#FinCon17, Nice to Meet You!

It’s #FinCon17 time! Unless you’re like me, and you’re arriving a day late. In that case, it’s live vicariously through Twitter time!

If all goes according to plan, I’ll have plenty of time to introduce embarrass myself this weekend to many of my money idols. Because that is the plan. Repeat after me, Penny. You will not lurk in the hallway for three days. You will not. In the spirit of introductions, I thought I’d put together a quick post to say hello. Well, as much of a hello as someone whose avatar is some spare change she found a few years back and goes by a totally un-clever nom de plume. Oh, you fancy. Fancy like a mullet maybe. Let’s do this business first, then party side.

The Business Side

1. I still don’t make income directly from my blog.
2. I actually haven’t ever tried to monetize my blog. It’s partly because I’m not sure that I like the idea of selling stuff and partly because I don’t even know where to start.
3. I blog anonymously mostly because I don’t want legions of 12-year-olds to descend on the comment section. But also because unlike my fine friends on the interwebs, people in my real life can’t seem to discern between frugal and cheap.
4. No one except my husband knows about my blog. Kind of. Let me expand. 4A: In what can only be described as a difference bordering on irreconcilable, Mr. P let the cat out of the bag about my Plutus award nomination to my parents. Bless his heart. In my best southern accent that makes this equal parts kindness and insult. But mostly insult. While my mom is still laying guilt on strong and scouring the interwebs for evidence of little ol’ me, I’m not too worried. She does, after all, still call it a blaaaagh. 4B. I kind of doxed myself on social media. I blame Steve Jobs. Or some button on Instagram. Or some creepy conspiracy that has my phone all kinds of linked even though I think it’s separate. If you follow me on Twitter, you watched this play out in real time. Essentially, one She Picks Up Pennies Instagram follow from my personal Facebook turned into close to fifty over the course of a month. The coast is clear. At least for now.
5. I’m starting to do more with freelancing and ghostwriting, and I absolutely love it. And no, I still won’t write for $15.

The Party Side

1. I babysat for many families for many years. Stupidly, one long-time client was a family that paid me $3 an hour (relax, I’m not that old, they were just that cheap) in TOLLWAY change. For those of you unfamiliar with tollways, we obviously do not live in the same state.
2. As much as Illinois irks me (see above), I love my home. My roots run deep. While many millennials are all about growing wings, I think there’s something to be said about cultivating roots.
3. I did a brief stint in sales in college, and I was so flipping good at it. I made my selling quota every day. Even in training. Even when some not-nice-lady took some of my client information from my book. I also quit after four months. There’s a post in the works on this, though if I were a really smart cookie, I’d write the book.
4. I’ve known I wanted to teach since seventh grade. It’s my dream job, and it’s my passion. I used to be certain that I wasn’t going to retire super early (53 and out, baby!). Now I’m not so sure.
5. I was always really ambivalent about parenthood. Now, it’s my favorite thing in the world. Cliches, spit up, poopy diapers, all of it. HP is our son, but sadly he’s pure muggle. HP got his nickname from Revanche back when I announced we were expecting. It stands for Half Pence (too political?) or Half Penny (we had a boy!). So, HP it is. I try to celebrate him every day. My husband, too, because he’s pretty amazing and because he is the entire reason I pushed publish on this blog and pushed purchase on my FinCon ticket. Oh, he’s also the person who was responsible for my first triple pageview day. Because, unbeknownst to me, he went down in the basement and clicked on my site nine times to push me over the edge.

If I’m about to meet you at #FinCon17, I can’t wait! If we’re still just virtual frugal friends and money buddies, that’s awesome, too.

So Tell Me…What’s a fun fact about you?