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How to make the most of what you’ve got, with Alex Stedman (The Frugality)

🌟 Alex Stedman started the award-winning lifestyle platform The Frugality in 2012, after spending 15 years working in the fashion media industry. Its mission is to democratise fashion, lifestyle, culture and interiors in a friendly and accessible way. With over a quarter of a million followers, she’s a mum-of-two offering accessible tips on smart spending and saving up for things you really love.

🌳 In this episode, we talk about building a sustainable business you love, tips on managing your finances, the challenges of being a freelancer and a parent, and how to stand up for yourself and try not to please everyone. 

1️⃣ A lot of people think that being frugal is cheap. It's not. It's getting the most enjoyment out of everything, making things last, and really understanding and appreciating the value of things. I pay attention, even if it's a seemingly minuscule amount. I hate when people go, “Oh, it's just £3” because I always think that's how people get you; with all of these subscriptions. £1.99 a month, if you're not using it, that's wasted money. I really dislike that mentality, and people go, “Oh, it's only £6. Forget about it.” I will not forget about it. That could be coffee with a friend.

2️⃣ We've grown our company very organically. Now it's about getting to the next level and delegating work to have a higher earning capacity. I've always done everything myself and had like five jobs at any given time, so I find it hard to delegate. But now, we are going to take our first assistant as an employee rather than in a freelance capacity, and I’m starting to learn how spending money can help you become able to earn more. I'm nervous about having someone to be financially responsible for, but it's going to be exciting, and sometimes that's the only way to move your brand to the next stage.

3️⃣ Sometimes we use the term “maternity leave”, as this general broad term, but for a freelancer, it doesn't really exist. It's just time off if you want to take it and not get paid.That's what maternity leave is as a freelancer. No one does your job, and there’s no set amount you’ll get paid. If I'm not creating the content to make money, then the money doesn't come. So it's really, really challenging.

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1. How do you apply frugality to your own life?

  • A lot of people think that being frugal is cheap. It's not. It's getting the most enjoyment out of everything, making things last, and really understanding and appreciating the value of things. I pay attention, even if it's a seemingly minuscule amount. I hate when people go, “Oh, it's just £3” because I always think that's how people get you; with all of these subscriptions. £1.99 a month, if you're not using it, that's wasted money. I really dislike that mentality, and people go, “Oh, it's only £6. Forget about it.” I will not forget about it. That could be coffee with a friend.

  • I'm not telling people how to invest or what to do with their money. Instead, I will explain how we do things. I'm very confident in that because we enjoy dealing with finances. For example, we do a food shop really affordably, make lists of what we have, and don't waste food. We make a meal plan of what we buy in our food shops. It's rarely over £50 - actually, £50 is an extravagant weekly food shop for our family. But we never feel like we're scrimping as well. 

  • Sometimes people can be judgmental, but it’s an area where I feel very confident in going, “No, we are really happy.” We bought a secondhand present for my daughter's birthday – an amazing bike we found on eBay. She doesn't know that it's secondhand, it's given her a new lease on life, and it cost us a third of what it would've cost. 

  • This philosophy also means not getting everyone obsessed with how many presents they get at Christmas. I want to instil that in my family and myself, and not just about Christmas. For birthdays, my mother will ask, “What does she want? I'm going to get her these ten things.” I'm like, “This is something that she'd like. And just one thing.” I really enjoy the one-gift rule.

  • I'll check my bank balance every day and see every direct debit. If there's even £1.99, I will seek it out. Even with Netflix, they're putting their prices up quite a lot, like by a third, which is only £3, but when it only costs eight, that's a huge difference. I'm even thinking, why don't we just have a break for six months? Actually, it might make us read a book instead.

2. How have you been building a sustainable business?

  • I felt I was really late in the blogging world. I felt like there were so many that already were blogging. And I always think that's a lesson to learn. It's never too late, if you've got a good idea and you can relate to different people as well. I think it was probably the beginning of niche content. I wasn't trying to please everyone.

  • I'm probably far less frugal in my work mentality than in my personal life. When you're running a business, there are a lot of other issues at play. I have contributors, and I pay everyone fairly. That’s a value that I've always wanted to keep. I suppose I'd probably use my work to do all those things that I've always wanted to do from when I worked in a magazine, and everyone wanted everyone to do everything for free. 

  • Through my own company, I want to revisit that and think about having an ethical company and making people want to work with us, and for it to be a joy to work with us. Paying everyone fairly is a way that I can do that. So I feel like my company is definitely spending more money than I do.

  • We've grown our company very organically. Now it's about getting to the next level and delegating work to have a higher earning capacity. I've always done everything myself and had like five jobs at any given time, so I find it hard to delegate. But now, we are going to take our first assistant as an employee rather than in a freelance capacity, and I’m starting to learn how spending money can help you become able to earn more. I'm nervous about having someone to be financially responsible for, but it's going to be exciting, and sometimes that's the only way to move your brand to the next stage.

3. What are some of the challenges of being a freelancer and a parent in the UK?

  • If both you and your partner are freelancers, it can be a real struggle. My husband and I work together on The Frugality. If I'm not filming content to put up, we are not making money. When I first had my first baby, we got £541 per month (£141 a week) of statutory maternity pay, but we had to share that. You have to prepare for it as a freelancer. So when I had my second baby, we made sure there was enough money in the bank to top up our wages. We took time off, but we also worked on top of that. 

  • Sometimes we use the term “maternity leave”, as this general broad term, but for a freelancer, it doesn't really exist. It's just time off if you want to take it and not get paid. That's what maternity leave is as a freelancer. No one does your job, and there’s no set amount you’ll get paid. If I'm not creating the content to make money, then the money doesn't come. So it's really, really challenging. 

  • Last year, 2020/21, there was Covid and I was pregnant and had a baby. It was the worst financial year of our lives since I started the company. It was just a terrible year. We only just broke even after paying everyone and minimal expenses. This year has already been better, but you notice the dip when you're pregnant and you work with advertisers. 

  • When you’re pregnant, brands don't want to work with you as much – I suppose a lot of fashion brands don't have maternity ranges, so they don't want to show a pregnant woman. You can't do a lot of food and skincare brands because they are not technically pregnancy-friendly. Also, the content isn't evergreen, so they wouldn't be able to repurpose your picture the year after, which means it's not useful for them. So I really noticed - not over discrimination - but I’d say, “Just to let you know, I’m four months pregnant,” and then suddenly some brands were like, “Oh, we've decided to go a different direction.” It was definitely an eye-opening experience.

RESOURCES: 

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