First off, thank you all for your kind comments about my interview that aired yesterday. I appreciate all the encouragement! I’m excited to have so many new readers here, and I’m so glad to have the opportunity to help you learn to live on less.
Things will be back to normal around here tomorrow, but for today I have several things to blog about which are all related to the interview. So, I thought I’d throw them all together in a miscellany posts (for those of you that are new, I do miscellany posts every now and then when I have, well, a bunch of miscellaneous stuff to share! You can read my other miscellany posts if you’d like to catch up.)
5 Kids?
Nope. I do not have 5 children (the four you see up there at the top are it!) and I am not pregnant. I know Pat Robertson mentioned the number 5 at the beginning of the program, but my producer (well, the one that produced my story!) said she has no control over what comes out of Pat’s mouth 
and that Pat’s producer must have given him some wrong information. So, yeah…I’m not hiding a secret offspring! We’re quite content with the four little people we have.
Shyness
If you met me in real life, “shy” would probably not be on the list of adjectives you’d use to describe me. I’m actually very outgoing when I’m one-on-one (my husband and I joke that I could strike up a conversation with a brick wall!). Yes, the shyness only kicks in when I see a bunch of people looking at me. I’m not one to enjoy being in the spotlight, which is why blogging is perfect for me. I can share my thoughts with thousands of people every day without having to actually stand up in front of them!
Public Speaking
This is kind of related to the above paragraph…my hesitance to do public speaking mostly stems from my fear of being in front of a lot of people. Though I appreciate all the positive comments about my speaking voice, I think that, at least at this point in my life, I prefer to mostly stay behind my computer screen. Interviews are fine (it was actually kind of fun to be interviewed for the Money Monday piece), but the idea of having to stand up and speak for an hour is still sort of terrifying to me.
Also, I feel like this might not be the appropriate stage of life for me to do public speaking, as it usually requires travel. For right now, while my kids are little, I’d prefer to stay home with them as much as possible. Maybe one day when I’m an empty nester and my confidence levels have grown I’ll venture into the public speaking arena.
Facebook for The Frugal Girl
A LOT of you asked about this yesterday, so this morning, I set up a Frugal Girl Facebook page. It’s very boring right now because I haven’t tweaked it a lot, but at least it’s up. I’ll work on getting it more user-friendly soon. If any of you bloggers have advice for me on using Facebook for a blog, feel free to email me or leave me a comment!
Subscribing
Several of you had some difficulty subscribing to my email delivery service. I’m sorry if it malfunctioned for your yesterday. It seems to be working as of this morning. If you’d like to get my posts delivered via email each day, just click on the “subscribe” link right below my blog title up at the top of the page and enter your email address. Let me know if you have trouble, and I’ll look into it for you.
My Faith
Some of you asked about this…I am, for lack of a better term, an evangelical Christian (I really kind of hate that term, though!), and my denomination is Presbyterian. I hate to use the evangelical term only because of all the associations with it, but it’s the best thing I can come up with for now! I’m not a “fightin’ fundie”, though, and I don’t at all feel that the very visible evangelical figures accurately represent what I believe and think (those of you that have been here for a while already know that, though!).
Help with Grocery Shopping/Food Waste
A lot of you were wondering how to get started with frugal grocery shopping and how to start cutting back on food waste. These topics are a little too big to be included in today’s post, so later this week I’ll write up a couple of basic posts on those two topics. I will tell you, though, that I find menu planning to be very, very helpful on both of those fronts. I’ve written a number of posts on that topic, and you can find them in the Menu Planning category.
_________________________________
If you’ve got other questions for me, you can always email me (thefrugalgirl {at} gmail {dot} com). Putting “Q&A” or “Question” in the subject line helps my email organization greatly. Or, you can leave a comment, though occasionally I lose track of questions that are left in the comments (because, you know, I’m very not perfect!).
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
I am now a fan on your Facebook page.
I can totally relate to not wanting to do public speaking. It would be terrifying for me!
I used Networked Blogs to put Kayla K’s Thrifty Ways on Facebook. This makes my posts show up on my wall and in other people’s news feeds who follow me. People who are not my “friends” can follow too. I don’t have my own page for the blog yet.
Ok! I think I got it all set up properly. We’ll see if it publishes my blog post for tomorrow!
Hi Kristen,
Long time reader and now a fan on FB
Ivy
Kristin, It was really great to put a voice to your blog. I so enjoy your blog, and its one of the first things I look at in the morning. (being on the westcoast does have its advantages!) Thanks for taking the time to do so, you have been a real encouragement to me! You’re awesome and are setting a great example for your children! Love ya:)
lol! That is true…even on the mornings when I’m late getting a post up, it’s still up by the time it’s morning for you!
Well Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism are really two different things. Robertson is a Fundamentalist. Billy Graham is an Evangelical.
Still congrats on being on television. Might I also say that you play the piano marvelously?
Thank you!
My blogging friend Katy was desperately hoping they’d film me playing, and they did without me even asking. lol
Katy wasn’t the only one.
You can add my name to the list of people who were hoping to hear you play as well! Battra, William, Katy, me, and I”m sure LOTS and LOTS of others. It was quite beautiful.
(And the rest of the piece was great too!)
Aww, thanks.
I do love playing the piano.
What I like is that your faith is expressed in who you are and how you live. It is clearly important to you and your family. BUT, you don’t wield it as a weapon or use your blog as a bully pulpit. For us “just spiritual” types, it very refreshing and easy to respect. Thanks!
Ditto
Thank you…that means a lot! That’s just how my faith is…kinda soaked into everything I do.
And I’m glad it’s coming across that way.
Oh, and I’m happy to be called “your producer” any day!
lol! Well, you can come back and film me any time, then.
So glad to be a fan of The Frugal Girl on Facebook! Just wanted to second what Battra92 said; you are an amazing piano player! I knew you would be, but it was so nice to hear you play. Happy to see that they put that in!
I’ve been a fan since I found you but now I’m officially a fan on FB! I’ve watched your story on CBN more than once :0)
Just wanted to say – all of Kristen’s fans who are trying to learn bread baking and kneading – did you catch the quick view of Kristen kneading bread? I watched in slow motion, and I think I have the knack a little better now. Kristen – what kind of bread was that? or was it pizza dough?
That was whole wheat sandwich bread, actually.
I’ve become a Facebook fan. Welcome to the FB! Don’t click the ads.
(Kidding.)
I will second the motion on Networked Blogs via Facebook. Actually I linked up to your blog some time ago. There is a new message on Facebook with the info.
Everytime I think of you being shy with public speaking I think… You should start at church for a small group that would want tips on certain subjects. That way you could remain local and being in a familiar “house” might help.
That still scares me! lol Although, it wouldn’t be as scary as speaking at a convention.
Maybe I will get brave one day and give it a try, though.
I did manage to claim my blog on Networked Blogs…I just had to add the widget to prove the blog was mine.
Greetings! My dad is a huge fan of the 700 club and he called me yesterday to tell me about you:) I am so happy he did because I am extremely interested in the topic of your lovely blog! Anywho, I just wanted to say hello, congrats on being famous, and I can’t wait to see what you have to teach me. (besides all the brilliance I’ve already read in this blog of your’s)
I was wondering if you had a secret kid stashed away that nobody knew about!
Do you homeschool your children?
Yes Ma’am, I do!
Zoe, my youngest, isn’t in school yet (she’ll start kindergarten at home in the fall of 2011), but I homeschool the older three.
Allow me to point out something about public speaking: there’s a difference between being interviewed and giving a talk or presentation. In an interview there’s (usually) a lot less prep and you’re talking to just one or a few persons; it’s like a conversation. For a presentation, you have to decide what to say and how, you’re talking to a group rather than a few individuals, and the expectations are different. So while there are many commonalities between the two activities there are some important differences as well.
If you did become interesting in giving talks – I like the idea of helping your church members – you have a great resource: your blog and your readers’ feedback to your posts. It’s like a dry run and a review committee, all done at your own pace.
Oh yes…that’s why I didn’t mind being interviewed. It was much less scary than having to give a presentation. And I didn’t have to string coherent sentences together for a long period of time…it’s more like having to put a paragraph together instead of a term paper, you know?
On the tv interview they mentioned that you and your husband are debt free accept for your house. Congratulations! I think that is very commendable especially in today’s society. They also mentioned that you use prepaid cell phones. My husband and I are considering this, and I was trying to find a good deal. Also, do you have any suggestions as far as budgeting? I feel like my husband and I try this every couple of years, it last about 2 months and then we stop. We get an idea of what we generally spend but we don’t really seem to be doing it correctly, and we never seem to “save” anything. If you have budgeting tips that would be great. How to do it so that it can be done every day for many many years. Thanks.
Hi Kristin,
I saw your interview on the 700 club and i was very blessed. I am a 62 year old grandmother of 6 and raised my kids during the 70′s and 80′s. I am happy to see that there are young girls out there that cook from scratch. I have always cooked from scratch. it’s the best way to get alot for less money and it’s much healthier. By the way I have a recipe for homemade pancake syrup that i’ve made for years, I would like to share it with you if i can figure out where to put it on your blog. Also I have made everything homemade from yogurt to granola, crackers, bread, english muffins. God Bless you and your family.
Charlene Graham