Autistic blogger 'addicted' to money-saving stays up until 5am hunting bargains...

[AGXStarseed]

(Not written by me. Click the source article link at the bottom of the page to see more images and see how Holly managed to help another woman - Amber - out of debt)

Autistic blogger who is 'addicted' to money-saving reveals she stays up until 5am obsessively hunting for bargains - and says her condition makes her 'the best in the industry'

• Holly Smith, 33, from Great Yarmouth appears in The Asperger's Moneysaver

• Reaches seven million people a week with her online money-saving tips

• Holly was diagnosed with Asperger's at 26 and struggles to socialise

• But said it's helped her as she's obsessive about helping people to save money

A coupon queen has revealed how having Asperger's syndrome has helped her become one of the UK's top money-saving bloggers.

Holly Smith, 33, from Gorleston near Great Yarmouth appears in a new episode of Radio 1 Stories, The Asperger's Moneysaver, now available on iPlayer and reveals for the first time how her condition has made her 'addicted to money saving'

Holly boasts two million Facebook followers, four million views on YouTube and has a weekly reach of seven million people and insists her autism is the key to her success.

'My mind's constantly running so I can't relax. I get to bed around 5 am,' she explained as she opened up about her condition for the first time. 'Autism makes me the best I am in the industry.

'If I've got something on my mind that I think will help people save money, I'll work nine until four in the morning. I don't stop.'

Holly Smith, 33, from Great Yarmouth appears in The Asperger's Moneysaver where she shows off her stash of bargains in her garage

The blogger often stays up all night working as she's obsessive about helping people to save money

Holly wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's until she was 26, but said it was actually a relief to find out why she felt different from other people.

'I finally understood I didn't have depression, I was just wired a different way,' she said. People with Asperger's have traits and they focus on them and somewhat obsess on them.

'Some people might be really good at making model Lego figures. I am addicted to money saving.'

The downside is Holly's struggle with going into crowded spaces and socialising with people as she becomes overwhelmed by the noise.

'It is a curse. It's a struggle at times. Why can't I go down the pub and meet with my husband's friends? Why can't I be normal?

'I hear every conversation. Every single noise,' she explained. 'I hear the background music. But I can't filter. It becomes a deafening wall of sound.'

Home is her safe place where she has everything set up in exactly the way she likes it, especially her garage where she stores her hauls of bargains.

'This is my happy place,' she said. 'I know where everything is and "oh I only paid a penny for that".'

Growing up, Holly knew from an early age that she didn't fit in with other people.

'I think right early on, even at nursery I just wanted to play with toys in the corner by myself,' she recalled.

'I didn't get on with other people really well. Nobody understood I was autitstic.'

Her mother took her out of school when she was 15 because she was being bullied and couldn't cope.

'Because I dropped out of school so young I had to learn myself,' Holly explained. 'Basically everything I do is life skills learned the hard way, but I would have really like to go to university.'


Source: Autistic blogger is 'addicted' to money-saving | Daily Mail Online

 

[Progster]

I can relate to this.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I save the most

By just sleeping.

 

[Aeolienne]

I can't help but wonder: does she ever worry about the wider impact on society of her obsession with cheapness? Remember the Rana Plaza tragedy five years ago, when a textile factory in Bangladesh collapsed with great loss of life. At the time it was linked to the Western world's demand for cheap clothes. A similar point could be made about demand for cheap food supporting factory farming or cheap flights fuelling an unsustainable increase in the most environmentally damaging form of transport.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

Apparently my grand grand mother was obsessive about money saving aswell, she lived actual poverty, and afhter that she didnt want to spend anything, that's what my father told me, and the only thing I saw from her was a "letter", she would wrote an entiere letter with such a tiny writing it would feet on a little piece of paper , that's one of the most ridiculous things iv ever seen.

My grandmother spend her pension on feeding all the cats around tha's another story xD


My father as a tendency to make little saving aswell, but my mother often got pissed by that so he chanhed his behaviour xD

 

[Iamnotarabot]

I can't help but wonder: does she ever worry about the wider impact on society of her obsession with cheapness? Remember the Rana Plaza tragedy five years ago, when a textile factory in Bangladesh collapsed with great loss of life. At the time it was linked to the Western world's demand for cheap clothes. A similar point could be made about demand for cheap food supporting factory farming or cheap flights fuelling an unsustainable increase in the most environmentally damaging form of transport.

I guess there is no good side of this, she feels usefull and feels like she helps people. She validates a system but she didnt create it and she didnt tell you who she votes for...

You know I always think like that and the only result is that i'm basically not doing anything xD

 

[Mary Anne]

It is still OCD whether she is famous, and has millions of Facebook followers or collects trash and hoards it in her home. It' all the same disorder.

The main question is...does she enjoy life? I would not enjoy her life, if I was trapped in it.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

It is still OCD whether she is famous, and has millions of Facebook followers or collects trash and hoards it in her home. It' all the same disorder.

The main question is...does she enjoy life? I would not enjoy her life, if I was trapped in it.

You know sometimes I think that the best thing to do might be to embrace those things like OCD and other weird things, they create troubles when we want to get rid off it ( unless this is something dangerous in the first place ofc.)

 

[Mary Anne]

You know sometimes I think that the best thing to do might be to embrace those things like OCD and other weird things, they create troubles when we want to get rid off it ( unless this is something dangerous in the first place ofc.)

 

[Mary Anne]

Well of course. She is finanially and socially benefiting from her OCD. I work with those who would give anything to rid themselves of life destroying OCD.

I have dealt with my own OCD issues too. They controlled my life in very destructive ways. I got very little benefits or health out of them.