Lorilee Craker - Money secrets of the Amish: finding true abundance in simplicity, sharing, and saving

PRAISE FOR Money Secrets of the Amish

Packed with practical, simple, and smart money saving ideas and teeming with great insight into the sensible Amish ways, Money Secrets of the Amish will entertain you with stories and retrain your brain to be the savvy money saver you always dreamed you could be.

BETH WISEMAN, best-selling author of Plain Promise
and Seek Me With All Your Heart

Sometimes touching, sometimes humorous, and always helpful, author Lorilee Craker pulls us into the family rooms of the Amish and shows us how they make ends meet. Story after story illustrates savvy money management: trading for goods and services, shopping for bargains, living with less, avoiding debt, curbing the desire to impress others. And Crakers journalistic bent provides plenty of takeaway value for the non-Amish. A very worthwhile read whether your bank account is bursting or busting.

SUZANNE WOODS FISHER, author of Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom
for a Complicated World and Lancaster County Secrets

Americas gone from the #1 creditor nation to one of the top debtor nations in my lifetime, and as a result, our culture and economy has suffered greatly. We need to get back to basics, and Lorilee Crakers informative yet charming book takes us into the Amish microcosm for answers on becoming solvent and fiscally strong once again. Everyone should take a course in Amish frugality before graduation, but since there isnt one, Crakers book fits the bill.

JAMES JY YOUNG, guitarist, singer and songwriter,
co-founder of the rock band Styx

This book is like an Amish basement shelf loaded with Mason jars full of Plain money wisdom. Self-confessed Fancy gal Lorilee Craker rolls up her sleeves and cracks the jars open one-by-one, figuring out how to fit Amish principles to a non-Amish life. She succeeds, and so can youread Money Secrets of the Amish and add weight to your wallet.

ERIK WESNER, Amishamerica.com; author of Success Made Simple:
An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive

Lorilee inspires and impacts your everyday life with this marvelous little read. From buttons to bakery you suddenly realize this conversation is not about just pinching a few pennies but about transforming how we view our everyday lives. I applaud Lorilee for asking the hard questions and pressing in to find honest answers. Forget the mall, kick back, and soak up the delicious wisdom of a life well lived. Thank you, Lorilee, for shaping my everyday!

TRACEY BIANCHI, author of Green Mama

Money Secrets of the Amish is a practical, doable guide, and its such fun to read. Lorilees voice is as engaging and lively as ever, and the wisdom she shares from the Amish community is both inspiring and instructive. I just finished the last page, and my mind is buzzing with all sorts of ways to waste less, want less, and spend less.

SHAUNA NIEQUIST, author of Cold Tangerines and Bittersweet

Money Secrets of the Amish isnt so much about making money; its about family, discipline, and redefining what wealthy means. This is a great read that helps us all to see more clearly whats really valuable in our lives.

JEFF MCMAHON, award-nominated musician and national director/
runner with the Team McGraw endurance program

MONEY SECRETS
OF THE
AMISH

Finding True Abundance in Simplicity,
Sharing, and Saving

LORILEE CRAKER

2011 by Lorilee Craker

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

This book is intended to provide accurate information with regard to the subject matter covered. However, the Author and the Publisher accept no responsibility for inaccuracies or omissions, and the Author and Publisher specifically disclaim any liability, loss or risk, whether personal, financial, or otherwise, that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, from the use and/or application of any of the contents of this book.

Permission was granted by friends from the Amish community for use of their insights from interviews for Money Secrets of the Amish. Some names have been changed.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Craker, Lorilee.
Money secrets of the Amish : finding true abundance in simplicity, sharing, and saving / Lorilee Craker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59555-341-6 (alk. paper)
1. Consumer educationUnited States. 2. ThriftinessUnited States. 3. Finance, PersonalUnited States. 4. AmishUnited States. I. Title.
TX336.C73 2011
640.73dc22
2010045825

Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 15 16 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the memory of my beloved grandma, Elizabeth
Brandt Loewen. Visiting the Amish was a portal to your
delicious-smelling farm kitchen, your gentle spirit, and
your love, which I carry with me always.

CONTENTS

Introduction

14. The Best Things in Life Are Free

W hat possessed me to tell the Amish buggy driver that I was Mennonite on that vacation day in Lancaster County?

After all, I didnt look the part, with my sleeveless, above-the-knee sundress, bright coral nails, jewelry, and makeup. I looked about as Amish as a contestant from Dancing with the Stars.

Maybe it was because the Amishmans name was Menno, the same as our mutual fearless leader, Menno Simons, who founded the Mennonite Church in 1525. (He was a Dutch priest who radically upended the spiritual traditions of his day. The Amish would splinter about 170 years later.)

Somehow Menno, rocking the bowl haircut, beard, and suspenders, didnt look surprised.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? he asked mildly, smiling.

Ja, ein klein bisschen, I said. (How kleinlittleI didnt say, but he could probably figure it out when our conversation ran out of steam after a few questions.)

Well den, denki for visiting us, he said, ambling off to cart another buggy-load of Englishers (anyone not Amish; you could be from Swaziland and they would still call you an Englisher) to their destination.

Across time and space, Plain and Fancy, Menno and I had made a connection; both of us were spiritual children of Menno Simons and his revolutionary band of Anabaptists. I marveled that we could still understand each others language (although Menno might beg to differ), that our cultural cuisine was similar (delectable, carb-based, mostly beige foods, sometimes with a colorful side of chowchowkind of an Amish kimchi, featuring beans), and that our views of peace and war were in sync.