Showcase: MomAdvice.com
Amy Clark is a stay-at-home mother of two wonderful children. She is founder and creator of MomAdvice.com, an online magazine for women. Her website includes loads of articles and three blogs (The Motherload, The Motherloot, & The Aldi Queen). She also blogs right here at Frugal Hacks on Tuesdays.
Amy has been happily married to her biggest fan, her web-designer husband, for seven years.
Tell me a little about yourself, Amy: who are you?
My name is Amy and I am a frugal lifestyle addict. I never knew how much fun it would be to learn to stretch our money, but it has quickly become a way of life for me and I am so proud of all the money I can save for our family.
My history with frugality began when I became a stay-at-home mom, although I have always enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and shopping second-hand. I became more impassioned about this topic when we became a one-income family and we suddenly were without that extra paycheck. I began to research and discover thing about how to save money and people suggested finding a format to share my ideas. MomAdvice.com was born through that effort and it has grown into its own little community on the internet. The site now encompasses many elements of home management and homemaking. While geared towards moms, I do have lots of great dads who send me notes to let me know how much the site has helped them too. Our site now has three blogs: The Motherload, The Motherloot, & The Aldi Queen. All of this is such an incredible blessing from God and I have made some of the best friendships and learned so much through the community that we have created.
What does "frugal" mean to you? What do you think it means to other people?
I am sure that living a frugal life means something different to each person, but to me it means living a life within my means....but without sacrifice. Many people think of saving money as something that will cramp their lifestyle and they begin to think of all the things that they cannot do now that they are on a budget. I look at my frugal life as a challenge for me to be more creative so I never feel like I am giving things up. I don't want to fail at my budget and if I feel like I am constantly missing out on something, I have more opportunities to stumble and fall off the bandwagon.
Do you think there is a downside to being frugal?
I think the only downside is that sometimes I am so concerned about being frugal that many of my experiments in saving money have saved me very little and would have been worth the ten cents or so extra to just buy whatever it is that I am trying to create. I am constantly crunching numbers in my head to try and find the best deal and sometimes that ten cents would have been better spent at the store rather than in my pocket while I saved away for four hours in the kitchen. It truly is a learning experience for me!
Do you feel your blog has a special niche of its own?
You know, I think I have come into my niche just in this past year. I am starting to feel more confident in my writing and maybe that is because I really am living what I share about. I definitely do not feel that I am a personal finance blog because I am learning all about personal finance myself, but I do feel like I have a niche among the money-saving mommas in the frugal community.
What do you think was your best frugal post ever? What was your most controversial?
I did a Month of Savings on our blog and shared thirty different ways that you can save. I tried to focus on small adjustments people can make to their lifestyle and shared ideas that our family uses towards keeping more money in our wallets. It was a TON of work and I was kicking myself for starting it, but I followed through and I am so pleased with the results.
I don't think I have ever really written anything too controversial although I do get comments on occasion from the more environmentalist consumer who might not agree with cheaper is better. It used to hurt my feelings, but now I just do the best I can and try to suck it up. Unless the comment is intentionally unkind, I always post what people have to say. Everyone has a right to their opinion and it is great to get so many viewpoints.
How does the rest of your family feel about your frugal ideas?
Well, my husband loves my frugal ideas because it saves him so much money. I think my extended family is very proud of me and all of the great things that have happened to me because of my site. I write locally for a magazine and I am on our local news weekly, and it has given them an opportunity to see me in action. It has been so great for them to see all of these efforts paying off!
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?
Well, it isn't necessarily the most brilliant, but it is something we use every single day and my husband still says how awesome it is. I cut the top off of my pantyhose and use that to hug my trash can so our trash bags don't slip down. We have had the same band for three years now and it is still going strong. I can buy cheap trash bags because the pantyhose elastic hugs like a dream!
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2 Responses to “Showcase: MomAdvice.com”
January 25th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Great Q&A! It’s wonderful to read about people like Amy who see the positive in frugality. She sounds happy and fulfilled.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I LOVE Amy’s site!! So thrilled she was interviewed!
~melody~
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