For the last two years my life has taken a new direction that I never planned for. I started this blog as a hobby, an effort to help my friends and family learn to save money. It quickly took flight, gained readers and soon took hours a day to manage. This hobby of mine soon turned into a full time job. We now had enough traffic that we were crashing servers, and were accruing a lot of cost just to keep the site going. We had to make a choice to go full speed ahead, and make this site a business or quit all together. This choice was not made lightly. I saw the benefit of both options, and together Matt and I decided to move forward with A Thrifty Mom, INC.
It has been a wonderful blessing, It has allowed Matt to cut back a little at work and spend more time at home working on the site with me. We have been able to share our way of life with thousands daily. I have been able to teach classes for FREE to my community, have a platform to teach about giving back and becoming self reliant. I have gained lots of wonderful friends in the “blog world”, partnered up with companies that I believe in and enjoy supporting. I love what this site has become, and love working from home.
BUT….. this site also takes HOURS and hours a day (about 10 hours a day) 7 days a week. The work that needs to be done is always there, even if I am sick, having a baby, on vacation….it is exhausting. I was raised on a farm, and being a hard worker is just part of who I am inside. If I do something, you better believe I am going to give it my all, and do the best I can do. BUT trying to be a good wife, mom, remodel a house, serve in my church and be a full time blogger has left me feeling like I have failed in all the above. It has put a strain on my marriage, my family, my friends, my health… trying to find balance has been very hard.
For the last year I have been fighting the fact that I need help, I can not keep this pace up. For those of you who know me personally, one thing is rather clear….. I do NOT like change or new things. So the thought totally freaked me out. LONG story short after a year of fighting with myself I realized it was time to make a change and let someone help me. Then the huge question was WHO? I thought and prayed about many different people, but for one reason or another they never felt right. About 6 months ago Matt told me “You know this Ingard gal would be great for our site”. She was one of our long times readers, I ran into her in the store all the time and she was always happy to pass along her thrifty deals. He was right but it took me 6 months to realize that. So one day I ran into her at Albertsons and asked her if she would like to help me co-write on our site.
For the last month she has been learning the ropes, helping me find deals, answering emails, writing posts, and most importantly giving me a little bit of a break. Don’t get me wrong I am still working on the site everyday. But I now have a little help, to give me a little more time to be the “wife and mommy” that I want to be. I was able to go on a trip to Utah last week and actually have a day off. It was fabulous!
How is this going to change the site or effect you all? Our site will not change, we will still be the same A Thrifty Mom you have know for the past two years…. but now with Ingard’s help I look forward to being able to take a few more hours a week to be what is most important in my life, A MOM!
I hope you will all extend a warm welcome to Ingard, we are sure excited to have her be part of our A Thrifty Mom Family!
Little more information about Ingard,
I was born and raised in Boise, the youngest of four children. My parents divorced while I was still in grade school and I stayed with my dear, sweet mother. Being raised by a single mother who by circumstance was frugal just to make the ends meet, couponing was a natural progression for me and has become a passion.
I moved to New York to be a nanny back in the mid-80s where I met my husband and was married four years later. Our three children were all born in New Jersey. We moved back to Idaho in November 2003 to be closer to my family.
I love to help others and often find myself handing coupons to my fellow shoppers. I had a long couponing dry spell once moving here to Idaho because I just couldn’t understand the way it was done here in Idaho versus New Jersey (the weekly Sunday ad matched the coupons that were available in that paper). A dear friend of mine turned me onto coupon blogs about 2 years and I found A Thrifty Mom and the rest is history. I feel privileged to join the team and am looking forward to the journey.
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