Showcase: Owlhaven
NEW FEATURE NEXT WEEK: Interview You! Be prepared to answer a question in the comments.
Tell me a little about yourself: who are you?
I'm Mary, wife to the wonderful John and mom to 10 kids. Four of our kids were born to us, and six arrived via international adoption. I began blogging in early 2006 at two different places: at adoption.com and at Owlhaven, and I haven't shut up since.
How did you come up with your blog title?
I chose the name Owlhaven because we live out in the country on a rocky hillside where burrowing owls nested. When we got a houseful of kids, the owls decided that the rocks across the road looked a little more appealing than right next to our back yard. But we still enjoy looking across the road and seeing the owls swooping around hunting in the pasture.
What does "frugal" mean to you?
What do you think it means to other people? A lot of people think of frugality as deprivation, of never getting to have what you want. But I'm convinced that is the wrong way to look at it. Frugality opens doors. It gives you more choice in the long run. Frugality has allowed me to be at home with my children for the past decade. It has allowed us to be debt free except for our home loan (which will be paid off in 8 years-- hooray). It has allowed us to adopt internationally, which is not an inexpensive endeavor. I really wish that more people would understand how freeing frugality can be.
What do you think was your best frugal post ever?
My best frugal post was actually a series of posts. In September of 2006 I blogged about my 30 Days of Nothing «, where I spent a month trying to spend as little as possible-- no clothes, no books, nothing that wasn't essential. We ended up spending $318 on food that month. Our garden is huge and was in full swing that month, so that was a big help. But even taking that into consideration, I was still amazed that we spent so little to feed 10 people. These days I spend more like $800 a month to feed 12 people. I don't think I'd like to live as cheaply as we did that one month, but it was really interesting to see how little it was possible to spend.
Do you have any frugal heroes or role models?
I can think of several frugal heroes in my life. My childhood hero was my grandmother, who amazed me as a child by making quilts from old clothes, and used the wax paper from inside cereal boxes to cover food instead of buying plastic bags. My adult frugal hero would have to be Amy Dacyzyn, author of The Tightwad Gazette. Back in the 90's I was a subscriber to her monthly newsletter. At the time I was working as a nurse, but was wondering if my husband and I could make it if I stayed home with the kids. Her newsletters were a huge source of inspiration. I kept the whole collection and re-read them any time I need a kick-in-the-pants bit of inspiration to live a little better.
Do you believe the saying, "you get what you pay for"?
About 80% of the time I would say no. I yard sale quite often and can get wonderful clothes for my kids for much less than I'd buy new. There are some things that seem to last longer when you buy them high-end. Faucets, door knobs, carpet, etc. My large family is pretty hard on the furnishings in our home and I have not regretted spending a little more for higher-quality fittings around the home. My front-loading washer was more expensive than my old top-loader, but it works so much better. And as far as hot dogs (which we only have one a month or so) I MUST have Falls Brand beef, because most other brands gross me out. But as far as food and most of our clothing, we spend as little as possible. I still laugh to remember the time my daughter's friends were oohing and aahing over her beautiful $60 jeans-- and how their mouths dropped open when she told them she'd bought them at a yard sale for $3.
How does the rest of your family feel about your frugal ideas?
I am thrilled that my kids beg to go to yard sales with me, and that they remember the good bargains they've found in the past. If you can teach your kids to see frugality as a game to get good at, you're giving them skills for the future. Not to mention a whole different mindset. They've asked me why people are out there buying $60 jeans at full price when you can spend a fraction of the money, and end up dressed just as stylishly. And I don't really know. When I was a senior in high school, I took an economics class where one of the assignments was to add up our clothing expenses for the past year. My total came up to less than $300. My teacher wrote a note across the top of my paper. "Your future husband is a lucky man." I didn't really know why he wrote that until I saw that some of my classmates spent over a thousand dollar on clothes that year. That was in 1985. I was just stunned.
Is it ever possible to be too frugal?
Sure. It's all about balance. Your shopping routine should not be so time-consuming that you don't have time to play cards with your kids. And your frugal choices should not suck all the enjoyment out of food. I could feed my family beans 5 days a week and save more money. But I enjoy providing my family with a nice variety of good food, even though that means I spend a little bit more than I truly 'need' to. Of course there are extreme financial cases where beans 5 days a week might be what it takes to get a family back on track-- I'm not knocking that choice. But we can afford to add a few interesting ingredients to give my family with a healthy variety of food. So I am happy to spend that extra bit of money and effort.
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, this is certainly not THE best frugal idea ever, but it is one that consistently get hits on my blog-- it's my way of fixing a broken slat on a vertical blind.
What was your worst or craziest frugal idea?
Ummm...probably about 15 years ago when I tried making gluten. Basically it is flour and water that you mix and then rinse over and over while kneading. It makes this chewy kind of dough that supposedly passes for meat if you cook it with barbecue sauce and other seasonings. Scary.
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One Response to “Showcase: Owlhaven”
May 16th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I love the thoughts on balance–that shopping shouldn’t take up so much time that other things are neglected! Excellent thought.
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