Hi and Welcome to For the Mommas! I am so very pleased you are here!
I am Shannon, wife to Frank, of 15+ years and Mom to a wonderful 12 year old boy named Evan. I am a former finance and accounting professional. I live outside of the Philadelphia, PA area with our golden retriever, Lillie. I am proud to be from a close knit family of many!
My passions in life outside of my family – are finance, cooking and shopping. My passions all collide on For the Mommas and drive this website. I love interacting with my readers – you will find me on Facebook talking about my dog or a disastrous dinner recipe I made this week.
What is For the Mommas
Forthemommas.com takes just being a little frugal to living fabulous. And what’s better than money left over at the end of the week? You can find secrets to the good life on a cheap-yet-chic shoestring. Forthemommas.com includes wallet-friendly advice on:
- Coupons – Old-school clipping and the new wave of clicking.
- Giveaways – Stuff for kids. Stuff for you.
- Steals & Deals – Not just freebies – but great deals on things you have to have.
- Product Reviews – What to heart and what to hate.
- Shopping Tips – paying full price is never an option
What started out as my hobby has become an amazing community of women and men who just are looking for values in life, whether it be at the supermarket or the mall. For The Mommas.com is an entertaining and helpful website, designed to make shopping and saving money simple. Forthemommas.com is your helping hand… with tips for what’s on sale, where to go get it, online deals, and freebies. Going beyond this, For the Mommas is a community – a community of great readers who all contribute to each others success.
You can keep up with For the Mommas by subscribing here.
My Story
There was a time in my life where I had to have the most expensive brands. I would spend money without thinking about it. I figured we are saving a good percentage of our salary, not going into debt and paying all our bills timely, so why not spend the rest. I lived by that motto for many years. The result of this was lots of material stuff and working many hours outside of my home to pay for it.
Fast forward to 2007. My son was beginning Kindergarten and I wanted to be able to take him and pick him up from the bus. It wasn’t going to be possible working my schedule. I worked from 8 am until 7pm, sometimes later. We had just purchased a large home and had a brand new expensive car. It was then I realized nothing was going to change unless I reevaluated our life. I reasoned and rationalized with myself and went back and forth. I struggled with the fact that I worked so hard to get my education and I wanted to use it. I felt entitled to the finer things!
As my son got a little further into the school year, I knew this wasn’t right. He would never remember the brand of pants he had when he was 5. However, he would remember Mommy was never around.
I scaled back my hours and took a pay cut. I was able to be home by 3:45, but still found myself ignoring him while I wrapped up business until 6-7pm. By the end of his kindergarten year, I knew it had to change. I ended up deciding to quit my job. How was I going to do this on just my husband’s salary? Well the key was, we weren’t going to be able to keep doing what we were doing. I started clipping coupons, reading frugal blogs, shopping sales, going to the Goodwill and requesting freebies. I decided that I needed to figure out how to feed my family on less. I started finding free things for my family to do instead of expensive outings. I learned to be a better steward of God’s blessings, something I had taken for granted for so long. I have learned over time that I can afford things, it just takes a little work — I can save money in most areas of my life. As soon as I started realizing that God blessed me more than I ever deserved, things changed.
I became a whole new person. My frugality has not only changed what brand clothes I wear, the car I drive and how much I spend on grocery, it has changed me as a person. . I am no longer defined by things, I am defined as who I am as a person. I may shop at Target and Old Navy and hunt down a good grocery bargain, but beyond that being frugal has allowed me to be a be at home with my child and therefore, a better Mommy.
I started blogging at For The Mommas because I wanted to give other Moms and Dads who might be in our situation an opportunity to see that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You don’t have to starve to stay home with your kids. You don’t have to sacrifice it all. You don’t have to give up everything and more importantly, you can still enjoy living while being on a budget – at the end of the day, your kids will love you just the same. That is what is important. We still enjoy great things and times, just scaled back from before.
Over the two+ years , I have had the pleasure of “meeting” some of the most inspiring Moms, Dads, College Students and Grandparents who are on this journey to a better life on less. I look foward to learning from all of the new people who have joined us.
I thank you all for joining me .