Who I am and why I'm here...

I grew up in a low-income family in Lansing, Michigan. My parents were divorced when I was very young and my brother and I lived with our mother. We lived in a lower middle-income neighborhood because we were able to live in the house that my parents had been previously living in prior to the divorce. My mother dropped out of college after two years when my parents got married and never went back. When my parents divorced, my mother, at age 24, was forced to raise two children on a very meager salary. She took a job as a cashier at a local supermarket. Even though she received her yearly raises and was promoted to front end manager after working there for around 15 years, it was evident that she wasn’t a high roller. She taught us the importance of saving money and delayed gratification.

I was a typical girl and always wanted more than we had. I do remember the pair of Jordache jeans that I received for Christmas one year. My excitement was crazy. I had to wait what seemed like an eternity for them though, but it didn’t taint my happiness. I had a great life even though we weren’t dressed in designer names and traveling off to wonderful places every summer. I wanted those things, but knew my mother was doing the best that she could for us. Even though money was tight for us, I never really seemed to want for anything. I didn’t have 5 pairs of Jordache jeans, but I did have that one special pair. My mother would’ve worked three jobs for us if we needed it. Sure, there were times when we had to pick and choose what bills were to be paid that month and had to prioritize certain items over others, but that helped me to grow and mature into the fiscally responsible woman I am today. None of those struggles could dampen the love that we had in our little family with an incredibly supportive and loving mom that was behind us every step of the way in all that we did. She never made excuses and just figured out how to move forward and never complained nor played the victim to the circumstance that we lived.

Through student loans, grants, and scholarships I was able to attend Michigan State University. My mother continued to sacrifice for me throughout those years, more than I even knew or understood at the time. Like a traditional teenager, I wanted to be able to do and experience everything. Money was so much easier spent when it wasn’t you who worked to make it—or so I thought. Only now that I’m an adult and a mother myself do I fully understand. Now that I am the one paying the bills, my wants (or what most people consider needs) don’t seem so important anymore.

I believe that growing up this way made it easier for me to be who I am now. Some of you would refer to me as a cheapskate or a tightwad, but I would prefer to call myself frugal or simply a champion saver. Over the years I have discovered many interesting ways to EARN money in a household. Why do I say EARN money rather than SAVE money? I like to use the term “earning money” because it shows that I am a contributing member of our home, even though I do not receive a steady full time paycheck to help support the family. Not spending money or reducing costs is like adding additional income to the family.

Some of you may have friends that talk about the huge bargains that they got at Lord & Taylor, Sachs, or Bloomingdales. These are the people who think they are big savers. You know these people. If you’re not one, you have one in your group of friends. You have to remember that if you’re purchasing something that you normally wouldn’t be, you’re still spending money, NOT saving money. To earn money, you need to save on the things that you would be buying anyway. This doesn’t mean finding bargains and buying 4 pairs of shoes that you don’t really need. I can’t attack those who try to save in general, but I hope to find ways that you never even thought of.

When I first talked to my husband about making this into a book, he laughed at me. Simply, he stated that there were loads of cheaper people than me out there in this world. Maybe this is true, but I discovered that when I talked to some of my friends about some of the ways that I make money for our family, they reacted as if I was going overboard. Sure, some of the things seem obvious so it’s not too difficult to use those suggestions, but others may seem to some to be on the extreme side. My goal in starting this blog is to give some information on how to go beyond the norm and excel at making money for your family. You don’t have to do everything that I'm going to address, but remember there are options. You never know, you may come back to this post again when you have a change of status in your family, such as a loss of a job, and then choose to get more extreme.