Frugal Mama article in today's Washington Post

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I feel like the constructive thing would be to help her recast her blog. It's interesting and beautifully presented. It's just that with her rising HHI and the expensive house, she's no longer (although she probably once was) in the penny-pinching demographic. Maybe the blog just needs to evolve a bit, to make it clear that she's targeting the "income under $250K in DC" crowd rather than the shoe-string budget crowd.

pp here. Warren Buffet has a BILLION dollars and people consider him frugal. But, then again, guys generally don't tear each other down.

Does Warren Buffet have a blog on how to live frugally? No, I don't believe he does.

Gosh, so many of you are missing the problem here. Is there a lack of critical thinkers on here today (and yesterday)?

Instead of posting a snide remark in retort, I will elaborate...If Frugal Mama has a $2m in family money then perhaps she IS frugal. Because she doesn't explain her finances, we don't know. Maybe she doesn't have retirement savings because they are going to inherit gobs of money. And, for all the people on these boards going into DEBT to pay for private school, I disagree with the pp's who said that public school is a given of frugality. People of any HHI can be frugal. If you would like to express your difference in thinking, please do so.

Yes, my difference of opinion is this: if FM considers herself frugal for her bank account set, please set up a blog for that type of readership. Please do not call herself frugal, b/c as another PP poster said up above, she is not frugal in the penny-pinching way. That is all. However, she, and the WaPo article, appeared to suggest that she is a penny-pinching mama, and this is not the case. Therefore, in comparing herself to WB,this is not accurate b/c WB does not have a blog on how to life frugally for his lifestyle.

I don't think "frugal" equated penny pinching. If you read, dollar stretcher, that is penny pinching as the name suggests. There are blogs/books on how to reuse tin foil. I think Frugal Mama is trying to cultivate her own demographic. You can google "frugal" and Warren Buffet and hundreds of links come up.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. I agree with the PP above who posted the funny comment from the WaPo website. It *is* like a parody of Sh!T White People Like.

[Anonymous]

When someone who is 42 yo, with 4 kids and an expensive home that has just been decorated using a professional decorator, but who has no retirement savings self-righteously declares, "Some of us live within our budget and some don't" . . . well, you reap what you sow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When someone who is 42 yo, with 4 kids and an expensive home that has just been decorated using a professional decorator, but who has no retirement savings self-righteously declares, "Some of us live within our budget and some don't" . . . well, you reap what you sow.

Yes.

[Anonymous]

I have no reason to think she's not a lovely person, but objecting to her self-presentation is not denying her her loveliness.

Maybe if she recast herself as someone trying to preserve some of the elements of the parenting she grew up with? A lot of what she does looks familiar; my mother did it and I do it. (We also sock away money like no one's business.)

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I actually know her and she is quite nice. For whatever that is worth.

It's worth nothing with these posters. They would tear Mother Theresa down on these boards in a NY Minute if she were still alive.

I know her too and she is lovely. I really hope she doesn't read DCUM, I feel so bad about how she is getting ripped apart and undoubtedly never saw it coming.

It's really not personal. Sigh. If we don't even know her, why would she take it personally? Honestly, maybe she could learn a thing or two if she could read it and just take away the ideas, and not take it personally.

She is not anonymous and the criticism is being directed at her, seems like she is being personally attacked to me.

She can choose to take it personally, or she can choose to take it constructively. It's absolutely up to her.

[Anonymous]

I know her too and she is lovely. I really hope she doesn't read DCUM, I feel so bad about how she is getting ripped apart and undoubtedly never saw it coming.

While I actually don't agree with a number of the criticisms posted about this woman, she has chosen to put herself out in the public eye by agreeing to be the subject of the article. As a result of that, she has to accept that people are going to have opinions on her, and express them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I know her too and she is lovely. I really hope she doesn't read DCUM, I feel so bad about how she is getting ripped apart and undoubtedly never saw it coming.

While I actually don't agree with a number of the criticisms posted about this woman, she has chosen to put herself out in the public eye by agreeing to be the subject of the article. As a result of that, she has to accept that people are going to have opinions on her, and express them.

And by havign a freakin' blog and trying to make money off of it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no reason to think she's not a lovely person, but objecting to her self-presentation is not denying her her loveliness.

Maybe if she recast herself as someone trying to preserve some of the elements of the parenting she grew up with? A lot of what she does looks familiar; my mother did it and I do it. (We also sock away money like no one's business.)

That's not a bad idea. Or, maybe something linked to Depression-era values would resonate in this era of bad economies and concern about over-consumption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no reason to think she's not a lovely person, but objecting to her self-presentation is not denying her her loveliness.

Maybe if she recast herself as someone trying to preserve some of the elements of the parenting she grew up with? A lot of what she does looks familiar; my mother did it and I do it. (We also sock away money like no one's business.)

That's not a bad idea. Or, maybe something linked to Depression-era values would resonate in this era of bad economies and concern about over-consumption.

That's what *I* liked about her blog.

I'm not going to take financial advice from her, because I don't agree with her priorities (and my budget is prob 1/4 of what hers is), but I do like reading about other families that have made conscious decisions to try and live simply. Esp in an area like this.

[Anonymous]

I looked at her blog - some of the things she writes about are pretty obvious. Her writing style is fine, but seriously, the tips in the "air travel with kids" post are something that anyone could figure out using basic common sense. That blog definitely isn't for me.

[Anonymous]

I think that she will benefit from the article and from this discussion on DCUM! How much traffic has that driven to her blog in the last days you think? And the people who are criticising her, and giving improvement suggestion on recasting her blog are also helping her: if you have a business you WANT honest feedback.
So all in all, I'm glad to hear she is lovely, but either way she is not someone you need to feel sorry for. Neither financially, nor because of this thread.

[Anonymous]

Can someone be rich AND frugal? Yes.

Are the choices she makes (like hiring an interior designer, etc) frugal though? Well, let me suggest that to my frugal DH, I've been wanting to hire someone to help me decorate for the longest time.... Oh, he is just laughing in my face about that one...

[Anonymous]

I didn't read the wp article, but after reading this thread, I went to the blog out of curiousity. Completely agree with those posters that said the blog and advice are not for those who are pinching pennies.

[Anonymous]

maybe she could restyle her blog as more a "simple living/real simple" type blog

[Anonymous]

I'm frugal. We invest half our net income.