Buying Time and Getting By: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement

Appendix: Selected Voluntary Simplicity Resources

Appendix
Selected Voluntary Simplicity Resources Organizations Center for a New American Dream 6930 Carroll Ave., Suite 900 Takoma Park, MD 20912 Phone: (Toll Free) 1-877-68-DREAM or 301-891-3683 Fax: 301-891-3684 E-mail: newdream@newdream.org Internet: www.newdream.org New Road Map Foundation P.O. Box 15981 Seattle, WA 98115-0981 Internet: http://www.newroadmap.org/default.asp Seeds of Simplicity P.O. Box 9955 Glendale, CA 91226 Phone: (Toll Free) 1-877-UNSTUFF or Phone & Fax: 818-247-4332 Internet: http://www.seedsofsimplicity.org Journals, Magazines, and Internet Sites Enough!: A Quarterly Report on Consumption, Quality of Life and the Environment Published quarterly by the Center for a New American Dream 6930 Carroll Ave., Suite 900 193 194 Buying Time and Getting By Takoma Park, MD 20912 Phone: (Toll Free) 1-877-68-DREAM or 301-891-3683 Fax: 301-891-3684 E-mail: newdream@newdream.org Internet: www.newdream.org Seeds & Circles: Quarterly Newsletter of Seeds of Simplicity/ The Simplicity Circles Project Published quarterly by Seeds of Simplicity P.O. Box 9955 Glendale, CA 91226 Phone: (Toll Free) 1-877-UNSTUFF or Phone & Fax: 818-247-4332 Internet: http://www.seedsofsimplicity.org Simple Living: The Journal of Voluntary Simplicity Published quarterly by the Simple Living Press 4509 Interlake Ave. N., PMB 149 Seattle, WA 98103-6773 Phone: 206-464-4800 Internet: http://www.simpleliving.net/default.asp The Web of Simplicity internet site at http://www.simpleliving.net/ resource_database/introduction.asp makes available an extensive bibliography of books and other resources on voluntary simplicity and provides reviews. Selected Annotated Bibliography of Voluntary Simplicity Literature Andrews, Cecile. 1997. The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life. New York: Harper Collins. Andrews is a central figure in the voluntary simplicity movement. She started the first simplicity circles in Seattle. This book discusses the ills of contemporary consumerist society and suggests how to simplify one’s life, reduce environmental degradation, and build community in seven steps using support groups called simplicity circles. Many simplicity circles use this book to guide the circle discussions. Andrews is director of the Circles of Simplicity project affiliated with the Seeds of Simplicity Program of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy at Cornell University that she and Carol Benson Holst head. – 195 Appendix Blix, Jacqueline, and David Heitmiller. 1997. Getting a Life: Strategies for Simple Living, Based on the Revolutionary Program for Financial Freedom, Your Money or Your Life. New York: Viking. Blix and Heitmiller, self described former yuppies, describe how they used Dominguez and Robin’s (1992) nine-step program successfully . The introduction is by Dominguez and Robin. Blix and Heitmiller explain how they gained financial independence, quit work, and reduced consumption. They say they now are able to spend more time with family, volunteering, and on personal growth. The book includes the stories of over forty people, including themselves, who have used the Your Money or Your Life program to gain financial independence. Callenbach, Ernest. 1993. Living Cheaply with Style. Berkeley, Calif.: Ranin Publishing, Inc. Callenbach offers advice and prescribes ways to live cheaply. The introduction links frugality, health and happiness, and environmental sustainability with the green triangle , a model Callenbach first described in his 1975 futuristic utopian novel, Ecotopia, which is cited by Dominguez and Robin (1992) and Andrews (1997). Dominguez, Joe, and Vicki Robin. 1992. Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence. New York: Penguin. This book outlines a nine-step plan for gaining financial security, escaping the rat race, reducing conspicuous consumption, and living in keeping with your values. The book is based on self-help seminars that the late Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, who runs the New Road Map Foundation in Seattle, developed to share the method conceived by Joe Dominguez. The process involves analyzing the use of money in one’s daily life, calculating the life energy cost of working for a wage, and reducing consumption based on understanding how much life energy each purchase costs and deciding if it is really worth it. The authors advocate reducing expenditures and increasing savings so that over time you can live off of investment income, which they suggest be put in Treasury bonds. The crossover point where your investment income meets your expenditures brings financial independence. This book is central for most people in the voluntary simplicity movement and is used in many...