Win a Copy of Little House Living: The Make-Your-Own Guide to a Frugal, Simple, and Self-Sufficient Life

I am so excited to announce that I have a copy of Little House Living: The Make-Your-Own Guide to a Frugal, Simple, and Self-Sufficient Life to give away one lucky reader!

I have told you about this book before when it came out because Merissa was nice enough to send me an advanced copy.  Now that I have seen it with a complete Table of Contents and all the glossy pictures in their full glory I am even more impressed.  In case you missed my original post here is my humble opinion:

Farther back then I want to remember I met Merissa Alink at a blogging conference.  We couldn’t have been (or be) more different.  Her life in a rural town in South Dakota (who knew people even lived there?) was completely fascinating to me.  My life in the city seemed odd and noisy to her.  I would run to the grocery store to pick up three ingredients- it took her two hours to get to Walmart so she ordered her groceries in bulk and kept them in a root cellar.  I’m not sure I have ever BEEN in a root cellar.

As I have watched over the past years Merissa’s life has bloomed into something beautiful.  She has adopted two wonderful little boys who fill my newsfeed with cuteness.  She has gone from living in an RV (and not the kind designed to be lived in) to having a home with the land and animals she always craved. And she learned to cook.  She has posted pictures on social media that make me gain weight just looking at them.  And all the while they are free of all the stuff we put in food that poisons us.

So I was absolutely thrilled when I found out she was going to do a cook book.  And now she has done it: Little House Living: The Make-Your-Own Guide to a Frugal, Simple, and Self-Sufficient Life.

I have to be honest my plan was to look at the book, maybe take one or two recipes and hand it over to one of my friends who actually cooks.  I expected it to be very complicated and more than a single girl without children needed.

No way am I letting it out of my sight now.  First of all the book is beautiful- I want to eat everything in it.  I swear you can smell the pictures.  And the bulk of the recipes are SO easy with few ingredients.  It turns out the word “simple” in the title isn’t a trick.

There are so many recipes in here the table of contents is 3 pages long and FULL.  The whole first section is body and beauty items and household cleaners.  When I showed the book to my doctor she was super excited about the recipe for natural dry shampoo.  She said people who go through surgery or have conditions where they can’t take a shower have a hard time finding the dry shampoo without a ton of chemicals.  There are recipes for hand sanitizer, aftershave, sunblock, zit zappers and more.  In the household section are recipes for cooking spray, oven cleaner, laundry detergent and cleaning wipes.

The next section is children and pets.  Bubble bath, baby lotion, pet treats and outdoor bubbles- all with safe ingredients.  I confess I want to try to cat treat mix with Bella.

The last section is make ahead mixes.  I LOVE this idea.  It’s all mixes that you make ahead, store and then make when it’s convenient.  Cookies, pudding, oatmeal, cake, brownies, soups, seasonings… the list goes on and one.

She also includes a list of everything she keeps in her pantry (the list is shorter than you would think) and appendices with even more uses for those ingredients.

But I think my favorite thing about the book is the lack of the guilt factor.  As someone who buys my spaghetti sauce in the jar many times when I read these books I feel guilty about my chemical filled sun tan lotion.  “Little House Living” is giving me the steps to make my life simpler without feeling guilty for the things I can’t do.  It’s a chance to be healthier and  experience foods (and other things) in a way that is better for me and my household.

If this sounds like the kind of book you would like to have in your home maybe you can win a copy of your very own.

I am giving you up to SIX chances to enter.  You can get one entry for each thing you do below.  When you do it just leave me a comment and let me know which one you did.  So you can leave up to six comments!

1. Leave a comment telling me what type of recipes you would like to try.
2. Join my shopping Facebook group.  Leave a comment telling me you do!
3. Sign up for my Daily E-mail.  Every morning at 10 a.m. EST you will get an e-mail with the best deals of the past 24 hours.
4. Follow me on Facebook.  Leave a comment telling me you do!
5. Follow me on Twitter.  Leave a comment telling me you do!
6. Follow me on Instagram.  Leave a comment telling me you do!

Please leave the comments HERE to enter.  You can comment on social media but it won’t count as an entry!

The computer will randomly pick a winner on 5/23.  The winner will be e-mailed on 5/23 and have 24 hours to reply!