The REAL Message Behind the Shelterpop Frugal Fatigue Article
April 1, 2011
My life will always revolve around living a frugal lifestyle regardless of what you might think from the Shelterpop post on Frugal Fatigue.
The thing about writing for blogs other than your own is that they are altered and edited. That’s what happened to my post for AOL’s Shelterpop site where I discuss frugal fatigue. My post was altered, and readers are not happy.  Listen, I love writing for Shelterpop, where many of you have found out about TFF. But this particular post sent a chill up my spine, so I’m using TFF to set the record straight.
Though I’m used to being bashed by comments from furious Shelterpop viewers, wow, this post takes the cake. And, it’s all because the original intent of my message was redefined. Instead of sounding like my frugal myself, I sound like a whining suburbanite who’s upset that I can’t afford a five thousand dollar sofa. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
The original message of my article was to state that although I’m frugal, and sometimes it can be frustrating, in the end, frugality is well-worth the effort! So, for all of those fabulous frugal readers who have read the Shelterpop post, please don’t trash me in comments there–I swear I’m still frugal and still love it!
ps: I can’t run the original article I wrote because of copyright issues. I don’t own the content of that post!
Thanks for your support,
Your still very frugal TFFer, Marilyn
TwoFrugalFairfielders
April 2, 2011 at 3:24 am
Marilyn, i read that post, and the comments, and my first thought was that they all over reacted! I know the feeling of frugal fatigue well – i’m 64, and have had to be frugal all my life. I know how to pinch a penny til it yelps! But I too get tired of it, and I learned not to feel like traitor to the cause if I bought myself or my kids something new or nice. It’s all about balance – being frugal doesn’t mean being obsessive and joyless. Being frugal and debt free means you don’t have to say you’re sorry, when you’ve saved the money to buy that nice new thing. I’m going to blog about this myself.
April 2, 2011 at 9:26 am
Thanks, Gail. What a firestorm that post has created! Send along a link to your post when you blog about the topic so we can read about it, too. ~Marilyn at TFF
April 2, 2011 at 9:31 am
Oops, Gail, my error, I see you have blogged about it. I will link it in a post. Thanks!
~Marilyn at TFF
April 2, 2011 at 4:25 am
[...] the comments that followed Marilyn Zelinsky-Syartos’s recent post on Shelterpop. Although Marilyn explains the misunderstanding on her own blog, I still feel she has a good point here, and that the commenters over [...]
April 4, 2011 at 10:43 am
Glad I stopped by here after reading the other article! Didn’t bother with the comments, but I was rather scratching my head over what seemed to me to be contradictory points. Now I know it was all ‘them’ and not you!
For me, one of the points of frugality is that when you do need (emphasis NEED!) to spend some bucks, you’ve got them. And the rest of the time you have great stuff that cost little and you didn’t have to throw away a lot of packaging. Win-win!
April 4, 2011 at 11:02 am
Thanks for your much appreciated comments! Marilyn from TFF
April 23, 2011 at 9:34 am
Hi Marilyn, I actually loved the FF post on Shelterpop–and didn’t read any of the nasty comments. In fact, I’m wondering if you could do a related post for me on DailyWorth.com. I’m the editor of DW, a daily personal finance email for women, and we cover everything from budgeting to earning to investing. If you get this, let me know if you’d be interested in writing/swapping content or some such.
MP/p.s. I’m sorry this is in the comments field, but I couldn’t find another way to contact you!
April 28, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Fascinating experience and I’m sure that will happen to me eventually so thanks for the heads up. Comments here also tell me your readers know you pretty well so most of them knew there was something amiss with the article and not a problem with you.