Just a little bit of shameless self-promotion: Northern Cheapskate was mentioned in an article by Patrick Garmoe in the Duluth News Tribune today.
In tight economic times, expert grocery shoppers advise: Cut costs, not nutrition highlights ways to save money on groceries while still eating healthy. Simple things, like preparing your own vegetables rather than buying them pre-washed, can save you quite a bit of money.
Anyway, it's worth a read.... even if I hadn't been mentioned. :-)
I'll be taking a break from blogging for the Memorial Day Weekend. Sunday is my parents' wedding anniversary, Monday is my son's birthday, mother-in-law and aunt-in-law's birthday, and it's Memorial Day to boot! So my house is quite busy with all the celebrating!
Anyway, I hope you all have a safe and fun Memorial Day Weekend. I'll be back to my regular posting on Tuesday.
Happy Saving!
It seems like when you're pregnant, you think of everything in terms of weeks. Then, when your babies are here, you think in terms of months.
When you break it down into pieces like that, it makes it so much easier to believe they'll stay babies forever. Of course, we know that's not true.
Well, this blog is growing up, too. Today marks the 6-month anniversary of this blog's inception. On one hand, it feels like I've been doing this forever, but on the other hand, it feels like yesterday.
I've truly thankful for all of my readers. Without you, I'd be talking to myself. Well, I do that anyway, but you get what I mean! I have enjoyed your comments, questions, and ideas.
I've appreciated the media attention. I'm on KAXE 91.7 FM radio Monday mornings and had a blast doing the 2-hour Between You and Me show on KAXE with Heidi Holtan, I've been mentioned on KARE11 TV's website and featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Money section. The extra visitors I've gained from the media coverage, has helped keep me inspired.
I have enjoyed meeting new blog friends. I've learned so much from Heather at Freebies 4 Mom, Sara at Be Thrifty Like Us, and Kacie at Sense to Save. Thanks for sharing your passion and knowledge with me.
Of course, Northern Cheapskate still has a lot of growing up to do, and I want to hear from you!
What types of articles do you like best? Least?
What types of topics would you like to see covered?
Is there a feature you'd like to see added to the blog?
Please share your questions, comments, and ideas with me, so that I can continue to make Northern Cheapskate a blog worth bookmarking. Post a comment here, or e-mail me. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks for reading!
I recently joined Entrecard so that I could take advantage of free advertising of my blog. I am enjoying Entrecard more than I thought I would. First of all, I am getting new readers to the blog. I'm also discovering a lot of great reading materials too!
Entrecard is still relatively new, but they're constantly improving. Now you can link more than one blog to your account. They also have a very helpful free Entrecard E-book that explains how Entrecard works and how to use it to grow your readership.
It appears that there are people out there who have decided to post rude, offensive, and irrelevant comments and links to my blog.
Because of that, I have decided to start moderating comments that are posted. This means there may be a slight delay before you see your comment appear.
I really wish I didn't have to do this, but I cannot tolerate offensive, malicious, and irrelevant spam on my blog. I cannot allow comments that distract from my mission in helping my readers save money and live a frugal lifestyle.
To all of you who have every shared a helpful comment, tip, or link, PLEASE continue to do so. This blog is a better blog when you share your insight.
This week has been a busy one in terms of publicity for Northern Cheapskate.
It started with my usual segment on KAXE 91.7 FM's Morning Show on Monday. Then on Tuesday, my blog got a mention on KARE 11 TV's website as part of Jeff Olsen's story "Surviving the Economy: Get Cheap."
Last week, I read Star Tribune Reporter Kara McGuire's article "A Case of Triple Trepidation" about a Twin Cities couple who is facing the addition of triplets to their family of three. The couple was struggling with how to make ends meet with a growing family. I was moved by the article to share some of my money saving tips with the Karnowski Family... and in return, Kara interviewed me for this Sunday's Ka-Ching column in the Money Section of the Star Tribune. You can read it here.
All the attention has been very flattering... and I'm so excited to have new readers!
For those of you who are new here, let me just give you a brief idea of what Northern Cheapskate is all about:
I'm a stay-at-home mom of three boys under the age of three living in rural northern Minnesota. I have a passion for frugal living, bargain hunting, and freebies. My goal with this blog is to motivate my readers to live better for less.... to make the most of what they've got, to be happy with what they have... and most importantly, to take personal responsibility for their finances.
I try to update the site daily with my thoughts on frugal living, bargains, freebies, and other money-saving tips. I encourage you to subscribe to my blog by entering your e-mail address in the form in the upper right-hand corner of this page. I also encourage you to share your frugal thoughts, bargains, and questions with me. I'm not a financial advisor, but I'll do my best to help you and I love spreading the word about good deals.
To my faithful readers, thank you so much for your tips and comments. This blog is made better with your participation! You keep me motivated to watch my pennies, and for that, I thank you!
Happy saving!
One of the hardest parts about writing a blog like Northern Cheapskate is finding readers. I do my best to post often and I try to write things that you will find interesting and helpful. I also love sharing coupons and bargains with you.
I have a passion for my frugal lifestyle, and a really want to empower and inspire my readers... and I want a lot of readers. I've been thinking about advertising but didn't want to spend any money.
So I was excited to read about Entrecard on Kacie's website on Sense-to-Save. Entrecard allows you to advertise your website on other people's blogs for FREE! I joined and am finding lots of great new websites.
It's easy. You sign up and then put the little Entrecard widget on your website. Other Entrecard members can "drop" their advertisements into your widget and you can do the same on their websites. It's similar to dropping a business card. You can custom design your own ad, and you get e-mail alerts when people want to advertise on your site. You have the power to approve or decline each advertiser. You get credits every time someone drops a card at your site or when you drop cards at other sites. You can use those credits to "purchase" advertising on bigger, better known blogs to get your name out there.
I am really enjoying Entrecard and have gotten some new readers from it. I'm also enjoying discovering new blogs.
If you're looking for a way to grab some new readers without spending any money, I highly recommend trying Entrecard.
Sick of coming to my website every day? Well, now you can sign up to have Northern Cheapskate delivered to your e-mail address!
It's simple. You just enter your address in the form on the left side of the site, and you'll get a confirmation e-mail. Once you've confirmed your subscription, you'll be notified via e-mail whenever I post something new at Northern Cheapskate.
Please continue to stop by Northern Cheapskate to comment on my posts, check out all my cool links, and to see my smiling mug. (ha!) Don't forget to tell all your friends about this site!
Thanks for reading!
Just a quick note to let you all know that I will not be posting this weekend.
I need a bit of blog break to catch up on much needed stuff around the house. (I know, I know it sounds like so much fun!)
Rest assured, I will be back on Monday.
Until then, you can read some of the things I've been reading:
Freebies4Mom has a TON of great free samples this week (too many to link to here!). And she's started a cool feature highlighting sweepstakes and giveaways. If you've never seen her site, you should really take a look. You should just look anyway. There's something for everyone!
Frugal Dad writes about Language of the Perpetual Poor. You know you know someone like these people.
BeThriftyLikesUs writes about being forced to fundraise. This post definitely got me riled up... and I don't live anywhere near them or have a kid in day care. Sometimes it's the principal of the thing, ya know?
Now that the snow is melting and we're having a Minnesota heat wave (55 degrees, woo hoo!), I'm thinking about ice cream. And what's better is that WiseBread tells how to get free ice cream. Mmmmm.
Have a great weekend!
Okay. This doesn't have anything to do with frugal living. But it's my blog, I can do what I want! I've been tagged by Kacie from Sense to Save for the "Seven Random Things" meme. So, I'll play, but since I'm too lazy to think of seven things about myself, I'm using the seven key words Kacie used for her blog as writing prompts!
1. I'm 5'6" tall. I used to be 5'7" but apparently three children will make you start to shrink. If only my belly fat would shrink!
2. When I was growing up, I really wanted to learn to play the piano. And I also wanted to be a writer. My grandparents offered me money toward a piano or money for a word processor. I picked the word processor... and ended up making a career of writing. Still can't play the piano.
3. Both times I was pregnant I had a super-human sense of smell. At one point, I was convinced the copy paper in my office had been sprayed by skunk. It was awful.
4. I don't have a stellar sense of sight. I can see without my glasses or contacts, but I wouldn't want to live that way. I'm too chicken to do the Lasik surgery, though.
5. I love LOST! It is my favorite series on television. The more I watch it, the more I get hooked on it. And the funny thing is, I can't even explain what I saw. It's crazy.
6. The fire chief from the nearest town built my house. He owns his own construction company and is an ambulance driver, too. He's an all-around good guy.
7. When I was in school, one of my classmates had really bad buck teeth. When he was playing basketball, he got his teeth caught in the net while making a jump shot. I'm not kidding! There was blood everywhere. It was gross.
Okay, there are my Seven Random Things. I now tag the following 7 people to share seven things about themselves on their blogs:
BeThriftyLikeUs
YahSureYouBetcha
Freebies4Mom
MinnesotaBrown (my hubby's blog)
HoorayForFree-bates
Rudstrom Family Blog
Heidi at KAXE Morning Show Blog
You know, something? I never liked remodeling. You start with the best of intentions... you want to make something look better. Yet, something always goes wrong, things break. Things cost more than you think. I'm finding the same thing goes for working on this site.
I've been making some changes to the look of Northern Cheapskate. I apologize to those of you who may have caught me during the biggest changes and wondered what was wrong with the site. As you can see, I'm still having some issues... mainly, having trouble getting my old Northern Cheapskate header to work. Please bear with me. I'm still learning. Hopefully, I'll have everything back to "normal" soon. And if not, well, please don't give up on me!
Thanks for being patient.
I am done with PayPerPost. You will never again see me write a blog entry that has been paid for by PayPerPost or any similar type of company.
From the moment I signed up with PayPerPost, I had reservations. I should have listened to my heart instead of with my pocketbook. I apologize to my readers.
So I have removed all sponsored posts (all two of them) from my website. I will not be taking any money from PayPerPost. The decision was a tough one for me to make, but here are a few of the reasons why:
I felt sleazy writing sponsored posts. It felt like I was selling a piece of my soul. I didn't like the feeling that my message was being controlled by an outside party.
PayPerPost was not user-friendly. Both posts I created were originally rejected (one of them twice) for trivial reasons. My theory is that they make a habit of rejecting posts, because while you fight with them to get your money, they are getting free advertising.
I did not care for the "opportunities" that were presented to me. Most of them were for credit card services, mortgage companies, and computer services. Most of the things I could have blogged about for money would not have fit with my vision for this blog.
PayPerPost took up too much time for the amount of money they paid you. (Especially when you have to fight with them to get posts approved). My time is worth more to me.
I feel a great sense of relief to be done with sponsored posts. You'll still see advertising on my site, but it will stay to the outer edges.
Thanks for your patience with me as I learn more about this blogging business.
