Lindsay Ginn Red Lipstick Leather Jacket Sriracha Shirt

Hi, I’m Lindsay, and you’ve stumbled upon my favorite place on the internet – my budget lifestyle blog (2007-2011)/ongoing documentation of my love of being cheap (2011-2018)a celebration of hustling, creativity, and living the broke life. (2019-)

Eleven years ago, I spent my days at my horrible office job (no offense, people I used to work with) digging through YOOX and Nordstrom Rack scanning every page for an overlooked pair of Frye boots at closeout prices, or maybe an Alice + Olivia dress for under $100. Once I found a super-score, I would send an instant message to all of my girlfriends, hoping someone would get to capitalize on my compulsive window-shopping. Eventually, I started a li’l blog on blogspot.com (RIP) to post simple pictures and quick links so my friends could just get a notification when I posted instead of getting 500 IMs on MSN Messenger. (We old out here, ok?)

A pretty cringe0-y photoset from B&B circa 2009

Fast forward a full decade and, like… who even has a fashion blog anymore, right? While I once was flanked by hundreds and thousands of fashion blogging cohorts, now only a handful of fashion blogs still exist… And more crazy than that, those fashion bloggers barely post on their own blogs! When I started playing around with this whole blog thing, there was no Instagram, no Pinterest, no SnapChat – we didn’t even have Twitter yet! But things have changed, and while blogging used to mean one thing, it has now expanded to mean “publishing content on the internet, and by the way, everything is the internet.” Now, as soon as you post a great outfit photo on Instagram, you’re pretty much as successful at fashion blogging as someone who’s done it for… well, ten years and frankly, we aren’t trying to compete with that. These bloggers, IG models, creators – whatever you want to call them – they’re better at that than we are, so we’re not gonna try crawl out of the crypt to compete, you know?

Fashion bloggers who survived the blog bubble bursting are still successful, but they’ve moved on to new, lateral projects like jewelry design, publishing, or beauty brands. We are surviving, too, but it hasn’t been without its transformations. We’re no longer posting gigantic lists of single-size designer shoes on clearance, or weekly posts (or videos – yikes) about upcoming flash sales on of-the-moment sale sites. Now, in our 12th year of existing and somehow surviving in the shopping and blogging scene, we’ve synthesized a decade’s worth of love for style, and it turns out that everything we love about the budget lifestyle really boils down to the people behind the scenes: the broke-ass hustlers who make the coolest stuff we’re buying.

Some of Bang-Up Betty’s awesome jewelry designs
Over the years, we’ve given tons of love to indie brands, Etsy superstars, DIY-ers, creators, and creative wonders. (Oldschool readers: who remembers ECIG?) We’ve been fortunate to meet some pretty incredible people through our coverage, and it’s given us some serious insight into what we really, truly love about living the broke life. So, instead of always focusing on finding the lowest prices on the cheapest items to fill up and clutter your life, we’re pivoting to put more of our focus onto the people who are actually living the broke life and providing for themselves in inspiring, unconventional, and/or generally awesome ways. (Think Bang-Up Betty, BombshellerRogue Minx, Jeremiah of The Ellie Badge, and all of the people who make biodegradable glitter.)

How I Ended Up Writing Broke & Beautiful

I’ve been through the ringer when it comes to money. (Here’s the part I was talking about, nosey people!) 

I spent my late teens and early 20s caught in a vicious payday loan cycle, my mid-20s wondering why I thought it was a good idea to get that credit card, and my late 20s trying to pick up all the pieces.

I have spent an awful lot of time being broke, and even more time being stressed out, sad, and guilty about it. It’s no way to live.

Your best chance: avoid it all together. First of all – don’t get those credit cards until you’re ready to pay them down every single month! Don’t take out that quick loan! Leave all of those quick fix options alone and start being smart about your money… It’s going to be so much fun.