'If I could help just one person, I would consider it a success': how one mum's food blog changed her life
As part of our Mums Who Inspire series, we sat down with Caitríona Redmond to learn more about her inspirational story of determination. If you have a story that you would like to be featured, email mumswhoinspire[at]
Job loss, financial difficulties and struggling to raise a young family on a tight budget are not uncommon themes from the past few years. However, instead of crumbling under the pressure of recession, mum Caitríona Redmond took inspiration from her difficulties and turned it into Wholesome Ireland, a successful blog and cookbook.
Born and raised in North County Dublin, Caitríona still lives in Balbriggan with her husband, two sons and 18-year-old stepdaughter. She enjoys being part of the Balbriggan community and described it to MagicMum as a “country town in county Dublin”. Until 2008, they had the good life there.
Working as a Personal Assistant to a director of a large property company, Caitríona enjoyed her high-flying job. Despite the demanding hours, she was great at her job and was even honoured with an industry award for PA of the year.
In 2008, however, disaster struck with the recession. She recalls, “I came back in on my first day back from maternity leave with my eldest boy and was handed a P45 that day.”
With a new-born baby at home, losing her job came as a massive shock. She went through a “grieving process”:
“It’s such a big change to your life as you know it, it’s a difficult thing to come to terms with. That you’re not getting up in the morning to go to work every day.”
Looking back now, Caitríona admits that being let go was a blessing in disguise, even if it didn't feel like it at the time. “In hindsight, we probably wouldn't have been able to afford the childcare,” she admits, “I would’ve been working very long hours based in the city centre and not have had as much time with my baby.”
Jobs at the time were scarce and the family, like so many others at the time, began to tighten their belts. “So we started to save and scrimp where we could in the house. And the last thing to go was the food”
“We budgeted about €70 a week for food so I had to start figuring out how to make things stretch.”
Caitríona “made no secret” about trying to make her money go that bit further, and eventually, other mothers started coming to her for advice. That was when the first version of her blog The Wholesome Cook was launched.
“I didn't even have a Facebook page.” she recalls. “I used to just share my recipes on Twitter.”
Things seemed to take a turn for the worse again in November of 2011. Despite the joy of adding another baby boy to their family, they came under even more financial strain.
They fell victim to the tracker mortgage scandal:
“We went into arrears, and we discovered much later that if we’d been charged the correct amount of interest on our mortgage, it wouldn't have happened.”
With the house at risk, a teenager and two small children, it was a “dark time” for Caitríona.
“I spent most of my days cooking or fighting the banks,” she says.
Caitríona blamed herself for the families difficulties.
“At the time, I was very down and I was blaming myself for not being able to find a job etc. I felt that it was all my fault that this was happening to us and that I was letting everyone down.”
It was at her lowest point, that Caitríona returned to her neglected blog. She “splashed out” on the €50 to create the domain name that stands today, Wholesome Ireland.
“I decided that my purpose behind it was to connect with people who were in the same situation,” she said. “If I could help just one person, I would consider it a success.”
The blog instantly started getting “great feedback” from families in similar positions. At the height of the recession, Caitriona’s message of money-savvy, healthy food seemed to have struck a cord.
The blog became a source of happiness and positivity in her life; “It gave me the kick I needed. Every tweet that someone had tried my recipe was like a physical cheer.”
Wholesome Ireland is now six-years-old.
“It’s weird now looking back to think that it all came out of a moment of fire, “ Caitríona muses. “The motivation to help ourselves and to help others came out a tough time that was never our fault.”
Family life is also something that Caitríona regularly blogs about along with her recipes. She believes that this honesty about her life is what really drew in readers in the blog’s early days.
“One of the earliest blogs I did was about walking home from school with one boy and the other in the buggy. We walked by a chipper and the smell of it was amazing, but I didn't even have enough money in my pocket for a bag of chips. A lot of people seemed to identify with that feeling.”
The blog grew from strength to strength, and Caitríona published her own cookbook, Wholesome; Feed your Family Well for Less in 2014.
She dedicated the book to her mother and grandmother, the latter who only recently passed away.
“They are all extremely strong women who inspired me in different ways. That’s what my dedication to them reads ‘You have taught and inspired me’.”
“I’m not a formally trained chef,” she continues. “My mother and grandmothers were the ones who trained me and were my biggest influences. They passed on a legacy, not just with cooking but also how to nurture a family.”
Her own family also plays a big role in Wholesome. Her step-daughter is now studying marketing in college and thinks it’s funny that her step-mother spends more time on social media than she does. The younger boys, as well as being unfailingly honest recipe tasters, think it’s “cool” that their mum is a “Youtuber”.
Caitríona says her husband is also a great source of support, providing a helping hand behind-the-scenes. They have known each other since they were teenagers, with her step-daughter being part of their family for as long as she can remember.
In a commitment to quality over quantity, Caitríona trials each recipe a whopping six times before sharing it. She only uses free-range meat and “puts her money where her mouth is” by running a community project raising free-range pigs for consumption.
She is now a brand ambassador for Lidl, paving the way in an otherwise male-lead area alongside famous chefs such as Neven Maguire and Kevin Dundon.
After reviewing the deluxe range for Lidl and working on their Christmas brochures, becoming a brand ambassador for the chain “felt like natural progression":
And her advice to bloggers? Just start.
“So many creative people get held back in the search for perfection. A blog doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to tell a story.”
Check out some of Caitríona's yummy recipes here!