Bookmarked: Carnivals and Links – Nov 20

Only one more week until (American) Thanksgiving! I’m looking forward to returning home and enjoying time with family — and most importantly, taking time to take a break and relax a bit. Much overdo. 

Site Issues

If you tried to visit Student Scrooge on Tuesday or Wednesday this week, you may have noticed the site was either down or returning errors — unfortunately my web host was experiencing problems with their database server, which knocked my site offline intermittently for the past forty-eight hours. I’m hopeful that things have been resolved, but I’m not entirely positive of that. Nevertheless, I appreciate your patience!

Around The Blogosphere

Recent Carnivals

Bargain Briana presented the 114th Festival of Frugality — Election Day Edition, and I was honored to have my gift card expiration “crisis” chosen as an editor’s choice! Awesome.

The Sun’s Financial Diary hosted the 177th Carnival of Personal Finance, which included my post on tipping for take-out food.

MoneyNing hosted the 179th Carnival of Personal Finance – Smile Edition, which should perhaps be described as the happiest carnival in a while. My post “6 situations where I still need cash” was included. 

Finally, Financial Wellness Project put together the Festival of Frugality #152 – Affected By Recession Edition, which included my list of great websites for scoring cheap airfare.

Thanks to all the hosts for putting in the time!

Bookmarked: Looking Back and Looking Forward

It is hard to believe that September has already come to an end! Looking back at the traffic stats for Student Scrooge, it has been fun to see the organic growth that has been occurring. Hopefully it keeps heading in the right direction!

As always, if you like what you see, please consider subscribing to Student Scrooge via RSS Feed or via Email.

Carnivals…

I participated in the 171st Carnival of Personal Finance – The Celebrate Fall Edition over at Sound Money Matters. Included in the carnival was my post on cash discounts appearing at gas stations.

I also participated in the 172nd Carnival of Personal Finance – The Meltdown Edition over at Debt Kid, which included my post on whether it is OK to lie in the name of frugality. (I was also excited to see the great Political Calculations blog consider it their “Best Post of the Week, Anywhere!” among the last week’s money and business related carnivals. Cool!).

Finally, my post on quick tips for textbook shopping was included in the 145th Festival of Frugality – The Gratitude Edition, hosted by Value For Your Life.

Thanks to all three hosts!

Around the Blogosphere…

The round-up this week has a very “college” student theme:

  • Jim over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity had an interesting post with 40 Money Tips for College Students. He is dead on with his two most important rules: first, to graduate with no debt (something far too many college students don’t understand), and second to have fun (which is something that you can easily lose sight of).
  • Frugal Dad has a great list of six secrets to save money when you are young. These are very “big picture” suggestions (as opposed to Jim’s above), but are all so important — I wish every young person would at least give consideration to these suggestions.
  • Just as a lot of college students begin to think about the next step, Trent over at The Simple Dollar has some great suggestions on how to find and utilize a mentor — something that really can be useful at all levels of life.
  • Finally, of course, not every moment of the day needs to be productive. Broke Grad Student gives us 8 sites to help every college student procrastinate.

Tuesday: “Synchroblog” Project

This coming Tuesday, I will be participating in a joint blogging project with ten other bloggers on the subject of what the next (United States presidential) administration can do to improve the economic health of the U.S. middle class. All ten bloggers will post their own thoughts on Tuesday morning — timed to coincide with the day of the second presidential debate — and then provide links to all of the other entries. Some major personal finance bloggers are participating (I feel a bit out of my league!), so it should be fun!

Bookmarked – Getting Back In The Groove Edition

Thank YouPhoto by psd

Happy Fall, everybody!

With the start of the fall semester, I just want to take a moment and thank those of you who have been visiting my blog over the past few months — I truly appreciate every visitor. And if you’re just stopping by for the first time, I encourage you to look around. If you like what you see, consider subscribing to Student Scrooge via RSS Feed or via Email.

My apologies for the relative lack of posts lately — I have been pretty busy over the last week or two with the start of the fall term; I had a couple of posts that I had meant to finish, and you’ll be seeing those appear over the next few days. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon!

Carnivals

Broke Grad Student hosted the 167th Carnival of Personal Finance – Highlights from the Beijing 2008 Olympics edition, which included my post on whether or not interest rate is all that matters when choosing a bank. I was surprised and honored to be picked as an Editor’s Choice (or, in keeping with the Beijing theme, receive a Gold Medal). Very cool!

That One Caveman over at One Caveman’s Financial Journey hosted the 168th Carnival of Personal Finance – Fire Up The Grill, It’s Labor Day! edition, which included my post on those sketchy looking ATMs.

Frugal Babe hosted the 142nd Festival of Frugality last week, which included my post on travel discounts for college students.

Thanks to the hosts of these carnivals — it really is a lot of work, and each did a great job.

Of Note…

Bookmarked: Carnivals and More – August 24

Carnival

Kevin over at No Debt Plan hosted the 165th Carnival of Personal Finance: College Football Edition, which included my post on beginning my own financial check-up. Thanks for hosting!

Bookmarked

These are some of the articles that I particularly enjoyed around the personal finance blog world lately:

As always, have a good weekend everybody!

Festival of Frugality #136 – Summer School Edition

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!)

Philisopher
Photo by jorge-11

Second Period: Home-Ec and Cooking

Kitchen
Photo by PleastPointInn

Third Period: Environmental Science (Living Green)

Trees
Photo by camra_art
  • 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!)

Vacation
Photo by m o d e

Fifth Period: Economics (and Personal Finance)

Checkbook
Photo by mrbill

Sixth Period: Auto / Shop

Bus
Photo by kb35

Seventh Period: Child Care Education

After School Chores: Managing the Frugal House

House
Photo by boliyou

Extra Credit

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!

Bookmarked: Carnivals and More – July 26

Carnivals

Emily over at Taking Charge hosted the 162nd Carnival of Personal Finance: Baseball edition, which included my post on the value of online savings accounts.

I also participated in the Festival of Frugality #135 – The Frugal All Over Edition at Antishay Ventenne, which included my post on the Best Buy Reward Zone program.

Thanks to both for hosting!

Bookmarked

Have a good weekend everybody!

Bookmarked – Carnivals and Links – July 18

Carnivals

I participated in two carnivals this week:

Thanks to both for hosting this week!

From The Blogs

Here is just a small sample of the articles I “starred” in my Google Reader feed list this week:

Have a nice weekend!

Bookmarked: Carnivals and Links – June 26

Festival of Frugality #131

This week I participated in the Festival of Frugality #131 – Summer Savings Edition hosted by the Broke Grad Student. Included was my post on Why i Hate Open-Loop Gift Cards. There were some great entries, so check out the rest of the festival when you get a chance.

Woops – Festival of Frugality #126

I also somehow forgot to mention that in May, I was pleased to be included in the Festival of Frugality – #126, The If i Had A Car Edition kindly hosted by The Financial Blogger. Included in the Festival was my recent post on The Microsoft Office Burden. My apologies for forgetting the mention until now.

Links

Outside of the great entries in the Festival of Frugality, here are some of the posts that have caught my eye in the last week or so:

  • Trent over at The Simple Dollar posted on Ten Tips to Maximize the Value of a Doctor’s Visit. I was actually thinking about this subject the other day — doctors visits are difficult enough once; you might as well get as most out of a visit as you can.
  • Frugal Dad has a great post on Cherry-Picking Coupons to Maximize Savings. For some reason it had never occurred to me to turn to eBay for grocery coupons. Thanks to this post, I just won a whole bunch of coupons for Tropicana Orange Juice.
  • Five Cent Nickel posted on The Hidden Costs of Renting a Car. It really is amazing how quickly the costs add up, which is why I usually opt to try public transportation whenever possible when traveling. Sometimes that just not possible, but FCN’s post provides helpful knowledge to be armed with.

Bookmarked: Carnivals and Links – May 18

It has been an incredibly busy few days, with quite a bit of traveling, but I have been able to keep up somewhat with other personal finance blogs and carnivals. From the last week:

Carnivals

This week I participated in the Festival of Frugality #125 – Save Some Money If You Are Rich Edition hosted by Mike over at Quest For Four Pillars. Included was my post on The Outrageous Cost of Movie Tickets.

Links

From the #125 Festival of Frugality, I particularly enjoyed:

  • Over at Money Smart Life, an excellent post on Money Tips for New College Graduates – Spending, Saving, & Budgeting Advice. Those first few months are crucial — the financial choices you make (or don’t make) can have a significant impact on your financial security down the line. Get started on the right foot!
  • Over at Five Cent Nickel, Nickel tells us about Saving Money with CFLs, which can both save money and save energy. I’ve been using CFLs for a while, and I’ve been quite happy. Pretty much a win-win situation.
  • At brip blap, Steve takes a closer look at whether American kids are stupid about personal finance -I’ll be honest, I have always registered the news headlines regarding these surveys of high school students, but had never bothered to actually look a the questions carefully. Definitely an interesting read.

Bookmarked: Carnivals, Links, and More – May 07

It has been a very busy week for me, but I did find time to participate in my first two carnivals ever, as well as continue to enjoy reading other blogger’s posts and contributions.

Carnival of Personal Finance

Kimberly Palmer over at US News & World Report’s Alpha Consumer blog hosted the 151st Carnival of Personal Finance this Monday, and I was lucky enough to have my post “Keeping Track of Rebates and Promotions (Remember the Milk)” included in the list. Thanks to Kimberly for hosting this week!

Festival of Frugality

Dawn over at Frugal for Life hosted the 124th Festival of Frugality (”The Name Edition”), and I was honored to have one of my posts included — “Avoiding Airline Fees“. Again, thanks to Dawn for taking the time to host the festival this week!

What I Have Been Reading

I have been considering doing a mini-road trip at some point this summer, and with talk of “How Gas Prices Will Ruin Your Summer” (ABC News), the issue of gas prices has been on my mind quite a bit lately. Naturally, this subject has been getting quite a bit of discussion lately, and I found two blog posts in particular interesting: Ron over at The Wisdom Journal’s entry on “10 Simple Behavioral Changes That Save Gas” and DR over at The Dough Roller’s entry on “25 Ways to Save Money on Gas“. Both posts offer some very useful tips that I plan to keep in mind.

On the subject of protecting yourself when making large purchases, Money Blue Book has a useful post on how to “Get A Free Extended Warranty By Purchasing with a Credit Card” — extended warranty protection is something that I always knew some credit cards had, but had never really bothered to investigate. Turns out that among my cards, the Citi mtvU card has the Visa extended warranty protection, which means that I can continue to use the card for the effective 5% back at Amazon and receive extended warranty protection.

Of course, even with extended warranty protection, sometimes you just want to get rid of the thing, which is why I enjoyed learning more about what happens when Buying and Returning Heavy, Expensive Products on Amazon over at Clever Dude. His experience makes me more comfortable purchasing large items online at Amazon.

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