Welcome to lifeshouldcostless.com!
Who creates the content on this site?
Meet Sarah Richins
Raised on a little farm in Utah (U.S.A.), she grew up learning how to DIY things long before the term “DIY” was a “thing”.
She’s the feisty late 30’s single momma, Ex-Mormon, Ex-Housewife, red-head that has devoted her career to helping others in any way that she can by using her writing skills to share her message.
As a person in real-life, Sarah does not believe in “cosmetic procedures”, “filters”, or “keeping up with the Jones’s”…so you are going to see her embracing her imperfections, aging, and even wearing and re-wearing the same outfits as often as she wants(she’s obsessed with thrift-shopping, so much of her wardrobe is of course second-hand).
Sarah takes her role as a mother and “role-model” for her four daughters very seriously, so has developed this “realistic lifestyle” in an effort to help her daughters stay grounded as she is trying to raise them in such a superficial/materialistic world.
Sarah cannot live without eating Burgers and Steak, and likes Cheesecake so much that she often jokes that her “entire left butt cheek must be filled with nothing but cheesecake”…lol.
Sarah is devoted to both improving herself, and this site, daily so make sure that you are subscribed as the site is continually evolving… in fact, Sarah is in the process of revamping the ENTIRE website, so please be patient as she is spending all her time elbow deep in rewrites and eventually in video creation.
When did this blog start and why?
This blog started in July of 2011, and actually began as nothing more than pure coping mechanism after the author became victim of a couple of domestic violence related first degree felonies. She was a total train-wreck after those horrible life-altering events (to the point that she was only getting out of bed to take care of her children), was unable to work a normal job anymore, and needed something to keep her hands and mind busy during the long, and very tumultuous, healing process.
Because the creator could no longer hold down a regular job, she became “super frugal” and “thrifty” as a means to try to counter the loss of household income that happened when she became unable to work. So she decided that she should share what she was learning along the way.
What kind of content is on this blog?
The thing about becoming thrifty… is that there is a total mindset shift that happens when you start pinching those pennies, and so the creator decided that she would like to share all of the things that she was doing as she began to learn to save money and really become frugally-minded.
This site continues to keep the creator motivated to get stuff done. It allows her to share the easier, cheaper, and more organized ways of what she has learned to do over the years as both a mother, and now former “house-wife”.
How to have a good experience when viewing content on this site:
As with anything in life…if you want to have a good experience with something, you need to start out with realistic expectations.
Keep in mind that everything on this site comes from the perspective of a late 30’s, single mom, that is schooled in hard knocks…She often has a nearly zero budget to create content…and any video that you see was probably shot on a very outdated Iphone.
The creator also has no desire to become “internet famous” (& is only creating content to try to help others and provide for her kids), and is actually terrified to get in front of the camera.
So, if you see her on the public side of the camera, it may have taken her weeks or months of “pep-talking” herself in order to film it in the first place, so please be kind in both comments and direct messages.
Why is it called “lifeshouldcostless.com”?
Frankly, that is because gettingmycraptogetherandsavingmoneywhiledoingso.com is a little too long…lol… and the creator struggled to find a good URL name that both captured what she wanted to accomplish, but didn’t cost a fortune either.
So, lifeshouldcostless.com was just one of the few options out there when the site was created, but it definitely isn’t the one that would have been picked had it been started 20 years prior (when all the available URL’s were pretty cheap or free).
How to support this site:
If you see something that you liked or found helpful in any way…please make sure to share it via social media, or send the direct links to your friends, family, or co-workers via email.
If you purchase the products that Sarah suggests through Amazon, the cost to you remains the same, but she makes a small commission on everything in your cart (so load that sucker up with anything that you have been needing before you check out;) )…. Also, if you ever need to buy a suggested product again, you can always come back to this site for the link…just sayin’.
Other ways to show your support are to follow and/or interact with her on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube…or even making sure that subscribing to my email list and actually opening and clicking through to the post is incredibly helpful.
*The more time that you spend on the site, and posts that you read, really helps too.*
How to support this site with a direct donation:
If something was particularly helpful, and you would like to donate directly to the creator (which is sometimes the equivalent of buying her a cup of coffee for the help), you can do so via PayPal, here…and believe me, it’s super appreciated when those donations come in.
How to contact the creator?
Because there is a myriad of reasons that people try to contact the creator, she has a separate page that goes over how to contact her, for whichever reason, and that page is found here.
Thanks so much for stopping by! ~Sarah
*Please note that this page was completely re-written on November 05, 2024 and will continually be updated in the future to remain relevant.