Testimonial by Heather from Family Friendly Frugality:
I started using coupons and living a frugal lifestyle out of necessity. I was sick of going over budget and knew I needed to drastically change the way that I looked at our finances.
With the support of my husband, I learned how to stretch our budget by picking up tips and techniques from blogs MoneySavingMom.com. Once I finally got the hang of shopping strategically, it was absolutely thrilling to see how much money we were able to save every week. I was determined to keep up this frugal lifestyle for the rest of my life, how could I not?
The best comparison I can think of is starting a new diet. You begin losing weight and investing in your health and you feel great! You know that you will maintain this lifestyle for the rest of your life. Until you stumble upon a brownie and you quickly backslide back into your old ways.
Next time you try to hop back onto the healthy eating train, you know it will be harder. You will already have that negative self talk going on in your brain saying, “Well you failed last time, what makes you think this time is going to be any different?”. This same cycle can repeat itself over and over again, and each time you end up with a few extra pounds more then you started off with.
The same goes for living a frugal lifestyle. It was too easy to get complacent. After awhile I began to realize that I was leaving my coupons at home more often then I was taking them with me. I began to realize that I hadn’t been to the drugstore in months and I was starting to shell out full price for the items I knew I could easily get for free.
I was backsliding.
I knew that’s not what I wanted for myself, and it definitely wasn’t what I wanted for my family. At the moment I realized where we were headed, I made the choice that not only was I not going to allow us to become complacent, but that I also needed accountability.
Have you ever noticed that people who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off often end up in some kind of support role? The act of teaching others to lose weight is what helps them stay accountable.
So, I decided to teach — to share what I had learned about saving money and living within my means! I knew that by sharing my enthusiasm for saving money, it would ignite the passion in others to go for their goals!
I also knew that I could never be a hypocrite. I knew I needed to practice what I preached.
Teaching others to save money and to live frugally holds me accountable. I can’t backslide. There are too many who need to learn that there is a more fulfilling way to live then hopping from paycheck to paycheck, and I’m ready to teach.
Heather Shaw is a wife and mom of two living in the great state of Texas! She teachers others to live a frugal lifestyle on her newly redesigned blog, Family Friendly Frugality.
I’m kinda in a different position: I found MSM when my husband made peanuts – less than peanuts – and I literally couldn’t buy laundry soap or shampoo sometimes (we had food stamps so we weren’t going hungry, and cloth diapers so no worries if I had no disposables). My mother-in-law gave me a fabulous printer that she didn’t like, and my couponing adventures began! I was hooked! I was able to get “retail therapy” and stretched my teeny tiny budget (if you could call it that) into more than we even needed. Fast forward a year, to last June, when hubby walked out on his job. No paycheck, no unemployment, no savings. God miraculously provided for five income-less months in so many ways, and one of the things I did was sell my stockpile in a garage sale for several hundred dollars! It was just one more way the He provided. Fast forward again one more year, now I’m a working single mom, but God has blessed me with a higher income than we ever had before. I have no time and even less sanity, but now I can actually afford an item if I can’t wait for an awesome deal to roll around. I still carry my coupon box, but I don’t have to be quite so dependent upon it any more. I’ll probably always hoard laundry soap though…there’s a strange security in that. ; )
love it.. i don’t have a blog but i have days that i just go to Kroger without my coupons.. i know that is a felony in some states.. 🙂 love your post.
I started my blog because I had family and friends that requested me to teach them some of my thrifty tricks. I was honored and also saw it as an opportunity to share my talent with others. When I am tempted to give in to a non thrifty urge I typically ask myself ” If a reader saw me do this would I feel OK about it.”
Those who know me know that I still have a lot of fun and try to be fairly hip and stylish I just do it for less. Usually a lot less.
Thanks so much for sharing my testimonial! Nony, I totally agree! I have worked hard to get to where I am now, and I love sharing the knowledge I’ve gained along the way with others!
So true! My blog began based on a similar concept. Accountability is key in most major life-changes.