About Me: How I became a Frugal Living expert

Note: Thank you to all my loyal readers for your support over the last several years!

I am selling the site, so you will be hearing from a new voice soon! Stay tuned to find out what is in store in this new chapter for Frugal Living Now!

Holly Beck; March 15, 2014

My name is Holly and I live in a small town in a rural area of North Carolina. I am married and have two teen-aged children.

I was raised in a middle-class home during the 60s and 70s. We always had enough to eat and shoes that fit, but we did not have a lot of extras. Although he made a good living, my father was a very thrifty man, and he controlled the budget. My mother loved beauty and luxury and was especially creative in making wonderful things from very little. By example she taught me how to have a good lifestyle on a small income.

When my kids were young, we lived on the limited budget of a household supported by one parent's military pay (no one joins the military to get rich!). While my husband worked to bring home the bacon, I used my creative magic to stretch that pay as far as I could - without sacrificing the lifestyle I desired for us. I sewed; I made homemade presents; I used vegetarian recipes; I shopped at consignment stores. I learned a lot during those years, and I am still learning today.

When my children were a bit older, I became a single parent and had to work full time to support them and myself. Again, I had to be creative to maintain a good lifestyle and pay for all the expenses that come with growing children. A detailed budget allowed me to provide my kids with a reasonable amount of 'things' and activities, keep my sanity, and avoid going into debt.

In 2008 I gave up my job to move back to North Carolina and re-marry. As it turned out, the timing could not have been worse for finding a new job. I found myself unemployed and looking for alternative ways to spend my time and make a contribution. My sister suggested that I start a website and told me how she had done it. I started thinking about it and eventually decided that it was a good option for me. It just seemed natural for me to write about frugal living because I considered myself an expert at it; even more so since I had become unemployed!

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