Thrifty Guardian

Whenever I talk about my journey toward becoming a professional blogger, one thing I mention often is that I’ve actually been blogging for nearly twenty years.

“But, Amber, how can that be?! You’re far too young to have been doing it for that long!”

Aww, well thank you, dear reader, but it’s true.

I first started blogging with Xanga back in 1998 and even built my first website with Geocities around that same time! Pretty impressive given that I was an 11 year old armed with AOL and Ask Jeeves, eh?

Going from hobby blogger to professional blogger wasn’t always the easiest road. At the time, I had two kids under two and was working a full-time job.

The thing of it was, though…I was so TIRED before I even started looking at becoming a professional blogger. I spent every weekday living for the weekend.

No time to do laundry? Eh I’ll do it this weekend.

No time to clean the house? Eh I’ll do it this weekend.

And then the weekend would come and I’d have a thousand things to do, while also struggling to do the one thing I REALLY wanted – spend time with my family.

So I launched ThriftyGuardian as a way to document my journey toward paying down debt. It was my hope that if I could pay down enough of our debts then maybe – one day in the FAR future – I’d be able to quit my job and become a stay-at-home mom.

Well while the debt dropped, my website traffic grew. We actually paid down $10,000 in debt in less than two months!

Suddenly I had people reaching out, asking if I taught any of my strategies more thoroughly. So I took the next logical step and launched my first online course. Within just a couple weeks, I had sold out the course and had made more money with that class than I ever would with my 9-5!

By April of 2016 – less than six months after launching my frugal living site – I was saying goodbye to my office job and hello to life as a work-at-home mom. Now I not only continue to share my stories of frugality and money-saving tips, but I also work for myself as a digital marketing strategist.

Being in debt is something more people struggle with than not, and I can’t pretend to have all the answers. But I will say that when you put your mind to it, the pennies truly can add up. The very first thing you have to do when looking to pay down debt is to actually have a grasp on what it is you need to pay down. I know it can feel overwhelming to have to pull all of those numbers together, but it’s the only way to start.

Beyond that, it really is a matter of being as frugal as you can. For example, since I work inside the home, we actually were a one car household for nearly five years. Not only did it save us on car payments/repairs, but on car insurance as well! It certainly wasn’t always convenient, but it definitely saved us quite a bit of money in the long run.

I’m so grateful I found the energy to push through as I did all those years ago, because being a work-at-home mom is truly the best gift I could ever give myself. It’s not always easy, but is always worth it.