Showcase: Frugal Homemaker Plus
The Frugal Homemaker blogs at Frugal Homemaker Plus. Like so many of us, she and her husband are working hard at paying off their debts, but she made time to answer plenty of questions!
Why Do you Blog?
I started blogging in graduate school, to help cope with the stress! To me, it was a release, and it was nice to hear from other people in the same situation. Until I started blogging, I thought I was the only graduate student who felt utterly incompetent a lot of the time! My blog (A Tasty Bowl of Graduate Life- which has since been taken down) was the only thing that kept me sane sometimes. I started frugality blogging when I was in my final year of grad school. I had done a series on living on a grad student salary (both my husband and I did grad school at the same time) and I enjoyed being frugal, so I thought I could turn it into an entire blog focus. Since I knew that I would be moving into homemaking soon, I thought a homemaking/frugality blog would be fun and interesting. I do it now to meet people who have similar interests and values. Also, frugality is not really discussed in everyday life! And many people in my life who know that my husband and I take very purposeful steps to be frugal (such as wearing secondhand clothes) think it is weird. It is great to post something and have most people say "Great idea!" or "Have you tried...." rather than "I could never do that!" and "Why? Doesn't your husband have a good job?"
What does "frugal" mean to you? What do you think it means to other people?
Frugal=freedom! Being frugal is a means to an end. I know that I do not want to *have* to stay in a job I hate because of my bills. Being frugal is living UNDER my means, no matter what those means are, in a creative and fun way. Frugal is NOT being cheap. Cheap is being stingy, denying your (and your family's) basic needs, and never, ever doing anything fun, never donating to charity, etc. We don't do that. We decide very carefully whether or not the expense is worth it to us, and if it is and we have the money, we do it! Therefore, we wear secondhand clothes and eat rock bottom sale food so we can take a trip to Europe and so I can choose to work or not. Had we not been frugal from the time we married, we would not have been able to buy our home, go to grad school (and not work other jobs besides our GA (him) and TA (me) positions, and I would not have been able to stay home. Frugality is all about choices!
Why be frugal?
Because we want to have choices. So many of our friends are in horrible debt, and often the things they went in debt for were not really important. I'd rather make frugal choices and be creative with what we have than lose sleep over things bought and long forgotten five years ago.
Do you think there is a downside to being frugal?
Sometimes. People sometimes don't understand, or think it is weird. It can be hard to find people who are willing to do a potluck and play games with us at home instead of going out every weekend to the bars and clubs. But the gains far outweigh the losses.
Did it take you a while to "find your voice," or do you feel you've always been the same as a blogger?
It took time to find my voice, for sure! And even now, I go through phases of doing really well at blogging and having a bunch of "eh" posts. Since I started at a different type of blogger, making the switch to frugality and homemaking was quite a change, and it took awhile to switch to those topics (nearly) exclusively.
What do you think was your best frugal post ever?
One of my most successful posts was Saving Money When You Have No Time. My personal favorite was How Grad School Made Me Realize Frugality Rocks, because it really helped me articulate to myself why I was making a conscious choice of being frugal. It helped me put into words how freeing frugality could be.
What do you know about your readers? What do you think draws them to your blog?
I don't know much about my readers, but I'd love to know more! I'd like to think that my blog encourages others, because so many blogs encourage me. It's nice to know I'm not alone in my frugal journey, and that not everybody in the world thinks I'm a freak for choosing to live this way, so I hope that my blogs helps others in the same way.
How important is frugality to you? Casual interest, hobby, lifelong habit, or insane fanatical obsessive compulsion?
It's between a habit and a hobby. At one point, it was a necessity. When it no longer was an absolute must, it became a habit. After all, why throw money around just because we have more? Then it became kind of a game- how can I live on less? Even when it was an absolute must, it was kind of fun to hunt down bargains.
Define frugality in your own words. Do you think it means different things to different people?
For me, frugality is freedom. Both my husband and I have never had credit card debt. The only debt my husband and I have ever had is our mortgage and my husband's student loans. The first three years we were married, we survived on an insanely low amount of money, because we refused to put stuff on credit cards or buy things that we did not absolutely need. Our friends and sometimes our family encouraged us to loosen up, but we simply refused to go into debt unless there was no other way. Guess what? There was another way, and it was frugality. Because we resisted peer pressure and the allure of the consumer lifestyle, we own a house that we put a sizable down payment on. Because we were frugal, we were able to both be students at the same time. Because we were frugal, we don't have to stay in jobs we hate because we have to pay our massive debts. Some of those friends who made fun of us are in such huge debt, it keeps them awake at night. They call us lucky that we have no consumer debt. We were not lucky, we were frugal, and because we were frugal, we are now far more free than people who made other money choices. That was worth eating rock bottom sale food and wearing used shoes for.
Do you have a favorite frugal site?
It is not strictly a frugal site, but I love Biblical Womanhood. I am also in awe of and continually inspired and encouraged by Meredith at Like Merchant Ships.
Does frugal living come easily for you or is it a struggle?
Neither my husband or I were ever spenders, so I do think it is easier for us sometimes. We also want very few material things, and the things we do want, like to travel, take planning. That helps keep us in check. It can be hard sometimes. We LOVE to eat out, and that is a budget killer right there! It does not seem like a meal out here and there would hurt, but there have been times in our marriage where we were spending something like 200 dollars a MONTH on eating out. Eep!
Do you have any frugal heroes or role models?
Amy Dacyzyn is my hero. I would love to meet her. Her book was what first showed me that being frugal could be a lifestyle alternative actively and thoughtfully chosen, rather than just something you do when you're short of money.
Do you believe the saying, "you get what you pay for"?
It depends on what the item is. I think that sometimes people say that to justify buying the most expensive brands. I do think that quality does matter, and I will pay more for higher quality. However, I've found high quality items at yard sales, thrift stores, and while dumpster diving. I paid five bucks for a pair of Christian Dior pajamas that I wore all through college, which is about three dollars more than I'd usually pay. That extra two bucks for the quality brand was worth it- they never faded for fell apart the entire five years I owned them. My thrift store Gap jeans do hold up better than the new fifteen dollar jeans I can get at Wal-Mart.
Is it ever possible to be too frugal? How about frugal enough?
No. Frugality is not about denial. It is about giving up things that are not important to you so you can have things that are important to you. Some people think we go to far because we reuse ziplock bags, wear second hand clothes, etc, but we'd rather own a house and travel than wear new clothes and put our stuff in brand new bags. It's all about choices. At one point, if we had not been frugal, we may not have had enough to pay the bills at the end of the month. One person's "too frugal" is another person's "living on the wild side." One person's too far is another person's salvation.
How does the rest of your family feel about your frugal ideas?
My husband loves it. Our parents have mixed reactions. They are impressed that we have lived so well on so little, but also give conflicting messages- "It's great you bought a house! Now that you have real jobs, why are you still shopping at Goodwill?"
We all have moments of glory and brilliance that we want to relive for the rest of our lives, right? What was your best ever frugal idea?
Starting the blog. I did not realize there was such a huge frugal blogging community, or else I may have never started mine. It helps keep me on track. I've also gotten a lot of ideas and encouragement from people who comment, and the blogs I've found because I started mine.
Also, it was decided before we married that I would be a stay at home mom if we ever did have children, so we decided that we must get used to one income. Therefore, as much as possible, we've always pretended that any money I earned did not exist. We saved it, and we did not get used to having two incomes. When I was strictly a stay at home wife, we did not feel the pinch, because we did not really lose an income. We already lived only on the income my husband earned. I could walk away from my job tomorrow and we would not notice the difference (other than we would be sending a lot less to our mortgage payment!). If we ever do have children, we won't have to figure out how to live on one income- we already do, not matter how much or little I earn.
What was your worst or craziest frugal idea?
Hmmmm. Washing out baggies, not drying them well, then storing them in a big tupperware thing with a lid. They all molded- EW! Make sure they're dry before you store them! When I first started being frugal, I'd often buy groceries that we did not really care for because it was the cheapest option. Then it would sit in the fridge and rot. It does not save money if you throw most of it away.
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2 Responses to “Showcase: Frugal Homemaker Plus”
December 6th, 2007 at 9:57 am
FHP is one of my favorite blogs on my feed reader!
December 6th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
[...] think Showcase: Frugal Homemaker Plus at Frugal Hacks interview fits in nicely with my post earlier this week about people being frugal for different [...]
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