Queercents

Martinique is the daughter of a CFP Trust Officer and sensible mother. The combination of these 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 and her partner have developed a similar approach to their own finances. They strive 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 a lot more thankful for her parents and their education about money. 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. Her wife, Brittany also receives half off tuition as her spouse and is working on her Master’s Degree full-time. Brittany will go on to earn a PhD and teach college, so navigating life on only one income for the next five to ten odd years is a necessary hobby. As avid cyclists, atheists, academics and leftist liberal queers, the two of them hope to be a force for good in the world and teach their future child(ren) to think for themselves while thinking about how their actions impact others. The two of them are starting down that path to adulthood and hope to eventually own a home, but to never own a car.

Martinique also blogs with her sister about living frugally at http://thrifty-sisters.blogspot.com/ and has her own weblog on everything from queer politics and books to rants about the weather at http://babygotbook.typepad.com/. She can be reached at martinique@queercents.com.