Why I Blog

Lately, I’ve been searching through blogland looking at the various personal finance blogs out there. Some are about living frugally, while others detail which investments are the best ones to get into. As I read these blogs, it occurred to me that I’ve never really spelled out the purpose of my blog. And, truthfully, that’s probably because when I began writing it, I’m not sure that I even knew. But I will share with you how this blog came about. It started out about a year ago. I think I was looking online for some coupons or something on frugal living. I stumbled upon some “Mom” blogs that talked about frugal living. This concept wasn’t new to me. I had read Amy Dacyczyn’s “Tightwad Gazette” many years earlier and still own a copy, even though I am not a complete adherent to total frugality. Many of the blogs I read showed how to keep your grocery bill down and how to get free or very cheap items from various drugstore chains. Somehow I got caught up in reading them, and although I never really pursued the direction of getting free things at the drugstores, I did enjoy reading about the various ways people plan their monthly menus, how they bake their own bread, and the way they make their own laundry detergent.

The more I read some of these women’s blogs and the comments on them from the mostly female readers, the more I realized that a lot of these blogs are great detailing about savings in the kitchen and in other parts of the household that are traditionally run by females. However, I thought that maybe I could write a blog that went beyond savings on groceries and on living frugally. I thought about all the things I’ve done in my life to save up the amount of money that I have – a combination of living below my means and investing money on a monthly basis. And I thought that perhaps there would be an interest in tips of this sort as well as how these financial ideas play out in real life. Besides, it was 2008 and it seemed like everyone had a blog.

And that’s when, 5 months ago, I started this blog. Honestly, I don’t know much about blogging. I’m not sure of some of the “rules” and I don’t know how to do some of the fancy technology that everyone else seems to know. I blog relatively anonymously because I think I’d feel funny if people I know in real life read this blog and learn all about my personal finances. In fact until a month ago, my husband was the only person I knew who knew I have a blog. I’ve since told my parents and siblings and one friend. By keeping it relatively anonymous, I feel more comfortable discussing my financial status.

In the past few weeks, I decided to look into the larger blog world beyond the mom blogs that I had been reading to see what other “personal finance” blogs are out there. And it looks like there are quite a few good ones. Although, what I do notice is that most of these are written by men – some giving financial advice on which mutual fund is better than another and others about whether to invest in t-bills or stocks. The other thing I notice is that many blogs are written about how to get out of debt. It seems that most are written by people who have been or are currently in debt and are trying to get out and help others get out. Since I have never been in debt (other than my mortgage), my blog is not geared toward getting out of debt. I truly have no experience in this area. And while I am not a financial expert by any stretch of the imagination, my hope is that I can bring a woman’s perspective to saving money – not just on how to reduce ones bills and live frugally, but also how to put away money on a regular basis for retirement, for your children’s education, and for your future living expenses. My goal is to show that anyone can live below their means to attain financial security and financial freedom just as I did. I appreciate those of you who have been reading and commenting on this blog so far.