Meet the Editor
Michelle Jones is a frugal mom of 4, family budgeting and money saving expert, the founder and editor of BetterBudgeting.org, and author of "Dealing with Debt", "The Better Budgeting 5-Week Class", "Frugal Family Recipes", and "101 Coupon Tips". Her popular featured column is titled Living a Better Life®, as is her free monthly newsletter. Michelle lives in Metro Atlanta with her high school sweetheart, Wayne (a.k.a. husband of more than 30 years), their four grown children, and always a houseful of fur babies.
Back in the early 90's, after working her way up to administrative assistant at a large financial firm in Atlanta for about 5 years, Michelle and Wayne were blessed to start a family of their own. Together, they made the choice to give up her income (though NOT because they could afford to), and make the transition to a "one-income" family so Michelle could stay home full-time to raise and care for their new baby. Little did they know, the major loss of income would be even more challenging than they could have imagined.
If only they had lived on one-income from the very start: while earning two incomes, during those first 5 years. What a difference that could have made. Even still, live and learn. Michelle and Wayne stayed true to their beliefs and personal convictions that caring for their growing family full-time was more important than anything else they could ever possibly do. Together, they stayed strong and made whatever financial sacrifices it took with no regrets.
During those early years of raising their family on a limited budget, Michelle quickly learned how to manage their money better and live on less. Thankfully, she was able to pull from her frugal living childhood memories growing up in a low income, single parent, home. Soon, she became known by family and friends as a "coupon and yard sale queen", and accordingly, a very frugal mom. Remember, this was back in the early 1990's, before the World Wide Web, and still many years before couponing would be considered normal and cool.
The Web Sites
Michelle is passionate about sharing helpful ideas about budgeting, frugal living, saving money, the economy, and all financial matters, with anyone and EVERYONE! And, while saving money is a key factor for financial success, as a childhood Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer survivor, she is even more dedicated to sharing her passion for LIVING. Life is a gift to be cherished.
To share her survival secrets with as many families as possible, Michelle founded the free Better Budgeting resource in 2001, at a time when personal finances were still a taboo subject to even discuss. She didn't care too much about that; helping her readers was more important. And while most publications in the industry were only available by paid subscription, her dream was for Better Budgeting to always be provided as a free resource for frugal families.
A few years later, in 2003, she founded an additional free resource to help educate consumers on how to save more money on groceries; with and without coupons (GrocerySavingTips.com). All the main tips were written by Michelle based on her own decades of shopping experience, and additional tips were contributed by members. She also spent two years writing a companion grocery saving ebook, "101 Coupon Tips", which is currently available as a free gift for members of Better Budgeting. In 2007, Michelle started the Military Family Coupon Project from the grocery site (a very successful volunteer project that helps coupon clippers send their expired coupons to military families stationed overseas).
Michelle and Wayne have bravely faced a wide range of financial challenges over the years. Their frugal family of six has been relocated seven times throughout the Southeast with his career in business. Their state tour includes Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and now, after 20 years, they're home again in Atlanta. They have persevered through many medical issues, surgeries, and the many different stages of raising a family. But, most importantly, they have learned time and time again that God brings us through the storms and valley's of life. No matter how impossible they may seem.
Michelle and her family try their best to focus on the blessings in their daily life and the beautiful rainbows that God always provides after the storms.
"All things work for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28 (NIV)
Life is a BLESSING!
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