Review & Giveaway: Ditch the Joneses, Discover Your Family by Cathi Brese Doebler- CLOSED

Ditch the Joneses, Discover Your Family

Written by: Cathi Brese Doebler

ISBN: 9780981784700

Pages: 129



Synopsis (as taken from the DitchThe website)

We’ve all felt the pressure to “keep up with the Joneses”. Often it seems like it takes two incomes to survive in today’s economy. But what if that is not true for your family? What if your family can thrive on less than two full-time salaries and flourish by spending more time together? Tackling these tough questions using faith-based views and values, this book gives parents encouraging and realistic ideas for a healthy and solid family. In this book, Brese Doebler challenges the two income assumption, and takes you on a journey toward the joy of discovering your family.


About the Author (as taken from the DitchThe website)

In order to balance time with family more effectively, Cathi Brese Doebler left her full-time job as a Manager of Performance Development and started her own consulting business. The main reason for this change was that Ms. Doebler wanted to be the main caretaker for her children. She was able to balance time with her children while running her own part-time consulting business.

Nine years after going to part-time hours, she has shared her insight into the struggle parents face when making a transition from being full-time employees to part-time employees or stay-at-home parents.

Ms. Doebler is a mother of two, and has experience in writing, recruiting, management coaching, and training. Ms. Doebler has a Master of Science in Corporate Communication from Ithaca College and fifteen years of experience in the Human Resources field. Her current consulting work is in Performance Consulting, Meeting Facilitation, Training, and Writing.

Ms. Doebler resides in New York State with her family. This is her first book.

My Thoughts

I have been a stay at home mom ever since Raileigh was born. In a few weeks, we will be making some big changes. Raileigh will be turning 2 and we are both heading off to preschool. She will be attending three days a week and I will be teaching there during this time. I have been searching for a way to supplement my family's income while still being the main caregiver for Raileigh, and we are quite pleased with our decision.

However, I still want to do everything I can to lessen the workload and financially be able to survive. We have survived on one income alone since about a month before we welcomes Raileigh into the world. It has been difficult at times, I won't lie about that. However, we have never regretted our decision for me to be a stay at home mother. The decision for Raileigh and I to go to preschool was made partly for financial reasons, but also because Raileigh is yearning for that socialization and varied learning experiences.

Around the time we made our decision, I was introduced to Cathi's book. From page 1, it was evident that Darren and I had already been doing many of the things outlined in the book. In the first 10 pages of the book, she poses some potentially challenging questions- Is having two vehicles important for us? Is cable a need for our family? Some time ago, we answered no to both questions and became a one vehicle family with no cable TV.

Further on in the book was a chapter I was very excited about- Ways ti Save Money. I have always been frugal, and am always looking for ways to be even more so! Cathi divides her cost saving ideas into easy to use categories- food, utilities, home and transportation, and more. I saw several ideas we had already implemented:

• Eat meals out less and cook at home more- we very rarely eat out. Normally, we must have a coupon or it's a special occasion
  
• Use Coupons- One of my favorite ways to save- especially when paired with sales at local stores
  
• Buy Family Packs of Meat- Then just take it home and portion it into freezer bags. A really easy way to save!

And that was just a few things from the food cost saving ideas. I also saw a few ideas I want to start doing:

• Put deflectors on heat vents to direct the flow of heat across the floor instead of straight up to the ceiling
• Cut dryer sheets in half during the winter, in thirds during the summer- one-third of a sheet works just as well as a full sheet
• Hang Laundry to dry instead if using the dryer

One thing that has became evident since we really started watching our money more and cutting out unnecessary expenses is that we spend more time together as a family. We visit parks, have family game nights, eat picnics, and other fun, yet not very costly activities. It's not about the material possessions, it's about the relationships and bonds you form, especially with your family. Even if your family is already thriving off of one income, I challenge you to examine things that can be removed from your life to both save you money and bring your family closer together.

Do you want to learn how to ditch the Joneses and really discover your family? Cathi has agreed to send one lucky reader a copy of her fantastic book!

Here's how to enter:

Mandatory Entry (Must be done before any extra entries will qualify)

Please visit Cathi's website and tell me why you are interested in reading this book

Extra Entries (Please leave a separate comment for each entry)

• "Like" Cathi on Facebook
• Follow Cathi on twitter
  

Please visit the Extra Giveaway Entries page for even more ways to gain extra entries into this giveaway!

Giveaway is open to US Only. Giveaway will close September 10, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST.


No monetary compensation was received for this post. A copy of the book Ditch the Joneses, Discover Your Family was sent to me for review. A giveaway for an additional book is being provided for my readers. All opinions expressed above are my own.