Teaching myself-a long hard road
I had heard about the drugstore game and people strategically shopping for a long time. A forum I participated in since my son’s birth was filled with moms getting great deals. A few tried to explain how it all worked to me, but I guess at the time I didn’t really think I needed it. Now I did. I needed to educate myself in all things coupon and shopping if I was going to stick to the budget my husband was now holding me accountable to!
It took awhile. It took a lot of reading, a lot of hours, a lot of doing things wrong and making cashiers mad. I picked some fights I shouldn’t have and I made a fool out of myself numerous times.
Something exciting was happening though. With every great deal I managed to snag, I felt more and more accomplished. I felt better about myself. My self esteem started to rise and I realized that I had a knack for getting great deals.
Others took notice
I was reluctant to share what I was doing. I didn’t want anyone to think that we were hurting for money (which technically we weren’t, we just weren’t being smart with our money so it seemed like we were hurting), and I didn’t want to invite comments about our personal finances. My enthusiasm was obvious and hard to contain though, and I didn’t stay quiet for long. I started sharing here and there. People were intrigued. Not only were they intrigued…they were insistent!
It dawned on me that everyone wants to save money! It doesn’t how much money you have, everyone wants to stretch their hard earned dollar farther. I started sharing deals on facebook and eventually I realized I wanted a bigger platform.
Family Friendly Frugality is born
I had blogged on our family blog since 2007. I understood how to use a blog and I figured…no big deal! I’ll start a blog and share all the great deals I find in one convenient place. I realized pretty quickly though how hard it is to keep up a deal blog. Deals happen every day. All day, every day. The more I researched, the more I realized that I had a big opportunity in front of me.
I could share my love and my passion for helping others save money, and make some money myself. I knew I couldn’t keep up with a deal blog if I couldn’t financially justify the time it took from my family. I was dedicated to helping others, but I couldn’t do it at the cost of my children and my husband. So I learned everything I could about monetizing a blog. I made affiliations with companies so I could be alerted when they were going to have great sales to share with my readers. I knew the blog had to be mutually beneficial for my readers and for my family.
So I worked hard. I mean…harder than I’ve ever worked in my entire life. Hours and hours and hours. What you see posted on the blog is not even 25% of what goes on behind the scenes. I vet every deal I post, I work on getting more readers, more followers, more giveaways, etc etc etc. Networking, research, etc. It is more than a full time job.
Is it worth it?
That brings me to today. All of this hard work, is it worth it? Well, I’m not making big bucks, but I have made some money. More than that are the emails, the comments, the support. Emails from people telling me I’ve helped them learn to save their families money. Pictures from readers showing me their awesome finds at the grocery store. Fantastic friendships made with other bloggers. Paid writing opportunities (more on that in a few weeks…eeek!), as well as other jobs that have opened up to me since blogging.
So in short, yes!
Our Story-Ongoing
I hope you enjoy our family blog. I hope it helps you save money. I hope it helps you make money! I hope it makes you laugh sometimes, smile often and I hope it helps you learn something. Our story continues on, and I’m sure you’ll see evidence of that as time passes. Thanks for reading Our Story!
Love it! You've come a long way Heather, in just 3 short months! 🙂
Thank you Katie! It's been a crazy 3 months, but SO MUCH FUN!
What a great post Heather!!!!!! I haven't been to your blog in a few days and I have missed ALOT!
Congrats, you are doing so fantastic!!
-Dawn
Heather-I am older blogger who’s just been “at it” since July 4, 2010, when my husband was recovering from catastrophic auto accident (we all have our motivators). I like your writing style, find myself smiling often (as you hoped readers would), don’t have young family, am not needful of saving wisely (unless it’s senior discounts)…in short, I am only reading your blog because I enjoy it and it keeps my interest…best compliment a writer could have.
Now, please jump on mine, too, and see the perspective from the other side–the older woman. I am mother to two grown daughters (one 39 and other 29–took me ten years to recover), career teacher for 30 years and realtor for 8; now writer (I have published works)…I am not at all tech savvy which means my blog has suffered though its Alexa rank is 439,000 global with USA of 81,000…whatever that all means. But I must take it to next level by backlinks, networking…whatever.
In any case, my dear, it’s been a pleasure and I hope to hear from you…It suddenly seems odd for me to be writing a response/comment on a blog. Now I know how others feel when they write on mine.
Oh, sorry…I’m at http://www.biddybytes.com–See, I told you I’m not tech-savvy…Invite readers on and then forget to give them the site…
I was tearing up by paragraph two of part one… Absolutely amazing, and I feel so inspired by yours and Colin’s story. Noah and Elizabeth are so blessed to have such generous, caring, and equally genuine parents. I can’t wait to hear part 5!!
Thanks Somer!!! You are so sweet 🙂 I’m so glad to know someone from the family is reading! LOL