Thrifty Women Thriving in Tough Economy

ATHENS, Ga. -- Mir Kamin of Athens has taken her thrifty ways to the blogosphere with the popular blog wantnot.net. The freelance writer and creator of several successful blogs including the award winning wouldashoulda.com has noticed traffic increasing as consumer's discretionary cash decreases.

"It's doing really well, and we're now going into the plum time right now because people who aren't regular readers will find me as they start doing their Christmas shopping," she said.

Kamin's blog offers online shopping deals, common sense financial advice and a daily dose of humor.

"I have a couple of thousand people who come to the site. People sometimes say, "I'm not shopping for anything, but I just like to come and read." It's entertaining and fun," she said.

Tough times are boom time for Stephanie Nelson's couponmom.com website as well.

"The bad news is people are struggling financially but that's when it's more important for us to raise awareness about the program," she said.

The self professed coupon mom says grocery shoppers' appetites for bargains have tripled in recent months. She started couponmom.com eight years ago as a site that provides grocery shopping lists that feature weekly store sales coupled with coupons for items that are on sale.

"Today we have a million members and 10 data entry people. Instead of covering two stores we cover 41 stores across the country," she said.

Nelson said she started out eight years ago with just a handful of members and did all the data entry herself. Nelson works from a modest home office in Marietta, as does Kamin in Athens.

"I bought this phone for $3.00 at my neighbor's garage sale," laughed Nelson.

Both women say their frugal ways won't fall by the wayside as their wallets get fatter, but won't disclose just how much all the page clicks and advertising dollars are padding their bank accounts.

"Yes, it does make money to support our family but we're very frugal," said Nelson.

And her advice to other people hoping for internet success: "Find something you like doing, and try to turn that into a business.