Living on Less and Liking It More

by Maxine Hancock

Learn how to reduce your spending and increase your living! Updated and expanded for the '90's, the author shares the ongoing adventure of experiencing joy through economic restraint.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a wealth of timeless advice in this wonderful little book. Some of her specifics are dated, to be sure (recommending 2 servings of fruit, 1 serving of potatoes, and 2 servings of "other" vegetables each day. Saying that people will probably largely give up driving cars by the 1990s because of rising gas prices). And, as a Moody Publisher book about family life, it is very centered on a particular kind of cis-hetero marriage. But the general thesis still is and will continue to be applicable.

The fact is, living in Canada or the US means we are wealthy by international standards. There are places where we can all trim our spending. And it benefits us to carefully consider if we are ruled by money in our day-to-day dealings. Hancock calls us to eliminate debt, purchase carefully, practice generosity, and live modestly. Those are values I can get behind.

Edited to add: Her advice on thrift and generosity as Christian values feels more and more timely. Too many ostensible believers in this The Year of Our Lord 2023 are of the mindset that capitalism is equivalent to godliness, and winning capitalism by becoming obscenely wealthy is the greatest good we can perform. I hate it.

[Kait · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty good, but it wasn't fantastic. It was a little bit dry, and I skipped some parts, only because it was a lot of the same.

She did relate a story on how one winter they didn't have money for winter boots for the kids. So each of the kids was responsible for praying for God to provide their own boots. I liked this idea because it helps to bolster and grow the children's faith, not just the parents. If we ever are in the situation where we are praying for basic needs, I think I would like to remember to have my kids involved in that process too, as is appropriate for their ages.

I think if I hadn't read any other finance books, I would have found this book a lot more interesting, but as it was, it was a lot of stuff that I had already read before. There's nothing wrong with repetition, but I was in a hurry to get it back to the library so I didn't give it as much attention as I might have.

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Living on Less and Liking it More" is an easy read that provides helpful guidance and tips for how to live modestly and by Biblical principles. Although it opens rather dryly, its finishing chapters offer exceptional teachings taken from Scripture that affirm Jesus' declaration that those who are "poor in spirit" are abundantly rich, that we should not lament our poverty (a concept that Hancock correctly labels difficult to determine because of its cultural relativity) in this life, but take joy in our blessedness in the coming Kingdom.

As mentioned above, the opening parts of the book are a bit of a bore. Hancock draws upon her own personal experience enduring hardship while she and her husband raised four children amidst a failing farming enterprise and while some of her experiences and tips can be useful for society-at-large, others parts of her experience are limited. I wish that she would have included more tips on how to stretch a tight income as that sort of information is very practical and useful to a large number of people. Hancock also mentions how we need to rethink our poverty, that it is really in non-material things such as friendships and fellowship that we find our true treasure (I wish she would have quoted from G.K. Chesterton's wonderful essay "The Romance of Thrift"!).

All in all, a decent read that offers some good advice grounded in the Bible.

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book I have is the newest, 2008 edition. Some of it doesn't really hit home for me at this stage of my life (as far as getting out of bad credit and coping in a current, tough family economic situation), and generally overstates the title a little bit by the author's relaying of her various experiences in life. There were a few practical ideas I appreciated about smart grocery shopping, but other than that, I don't think I'd recommend this book.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book. I suppose if you have a problem with the Bible you might not like the references and frankly I'd skip the last chapter that was way too End of the World for me, I actually didn't really the last part because it freaked me out too much, but otherwise a really good book and I got a lot out of it in terms of what is really valuable.