, see below)
• Unplug The Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide To Putting Love & Warmth Back Into The Holiday Season, by Jo Robinson & Jean Coppock
• Unplug The Christmas Machine Kit: A Complete Kit For Putting Love & Warmth Back Into The Holiday Season, by Jo Robinson & Jean Coppock. Includes Book, CD, Workshop Leader's Guide & Participant's Manual
• Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?, Ideas For A Christ-Centered Holiday
  Additional Resources From Alternatives For Simple Living...

Simple Living & Do It Yourself Titles...

• Slow Is Beautiful: New Visions Of Community, Leisure, & Joie De Verve, by Cecile Andrews
• Organic Housekeeping: The Nontoxic Avenger shows you how to improve your health and that of your family, while you save time, money, and, perhaps, your sanity, by Ellen Sandbeck
• The Homeowner's Guide To Energy Independence: Alternative Power Sources For The Average American, by Christine Woodside
• Little House On A Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats & Energy Efficient Possibilities, by Shay Salomon
• Peak Oil Survival: Preparation For Life After Gridcrash, by Aric McBay

New CDs & DVDs For Body, Mind & Spirit

• Stories & Songs Of Simple Living (CD), edited by Jym Kruse

• Living Wisdom: Immerse Yourself In The Radiant Wisdom Of His Holiness The Dalai Lama, with Don Farber (DVD, CD, Cards, Study Guide)
• Getting Unstuck (3 CDs), by Pema Chodron

• A Brief History Of Everything (6 CDs), by Ken Wilber
• The Integral Operating System: Upgrade The Way You Think & Live (2 CDs, DVD, Workbook, Poster, by Ken Wilbur
• The Ultimate Brain (9 CDs), by Tom Kenyon

• The Yoga Matrix (6 CDs), by Richard Freeman
• Yoga Shakti (DVD), by Shiva Rea

New 2007 Calendars, Bumper Stickers, Posters, T-Shirts, etc.
Great Holiday Gift Ideas!

• New 2007 Calendars
• New Bumper Stickers
• New Posters
• New T-Shirts, etc.

Every November, without fail, I'm asked for my holiday gift list. Unsatisfied with my protest, "I really don't need anything," well-meaning family and friends continue to prod me for ideas. It's not that I don't enjoy or appreciate the tradition of giving and receiving at this time of year. It's just that the resulting accumulation of stuff goes against so much of what I stand for.

Similarly, it can be challenging to find a special gift that honors the person you love without compromising your own priorities. Many gift choices only add more disorder to our already cluttered homes, but what can you do? My answer is to request and give disappearing gifts, relieving the burden on the receiver to find space for the gift — while sparing the environment at the same time.

The following lists provide environmentally-friendly, clutter-free gift ideas to suit any budget. Many of these can be homemade to save money while adding a personal touch.

Practical gifts

• Prepaid phone card
• 100% recycled stationery (with postage stamps)
• Calendar (do-it-yourself photo calendars, available through most photo developers, are a perennial favorite for grandparents)
• Beeswax candles
• Gifts in a jar (soup mix, pancake mix, cocoa, etc.), frozen meals or other edibles
• Organic and/or locally crafted (or homemade) bath-and-body products (soap, lotion, etc.)
• Fair trade coffee (add some biscotti for a nice combination)
• Seeds, flower bulbs or birdseed

Gifts of service

• Babysitting
• Yard care
• Cleaning
• Automobile maintenance (oil change, etc.)

Gift certificates (try to avoid gift certificates for merchandise that will ultimately generate more clutter)

• Health club, exercise classes or massage
• Healthy restaurant
• Natural foods and home store
• Local greenhouse or nursery
• Bulb or seed catalog

Annual memberships

• Arboretum or botanical gardens
• State parks, county parks, etc.
• Museum, zoo, conservatory, or historical society

For kids

• Special outing (see "Annual Memberships" above)
• Art materials (paper, paint, scissors, glue, tape, crayons, fabric scraps, ribbon, yarn, chalk, etc.)
• School supplies
• Homemade play dough (see recipe at www.JenniferSwanson.com/recipes.htm)
• Bubbles
• Stocks, bonds, CDs, or contributions to their college education funds

Other ideas

• Coupon book for environmentally friendly products and services (e.g., Blue Sky Guide or Chinook Book)
• Simply In Season cookbook by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert (this gift won't "disappear," but it does present delicious, vanishing recipes that make the most of the season's freshest produce)
• Charitable donation in their honor (e.g., many organizations promote "adopt-a-something" programs; think about causes that would be meaningful to the recipient — then you take the tax deduction!)

My favorite exceptions are heirloom gifts. One all-time favorite gift to our parents was a "day-in-the-life" scrapbook of our daughter, who was two years old at the time. Every year since then, we've created highly anticipated, personalized photo calendars.

Once you choose a gift, the next step is to decide how to wrap it — or not. In her book Simple Living, Jose Hobday describes the Native American tradition of giving gifts unwrapped. Rather than allowing paper or a tied-up box to come between the giver and the receiver, a gift is handed over without secrecy. This "flesh-to-flesh connection" provides an enhanced sense of unity.

But if you must wrap, remember the 3 R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reduce waste by wrapping gifts within gifts. Reuse paper, bags, or other containers. Recycle by choosing wrapping materials that won't end up in a landfill. (Most traditional gift wrap is not recyclable, due to its high metallic and dye content.)

Use your creativity to reconsider this holiday season's gift-giving as well as those other special occasions in the New Year.

Recommended resources:

• Holiday Resources from The Simple Living Network
• Gift & Craft E-Books from The Simple Living Network
• Celebrate Simply: Your Guide to Simpler, More Meaningful Holidays... by Nancy Twigg
• Environmentally-Friendly Gift Wrap Ideas by Jennifer Swanson
• Gift ideas from the Center For A New American Dream

About The Author

Jennifer Swanson is a professional organizing consultant, speaker, writer and mother of three. She publishes a free monthly e-zine, offering practical ideas and encouragement to help you organize and simplify your life. For more tips visit www.JenniferSwanson.com.

I hate shopping. No, really. I hate it. I am not one of those women who looks forward to payday so that she can go out and get new clothes or shoes. The love of shopping should be in my blood. My grandmother loved shopping – food shopping. And when I lived in a dorm she used to bring me all of the cool new products off the food shelves because although she loved to buy them, she never ate them.

But I hate shopping. And out of that extreme distaste came a rather strange love – for the supermarket or even, dare I say, the Super Wal-Mart. Yes, I admit it. Because I so hate to shop, being able to go to a store where I could get everything my family of then six people could possibly need in a week – or sometimes even a month. At a Super Wal-Mart we could get all of our "food," plus our paper products and even soccer cleats – and a new cup for one of the boys if we needed to. Husband needs a new battery for the car? No worries, just send the oldest to the back of the store while I continue to shop in produce.

I wish I could say that I came to an epiphany of some sort and stopped shopping that way because I am so strong. But the truth is, I stopped shopping that way because I moved back to my hometown in Vermont and there isn't a Super Wal-Mart in the entire state. The nearest supermarket is 30 miles away. My epiphany came when the local farmer's market came to town each week during the summer. So happy was I that I didn't have to drive 30 minutes away for fresh produce (at $3 a gallon in my 1992 Suburban), that I happily purchased a week's worth of food right there on the common.

My kids were a little skeptical and my husband was certain I blew the weekly budget on "fruit and nuts" but after several quite excellent dinners and the constant distraction of the Boston Red Sox I was left to my own devices without complaint.

The first problem I had was with my preconceived notions of organic food. I am no hippie. Yes, I like my trees, but I also like a medium rare steak on occasion and have always preferred my Corn Pops to granola. I do drive a Volvo now, but only because it has seven seats and costs way less than the Suburban to drive. We are also not rich – and for some reason, eating organic, all-natural foods has become associated with the "rich." In fact, I know a couple who throws parties and when trying to impress the rest of us, brings out the "expensive" locally-cultivated salsa or cultured butter.

Let me just state right up front that as a writer and the mother of five I am the queen of frugal. We often have to make due on less than $30,000 a year – and sometimes less than $20,000. I have had months where my food budget was as much as $1,000 – and I am appalled that I let things go that far. We are way under that now, between $300 and $500 a month depending on the month and what our needs are.

Without having major stores right around the corner, I have had to rediscover shopping. My husband often regales me with tales of his time living in Ireland when he had to visit several small stores to complete his food shopping. Riding his bike, he visited the butcher, the produce market and a general store that provided various sundries. Sometimes these stores delivered. We are not quite so lucky here in the states to have such stores, but I have found a variety of ways to eat organically on the cheap.

First, you have to dispel yourself of the notion that eating healthy food is more expensive or requires a lot of cooking. And second, you have to stop letting the children dictate what goes in the pantry. Yes, my children would think I was a goddess if I let them have gummy, sugary, cartoon-character "fruit snacks," but I don't care. They alternately think I'm goddess and hate me on any given day anyway, so I've decided that I'm in charge of what goes into their bodies and they'll just have to live with it. And you know what? They do. They might roll their eyes (my 13-year-old daughter is especially good at this) that there are no pre-fab "granola" bars in the pantry, but she gives me just as big a hug when I put mangoes in the fruit basket. Relying on the approval of children is a silly way to shop.

Children will never, ever choose an apple or a yogurt after school if there are chocolate chip cookies or Ring Dings or "Easy Mac" in the house. But they will choose an apple, orange or organic granola bar if that's all there is.

I also stopped, in an effort to save both money and the health of my family, buying "snack cakes" and other desserts. Now, if we are going to have a sugary treat after dinner – I either make it from scratch, or buy just enough for that evening. It has reduced the amount of money spent on such items greatly in our house, and keeps kids from snagging the two left in the box after school or stashing them in their backpacks for during the school day.

Part of the reason I hated shopping so much, I realized, was because I would go the big store once every couple of weeks and spend something obscene like $500, have ten or fifteen bags to lug into the house and unpack and then have children complain three days later that there was nothing to eat in the house. No more!

My new policy is to visit the food co-op or a local farmer's market once – sometimes twice a week and buy two or three bags worth of stuff at a time. This keeps my out of pocket expenditures to somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 at a time. And then, for paper products and other sundry items – like those organic granola bars - I started doing something really crazy: I started buying them online. Now, the UPS guy delivers a couple of boxes to my door twice a month. This does three things: it keeps me from spending money on gas to get to the store, it keeps me to a list (instead of tempting me into things I really don't need), and it allows me to shop slowly, examining labels so I know exactly what I'm getting – and my feet don't hurt when I do it!

I also buy foods in bulk with a local cooperative, so I can get big sacks of whole grain flours and oats. I like to bake, so this is a great deal for me.

1. Shop Farmer's Markets: They only last from spring to fall in most places, but you will find great growers who may be able to provide you privately with some foods throughout the year – particularly eggs, cheeses, preserved foods and root vegetables.

2. Join a Co-op. Many food co-ops will give you a discount just for being a member, and some will even allow you to exchange volunteer work for credit at the store or for your membership fees. Years ago, I worked at a small co-op so that I could afford one of the first organic baby foods.

3. Go CSA. Community Supported Agriculture is a great way to go if you have the money, but not the time to garden. Farmers in your area will, for a fee usually around $300 at the start of the growing season, provide you with one or two bags of in-season produce each week for 24 or 26 weeks depending on your area. Just remember, though, that this is homegrown produce – your tomatoes might be split occasionally and your peppers might have a funky curl on the end, but they will taste much better than anything you could get at your local supermarket and you'll be helping support family farms. If you don't have the money for this option, some will also let you exchange time in the garden for produce in a bag. Don't be afraid to ask. Many small farmers are happy for the extra help in the middle of a weedy season!

4. Buy in Bulk. I know, I know, everyone says this, but it's so true. Head straight for the containers of dried herbs, spices, oats, beans – you name it. I started keeping my dry goods in rectangular Rubbermaid containers so that I could stack them in the pantry. I used to think the buy in bulk idea was a bit of a scam until I bought several jars worth of spices at a fraction of the cost of the tiny jars they sell at the supermarket. We also have "Iron Chef" nights at my house where we try and figure out what to make from what we have in the pantry – we get lots of interesting dinners that way!

5. Buy in season in large amounts. But this doesn't have to mean you'll spend lots of hours over a hot canner. I am the queen of the Cuisinart and the freezer. I slice, dice, puree – you name it - in the food processor and then store the proceeds in gallon-size Zip-lock bags and freeze them. Consequently, I have julienned green beans fresh off the farm in January!

6. Plant a garden. But the weeding, you say. I know – I hate that part too. So I don't weed often. I mulch a lot. I'm a lazy gardener. And even in those years – and there are many – when I've spent no time in the garden except to plant, I'm still surprised by the abundance. My younger children don't mind helping to pick – it's like a scavenger hunt between the weeds!

7. Be flexible. Again, don't let the kids dictate what's in the fridge. Buy what's on sale and do something with it. Buy what's in season. Buy what's cheap. If avocados are on sale, buy more than two and make enough guacamole to serve at your holiday party. All you have to do is mush it up and freeze it, and when you're watching the Super Bowl with your friends, oh, you have fresh guacamole to go with those (organic) chips!

8. Go slow. If you're afraid your family will think you're crazy, buy a few things that are organic at a time. I started purchasing organic cereals (on sale) and all of a sudden Cocoa Puffs have no meaning in my house.

9. Cook more. It's so easy to just stop at a restaurant on the way home from soccer, I know, but I've learned to become friendly with my crock pot and it's just as easy for me to make two lasagnas at one time – one for tonight and one for the freezer. Changing how you look at food goes a long way to changing your habits. Have fun with food. Subscribe to a couple of food-related magazines that have great recipes and you'll start experimenting more.

10. Shop online. The kids think this is really cool because they love to get stuff in the mail. Throw a couple of boxes of Kashi granola bars in with your son's next order of CD's and I guarantee he'll eat them!

About The Author

Michelle Kennedy is the mother of five children. She is also a shepherd, a chicken whisperer and the owner of one ornery llama. She has authored a series of parenting books called the Last Straw Strategies published by Barron's.

Her memoir, Without a Net: Middle-Class and Homeless (With Kids) in America, was published by Viking in February of 2005 (the paperback came out in February 2006), and is the story of a year in the life of her and three of her children. They spent part of that year living in their car and trying to find a permanent home. An excerpt of the book was nominated for a 2004 Pushcart Prize.

In her brief years on Earth, Michelle has also been a