This is a blog about frugal living that goes beyond clipping coupons or finding the best deals. It’s about living a simpler life that makes the best use of your resources: money, time, and energy. I think that when people hear the word “frugal”, they think about large binders full of coupons and eating before 5pm to grab early bird specials. I don’t think everyday frugality is all about penny-pinching and make tons of sacrifices. It’s about balancing your resources, adjusting your needs, and finding simpler and less wasteful ways to do things.
I hope to share some of my ideas with others and hope that they too can be frugal & fabulous!
Q: What’s Fab Frugal Me all about?
A: It’s really a personal quest to be less wasteful with my time, money, and energy. These are all valuable resources that humans tend to waste needlessly, whether consciously or subconsciously. To me, being frugal goes beyond the need to save money. It also means spending time wisely, and making the best use of talents. My hope is to fill this blog with ideas on simple living, recipes that will save both money and time, projects & causes worth expending my energy, money saving resources like coupons and deal-shopping, and lots of other things to live an enriched life using fewer resources.
Q: Is this a coupon or coupon-matching blog?
A: No. There are plenty of great blogs and websites out there that cover coupons and ad matching. One of my favorite ones is the Krazy Coupon Lady. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or energy to put into this because I travel a lot for work and put tons of hours in. I do, however, appreciate the value of coupons and often look for them before I go shopping or save good ones I find for later use. Because time is a valuable resource, I’ll only do this as time allow. Like they say, time is money! I will make mention of good deals & coupons I hear about, but that isn’t the main objective of this blog.
Q: Why is this blog different from others?
A: There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there! Of course, I would like mine to be a little bit different. Not to say, that blogs like this one don’t exist. But I really do believe in good use of time and energy — something I’m not always good at. I’ll often drain myself of energy, simply by thinking about being tired, or counting the hours left over the weekend. This is not good use of my resources! Anyway, I want a good portion of this blog to be about resources outside of money, which isn’t the only thing that defines being fab & frugal. In essence, I want this blog to be about living a happy, balanced lifestyle.
Q: Do you claim to be fab & frugal?
A: No one is perfect! I am trying to become as fabulous & frugal as possible. It’s a work in progress. I want this blog to be about my journey to becoming fab & frugal, and not a “how to” guide for others to follow. Everyone is in charge of their own life and choose to do things one way or another in a way that is sensible to them. I just want to share my insights with others to see if resonates with them! I’m a collaborator by nature so I love sharing ideas and receiving feedback.
Q: Are you a minimalist?
A: I am not a minimalist by any means, although I do wish to live and be happier with less. I appreciate the concept behind minimalism and do read blogs about this type of lifestyle. But I believe a lot of us out there are not “there” yet. If you’re like me, you’re still trying to sure up all the things you “need” to live… a house, a car that works well, honing your talents, and finding your niche in this world. I guess my stance on simple living is that perhaps we need less than we actually think we do. And we should constantly question our goals & aspirations and adjust them as we figure ourselves out and what our needs truly are.
Q: Why are there amazon.com links in some of your posts?
A: At times, I recommend certain books and products to go along with the topic of a post. For this reason, some (but not all) posts include amazon.com links so you can quickly locate the items I recommend. When you click thru and purchase the item, Amazon will give me a small referral fee which I can then use to cover hosting & domain costs for my blog. It doesn’t cost you anything extra if you decide to purchase! The price you pay is exactly the same whether or not you use my links.
It’s cheap, but not free, to keep this site going. I certainly don’t expect to make a living off of Amazon referral fees… just trying to make my hobby (writing) as cheap as possible. I hope you understand! I’m trying to be fab frugal, even with my hobbies 🙂 Also, I will only use amazon.com links when it makes sense. For example, in a post about fab frugal alternatives to paper towels, I’ll only link you to my favorite options so you can purchase the same, if you’d like. I wouldn’t put in links for household cleaners or other goods that have nothing to do with the topic. In this way, I use Amazon links the same way as I do to link other blogs, websites, and articles into my posts: If it means something and adds value to the topic, I’ll include it. If it doesn’t, I won’t. I don’t want to jeopardize the quality of the content on my blog. Thank you for reading this long explanation!