Q&A: Amy Suardi, the Frugal Mama

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Photo courtesy of Amy Suardi

Amy Suardi prefers the simple life. That’s why the Terrace Park native and mother of four created Frugal Mama, a money-savers blog that has gotten the attention of national media outlets like TLC and The Washington Post. Now living in Washington, D.C., Suardi explains the mindset behind frugal-mama.com.

Why did you start blogging?

I realized that it is possible to live a high-quality family life on not much money. I started getting more interested in the free-play kids movement, where kids are playing on the playground, reading, drawing, coming up with their own games, and it’s all basically free.

What is a frugal life?

It’s not playing the same game as the mainstream culture. It’s taking yourself out of the competition for who has the biggest house, the nicest car. I realized I could not compete with my friends who had things like that. So I had to find my own satisfaction in doing as much as I could for little. Frugal is green. It’s slow. It’s simple. It ties into a lot of movements that are good for us in general.

How has your blog evolved?

It’s gone through several changes. I thought that I would try to turn the blog into a business. A lot of people try to monetize their blogs because they’re spending so much time on them. I found that that was impossible to do and also maintain the life that I was writing about. I like living this life just as much as I like writing about it.

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