Martinique is the daughter of a CFP Trust Officer and sensible mother. The combination of her two parents helped to make her the frugal woman she is today. Her parents were experts in balancing thrift with splurges on “memories, education and health.” Martinique has developed a similar approach to her own finances. She strives to put a little cash in each pot from shoes and haircuts to IRAs and a house-fund.

Martinique graduated from The Evergreen State College in 2000 with BA and went on to spend two years working for Americorps. Americorps paid less than minimum wage and opened up Martinique’s eyes to her own privilege. She became more thankful for her parents and the financial education they provided her. Ever since then she has wanted to find ways to educate the average young person on the pitfalls of credit cards and failing to save for the future.

After finishing a Master’s in library science and slinging lattes for two years, Martinique landed herself a job as a librarian at a university in Chicago, and is taking advantage of her benefits to earn a second Master’s Degree for free. As an avid cyclist, atheist, academic and leftist liberal queer,she hopes to be a force for good in the world and help her friends and future child(ren) to think for themselves while thinking about how their actions impact others. She hope to eventually own a home, but to never own a car.

Martinique also blogs with her sisters about living frugally at thrifty-sisters.blogspot.com.

She can be reached at martinique@queercents.com.