All About Us
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| At the Memorial Day Parade May 29, 2000 |
Dancin' the night away May 20, 2000 |
How We Met and Started the Penny Pinchin' Page
We met on June 19, 1993 and after about a week realized we were "kindred spirits". We spent our first summer together making the rounds of flea markets, yard sales and thrift shops gathering the necessities of setting up housekeeping since both of us had been cast adrift from our previous relationships with little more than the clothes on our backs and a few personal effects. We soon realized that setting up housekeeping together was a better idea than setting up separately...not only because we were pretty crazy about each other but also because it was cheaper that way! On December 24, 1995 we were engaged and started planning our wedding...this turned out to be quite a long process since we didn't actually get married until June 19, 1998. exactly 5 years after the day we met!
Part way through the engagement period we got our computer and started searching the internet for frugal wedding ideas. Much to our dismay the wedding sites we visited all suggested expensive things and we didn't want to spend more than $3000.
At the same time, at my daughter's urging and since our ISP provided the space at no additional charge, I was contemplating setting up a home page. Suddenly I thought why not put the money saving wedding ideas I had managed to glean all in one place? And while I was at it might as well add ideas for saving money in other areas since that's what we're best at. And so the Penny Pinchin' Page was created! Since then it has grown quite a lot thanks, in part, to our readers. People have sent some really great ideas and sometimes questions that inspire us to add new information or sections.
Where We Live and Other Stuff
We live in a small town (population approx. 1500) in Western Massachusetts. Ron has two adult daughters, Kathryn who graduated from high school last year (2004) and Jessica who recently bought a house and is working on fixing it up. Debbie has two adult children, Tony who lives in New Hampshire with his lovely friend Julie and her daughter Emily and Lisa who moved back to Massachusetts a few years ago after being in California since 1995. We also have 2 grandchildren, Hollis, who is nine years old and VERY smart and Annika who is seven and thinks she is a princess.
Debbie has previously worked as a supermarket cashier, library assistant and sign maker and has been a substitute teacher since 1998. She enjoys reading, cooking, artwork, crafts, gardening, scrapbooking and, of course, working on the webpage! Sometimes she sells things on Ebay which is fun if not all that profitable. She is the secretary of the VFW Ladies' Auxilliary of General Knox Post 6645 in Russell, MA and has been the chairman of their Voice of Democracy speech competition for high school students and an occasional Bingo volunteer.
Ron's jobs have included working for Strathmore Paper, orchard management, electronic repair and working in the Horticulture Shop in a vocational high school. He is currently employed by Schulmerich Carillons, Inc. as a field engineer...that means that he travels all over New England and parts of New York and New Jersey (and to France in 2004!) repairing and installing carillon bells at churches, universities, etc. He has a degree from Stockbridge School of Agriculture (the original part of the University of Massachusetts). His hobbies include gardening, fishing, tinkering around with broken electronic stuff, tinkering around with an old, beat-up truck and trying to learn to play the violin and keyboard. He is a member of American Legion Post 356 in Blandford, MA and Amvets Post 96 in Russell, MA.