Today’s a special day!
I don’t have the most time to write something, because I have a lot planned for today and not enough time (yay, accounting stuff that my accountant said I need to get in ASAP), but I couldn’t let today pass without acknowledging today’s specialness.
Because today, 16 years ago, this blog was born.
It started as a little spark of an idea, a little hope that maybe, maybe, maybe my ideas of frugal living and parenting can make me some money and maybe improve my desperate financial situation… I took a gamble and spent 10 dollars I hoped I’d get back on a domain name, and built this site from scratch, not knowing what I was doing, but hopeful.
And it took off big time.
My blog has evolved so much over the last 16 years just as my life has, especially as my life has, and my blog has been a big reason why my life has changed so much. My blog made back those ten dollars I spent on that domain name and so much more; I got so many jobs because of this blog, a column in a magazine, foraging classes, a book, but I also make regular money from this blog, money that nicely supplements the disability payments I get to allow me to not need to live as frugally as I did at the start of this blog.
Old Penny would not recognize the current one. Old Penny was a 21 year old, so overwhelmed by life and trying to make it through the month financially, was in a bad marriage, and homeschooling her 2 kids, and then two more kids that were born.
Current Penny is nearly 38, happily divorced, with one son a high school graduate, working as a computer programmer, and one in eleventh grade, and two in middle school. Current Penny is also in school, in university, working on her dream of becoming a therapist.
People who read my blog at the beginning might not find this blog relevant to their life anymore, because I am not writing about extreme frugality anymore. I’m currently not extremely frugal anymore; I don’t need to be, my disabilities don’t allow me, and my life circumstances with my kids and being in school also don’t allow me.
But that’s ok.
The old ethos of my blog still applies- don’t live a life focused on consumerism, live within your means, and DIY as much as you can, while being the best parent you can, and that I still do. And yes, I still do forage, though mostly it is when I teach my foraging classes plus the occasional wild plant growing in my back yard that I put in my dishes.
My blog changed, and that’s ok- if it had stayed the same over 16 years that would have been weird; if my life hadn’t changed over 16 years that would have been weird. This still is a frugal living blog even if my frugality today looks different than my old frugality, but it is also a reflection of my and my family’s personal journeys, and boy have we come a long way.
How long have you been reading this blog? How many evolutions of the blog have you seen?
2 Responses
Congratulations!
I think I must have been quite an early reader – I think I started when you had three kids? Sadly so many Blogs have disappeared and I am so happy you stuck around. I greatly enjoy the Blog-Format to any other like Instagram etc.
To many more years!
I’m here from the very beginning, I think I found your blog through Emily’s blog (it was called under 1000 per month… anyone remembers that?).
Quite interesting as we’re nearly the same age, I’m just a year older. We also were in a similar situation financially as you were but just like your family have improved a lot. I love the fact that your blog still exists, and no matter what direction it will go, I’ll stick to reading your blog. Congratulations!