Festival of Frugality #136 - Summer School Edition
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Welcome to the 136th Festival of Frugality - The Summer School Edition, hosted here at Student Scrooge!
If this is your first time visiting Student Scrooge, please take a moment to look around. This blog has been my venue over the past few months for sharing my own experiences and discoveries as I work to continue to put myself on the right path financially and to learn how to best put limited resources to use. While I certainly write from a college student’s perspective, I think much of what I write is applicable to a broader audience. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing via RSS or subscribing via email!
Now to the good stuff — this week we have over sixty entries from frugal bloggers around the internet filled with tips and reflections on making the most of your resources, financial and otherwise. A lot of these entries this week take us “back to school” to relearn the basics — saving at home, on food, and more — and as such, I present this summer-school themed edition.
Enjoy!
The Honor Roll
- Almost Frugal presents a clever compilation of the ABCs of Frugality: 26 Key Frugal Concepts — including catnip, (the) Joanses, soap, and zzzzs, and more.
- Gather Little by Little talks about how to get 100+ MPG. Sound impossible? There’s a catch, of course — that is 100+ MPG on a Scooter.
- Monroe on a Budget tackles the rapidly-approaching back-to-school peer-pressure issue, offering some very helpful tips on how to moderate the financial damage without disappointing your kids.
- Saving Advice reminds us why all those daily habits are worth it – the benefit from activities like brushing teeth, exercising, sleeping may not be apparent, but they can certainly add up to significant cost savings in the long run. Use this as motivation to keep at these healthy habits!
First Period: Philosophy (of Frugality!)
- Art of the Coupon reflects on spending and purchasing items that are not absolutely necessary, and a strategy for trying to control the impact of such purchases.
- Budgets are Sexy asks what your smartest advice about money has been, and presents, ahem, an interesting anecdote as one response.
- The Digerati Life looks at the benefits, both ethical and financial, of downsizing your life.
- The Happy Rock considers the moral implications of the possibility that credit card rewards are funded by the irresponsible, and asks whether that should influence those who use them responsibly.
- Mrs. Nespy’s Frugal World reflects back on how to find the time to get more done, with some sobering suggestions to limit how much you — and your children and family — tackle in order to make time to enjoy life.
- The Shark Investor relays observations and financial wisdom from a recent trip to India, including wisdom on eating, living, and getting around.
Second Period: Home-Ec and Cooking
- Cheap Healthy Good argues against taking frugality too far, arguing for ten foods that you should splurge on. All of them are tasty, but I particularly agree with splurging on cheese.
- Distilled Rose has a great lunch suggestion that costs less than a dollar a day to make — a tasty looking English Muffin.
- The Family Wallet provides ten great tips for reducing cost at the grocery store, including going generic, reducing portions, making the most of what the grocery store offers, and more.
- Green Panda Treehouse has several suggestions for how to save money when eating out. Finding local spots is definitely good advice.
- Home Ec 101 describes how to go about planning for meals and gradually expanding your “menu offerings.” I particularly like the suggestions about listening to feedback and being willing to make mistakes!
- Little House in the Suburbs talks about how to make your own vanilla extract. Definitely frugal, and I didn’t even know this was possible! (Note: Little House in the Suburbs is changing hosts and may be unreachable for 24-48 hours; be sure to check them out when they’re live again!)
- Living Almost Large asks whether it is possible to feed a family of four on less than a $100 a week. I’ll admit that I don’t think I could make it under $100/week.
- Not Made of Money helps with the balance between inexpensive food and healthy food. I’ve always found this difficult, and there are some excellent tips here on how to find affordable healthy food. Cheap and good!
- The Sojourner describes how to make your own frugal and delicious homemade bagels. I eat a lot of bagels, and so this is probably something I should look into — and the directions and pictures here will come in handy.
- Think Your Way to Wealth has an entry on the benefits of BBQing several nights worth of food at the beginning of the week to save on time, money, and effort. I have to admit that this seems like a great idea, but the foresight will be the hardest part for me!
Third Period: Environmental Science (Living Green)
- Blueprint for Financial Success suggests air drying clothes rather than using an electric dryer as a means of saving money and energy. The best part is that, assuming you are not in a rush, it is such a simple and idiot-proof (important for me!) way of drying clothes.
- Early Retirement Extreme praises the freecycle program, and tells of how to make the most of the system while also building and engaging in satisfying and gratifying exchanges. Freecycle has always intrigued me, and ERE’s great story makes me want to try it myself.
- EnviroHumanImpact argues that people should give up the printed newspaper in favor of more technological forms. Not only can this save money, but it can reduce the environmental impact of the daily production of newspapers.
- Frugal Fu has some great tips on creating a waste-free lunch. It’s a pretty major issue, and looking back on my own childhood lunch bags, it is painful to think of how wasteful they were.
- Nature Mom has a great post on how to save money and go green, looking not only at buying “green” and healthy foods and reducing energy use, but also at embracing the concept of “being green.”
- The Q Family Adventure has a list of thirteen ways to be green and save money at the same time. Great tips on saving money around the household — I continue to be amazed that, despite there being several “green” articles this week, they all seem to provide some unique insight.
- To Be Debt Free presents a great list of twenty four ways to save energy, and therefore money, around the house. It is amazing how many ways there are to make your house more “green”, more “efficient”, and more “frugal”!
Fourth Period: Geography (and Travel!)
- All About Orlando discusses how to experience Orlando, and Disney World, on the cheap - something I most definitely did not succeed at last time I visited.
- The FindAirlineCards Travel Blog offers suggestions on how to score an upgrade to first class on vacation for free. Being nice helps!
- Free Money Finance shows how small cities are better at growing your net worth. If only it were easy for me to move now, as I would definitely take this into consideration these days.
- Uncommon Cents suggests that, while you’re on that flight, you be wary of the prices in the SkyMall magazine. Given the airline industry, that doesn’t really surprise me.
- Value For Your Life describes how to visit London on a budget. With the dollar the way it is, every penny saved helps, and these are some excellent tips on having a great, but frugal, trip adventure in London.
- We like Money recounts the steps they took to save money on the planning of their vacation, including booking the hotel and flight as well as taking care of the cats.
Fifth Period: Economics (and Personal Finance)
- Bankaholic warns of three signs that your bank may be in trouble. In these uncertain banking times, it never hurts to be on the lookout for warning signs.
- Bible Money Matters describes how to buy insurance for your family — something that has always confused me some, so I appreciated the post.
- Cash Money Life continues his project of telling us how to become millionaires, this time focusing on spending less than you earn. Tips include analyzing your financial habits, making a budget, finding places to cut back, and more.
- Debt Smackdown looks at several bankruptcy-related questions you should ask should you find yourself considering entering bankruptcy protection.
- The Hustler Money Blog recaps the best 0% APR balance transfer cards out there and has a nice overview of how balance transfers work.
- Not the Jet Set describes their cash envelope system, a pretty effective way to control and monitor where their spending goes each month. This post inspired me to try something similar on a lot of my regular cash expenditures.
- The Personal Financier tackles the age-old question of whether it is better to buy or rent. In addition to a succinct break-down of the benefits and costs on each side, there is also a nice link to a New York Times tool on the subject.
- Slow Down Fast Today! points out the connection between debt and happiness, suggesting such steps for happiness as changing spending habits, eliminating credit cards, forcing yourself to save, and more.
Sixth Period: Auto / Shop
- The Green Motorist asks “When will a hybrid car actually save money?” and comes up with some surprising results on just how far you have to drive to realize savings.
- The Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning looks at how a frugal minded person should approach car expenses, including when to purchase, what to buy, how to finance it, and how to handle maintenance.
- $aving to Invest highlights a rather interesting alternative to the car. While they do say what’s old can be new again, I think I might have to pass on this particular form of transportation.
- Trees Full of Money provides information on how to sell a vehicle with negative equity. Unfortunately, it seems like more and more people are finding themselves in this situation, so these tips could be useful.
Seventh Period: Child Care Education
- Becoming Debt Free questions whether we are doing a good enough job teaching kids financial responsibility, and suggests some ways for doing a better job. Added bonus of individual suggestions for different age groups.
- The Mortgage Blog looks at how to save money raising children when it comes to such issues as impulse buying, pocket money, and more.
After School Chores: Managing the Frugal House
- Chief Family Officer makes the most of her products, taking the frugal step of even cutting open the moisturizer bottle open — which speaks to the frugal lifestyle. Simple but effective, right?
- Fiscal Liberty gives ten ways to survive the rising cost of living by saving money on everyday activities. Some interesting tips covering gas, food, electric, and more.
- Harvesting Dollars presents some interesting gadgets for do-it-yourself laundry out there today. I actually looked at some of these a while ago, and they certainly seem like a fun idea.
- Help My Cash Grow has a guest post with some wonderful tips on decorating on a budget — frugal decorating. Crates, picture frames, mirrors — all wonderful ideas, and I need all the help I can get when it comes to decorating.
- HowToMe makes creating your own custom area rug from carpet remnants sound easy. I’m not normally adventurous when it comes to things like this, but I might have to give this a try.
- No Debt Plan just saved 66% on Shampoo and Conditioner at the drugstore. I particularly liked how this went beyond just the drugstore game to include distance considerations as well.
- PennyJobs.com emphasizes the value of cleaning your house regularly. Maybe this will be the prodding I need to get back on top of this (maybe…)
- Personal Finance Analyst has fun with the fact that (perhaps Future First Lady) Michelle Obama shops at Target, and provides some savings at Target to go along with the story. Something tells me, though, that if Obama gets elected, her days of Target shopping may be over for a while…
- Rather be Shopping tells of the retention offer that Dish Network gave to stay with the cable company — a quick way to lower your cable bill! You’d be surprised what a quick phone call can get you, and its not just limited to cable companies.
- Simply Saving provides an exhaustive list of fifty tips for frugal living. Some are straightforward, but some I hadn’t thought of before. Worth a look!
Extra Credit
- Awesome Forex Alerts has three forex trading strategies to maximize your returns under different situations.
- Beauty and Personal Grooming shows how to use leaves as a beauty aid. This is certainly not my area of expertise, and I was amazed at what could be done with leaves.
- Christian Finance Blog talks about how to make money with Cash Crate. I have heard this mentioned quite a bit lately, and so it was nice to see a succinct overview.
- Counting My Pennies writes about alternate sources of making money, including blogging, secret shopping, and online surveys. I certainly agree that these mini-alternate income streams can be nice supplements to other sources of income.
- JobMob has a series of suggestions on where NOT to spend your job search budget. Job searches can be pretty stressful, and so maximizing your resources can help effectively land a job.
- KCLau’s Money Tips reviews a book on how to manage your money.
- MyDollarPlan poses a series of questions on how much to tip in certain “sticky” situations. Tipping is always a difficult subject, and these cases don’t really seem to have clear cut answers.
- Nickel presents twelve great resources for buying smart, which contains several sites that I use regularly as well as some I had not expected. He’s absolutely right that the internet has changed shopping for the better.
- Save and Conquer talks about the nice surprise on their doorstep recently. It never hurts to be friendly to the neighbors.
- The Simple Wealth retells a recent successful coupon mission at Wal-Mart, with an impressive savings to show for it. It is amazing what can be done with coupons.
And this completes the 136th Festival of Frugality. Next week’s host will be Frugal Homemaker Plus on the 5th of August, and you can learn more about how to submit on the Festival of Furgality home page. Thanks for visiting!
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Nice group of articles. I like the way you divided up the posts into categories, Richard
Great job putting the Festival together. Really well done on short notice! Thanks for hosting and for including my post.
Thanks for hosting. Another great collection of articles. (BTW: I really love the simple design and colour scheme of your blog)
Thanks for selecting my article for the honor role! Great job hosting!
I made the honor roll! Thank you!
My husband was reading over my shoulder as I was making that post, and he was surprised that “keeping up with the Joneses” could be such an issue with back-to-school expenses.
Great carnival–thanks so much for hosting! I really appreciate the inclusion of my post about visiting London on a budget.
Sincerely,
Amanda
Thanks for the honor roll pick! I’m honored (heh, heh, but really!).
Thx for the ad! Oh, and I know have Pink Floyd in my head for some reason…
Thanks for hosting.
Thanks for hosting…especially last minute! You did a great job!
Thank you!
Thanks for including me. Great Festival!
Thank you so much for hosting. I enjoyed the creative format.
Very well done! Thanks for stepping up and hosting in a pinch!
Thanks for hosting! I posted it here:
http://simply-saving.com/festival-of-frugality-136/
Enjoy your new frugal academic gown - you can wear it anywhere!
For a slightly female and more frivolous look at frugality - check out my blog at http://www.myfrugallife.com/blog_pamphyila.html - It’s parked at thriftyfun.com a GREAT downhome site for thrifty tips (& crafts) from the heartland - If you never listened to your mother - hear her here!
Just posted my thoughts on saving $ on our vacation - Or is it a STAYcation becaz we stayed close to home? (I thought staycations were vacations AT home….?) Funny almost ALL of my vacations have been staycations close to home/camping!!! Guess I have the frugal touch. (P.S. should now be on an RSS feed - or see notices of new blogs on twitter.com/pamphyila!
Enjoy your new frugal academic gown - you can wear it anywhere!
Thanks for including my post, great festival!