About Monroe on a Budget
The blog hostess at Monroe on a Budget is Paula Wethington of Monroe, Mich. I’m a newspaper reporter, wife of an auto supplier factory worker, mom of a college-age daughter and a homeowner. And I’ve had to get by on tight budgets at various times in my life.
My day job is Community Page reporter at The Monroe Evening News, and the budget blog is one of the most popular blogs sponsored by my newspaper as part of the BlogsMonroe network.
While I do have information that is useful and helpful to food stamp and unemployed families, my target audience is actually the working and middle-class families.
For my local readers in Monroe, Mich., that would be household income of $40,000 to $60,000. The median income in my area is about $53,000. These families are not eligible for most government and charity assistance programs because of their income level. But they will find it hard to achieve their financial goals and keep up with everyday family expenses without creative and resourceful decisions on how and when they spend their money.
Monroe on a Budget is written for those who live in or near Monroe County, Mich., although I do include some information for those who are in the nearby metro areas of Toledo, Detroit or Ann Arbor. But national readers can take my local references as an example and look for similar opportunities, programs and services in their communities. After all, I have learned a lot by reading what you all are doing in your hometowns.
I’ve hosted or co-hosted several frugal living presentations and meet-and-greets in the Monroe, Mich., area. If you would like me to attend at your event or meeting, contact me at (734) 240-5745 or at paula@monroenews.com. (The most popular presentation request has been “Grocery shopping on a budget.”)
Monroe on a Budget is listed on several national sites including Wise Bread’s top Personal Finance Bloggers, PFBlog Aggregator and A World of Personal Finance Bloggers. I have been a frequent contributor to The Carnival of Personal Finance and the Festival of Frugality. I’ve been featured on MSN’s Smart Spending and Almost Frugal. Locally, I’ve been featured in The Monroe Evening News, FoxToledo and Toledo Free Press.
I will accept guest posts on a case-by-case basis. To get my attention, you need to write a frugal living or personal finance piece that would be of interest to my local audience in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio. Contact me by e-mail if you wish to follow up.
Now for some really random facts about me: I cheer for Cleveland Browns football (five generations of Browns fans in my family), I collect Barbie dolls (at last count 70+ dolls), and my favorite candy bar is Almond Joy (coconut – yum!). Frugal people, after all, are people too!
Since I am a newspaper reporter by trade and training, I follow traditional journalism standards on this blog. That means I do not make “advertorial” style posts such as pay per links or paid reviews. My paycheck comes directly from Monroe Publishing Co., which is the parent company of The Monroe Evening News. When I mention merchandise or promotions at a business, I tell you how and where I got that information – such as from an ad in my newspaper or another newspaper, direct mail, a press release or email from the company, information on the store’s web site, or my own observations as I visit the locations. The shopping cart pictures are of my own purchases for my own family’s use.
Click here for information or send an e-mail to rob@monroenews.com for information about advertising on Monroe on a Budget or MPC’s other print and on-line products.
Downtown Monroe, looking along Front Street, near The Monroe Evening News office.
Photo by Bryan Bosch, posted at The Monroe Evening News photo gallery.