Festival of Frugality

Happy Tuesday Friends! I am back with another great Festival announcement brought to you by the amazing See Debt Run. This one is filled with all the great frugal resources as well as some amazing images. I like pictures…I guess I’m simple like that

Check out his top choices below:

• Free Money Finance posted “Get Rid of Your Stuff: Make Money, Declutter Your Life, and Help Others“, which talked about their old suggestion to make and save money by getting rid of our junk. The idea was to simply sell stuff you don’t need/use, make money off the sale, and save money by canceling outside storage.
• Ready For Zero Blog realized that swimsuit season is coming up, and shared some awesome thoughts about “Fun Ways to Workout and Get Fit Without Joining a Gym“.  They noted that if you don’t have time to work out every day, it can be easy to waste money on a gym membership! However, you don’t always need a gym to work out. Here are some creative and fun ways to get fit while saving money.
• 20s Finance waxed philosophical this week on his wonderful post “Why Cars are Destroying Our Society“.  Corey asks,  What kind of car do you drive? Are one of those people that worries about breaking down on the side of the road because your car is older than most high schoolers? Or are you someone who loves the smell of a new car. We all know that smell – it’s not just a sign of its recent production date, but is also about comfort, security, and assurances aka warranties.  Don’t miss this one.

Next weeks host will be Wise Money Pastor. Please remember to send your entries and contact me if you are interested in hosting a future festival (don’t make me contact you). Open dates can be found on the schedule and you can use the contact page if there is a date you are interested in.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about how expensive it actually is to eat organic. For starters, let’s point out that most people waste a lot of money on groceries anyway. So any discussion of a grocery budget must begin and end with reigning in excessive purchases. You shouldn’t sacrifice your health so that you don’t feel bad buying ten boxes of popsicles. Most organic foods are more expensive than their conventional counterparts, but sometimes only by nickels and dimes. Remember that phrase “don’t get nickeled and dimed?” It applies here.

Another consideration is that not all foods need to be purchased as organic. Many foods contain extremely low amounts of pesticide residue, to the point where it is a virtually negligible amount. Onions, corn pineapple, avocado, asparagus, sweet peas, mangos, eggplant, cantaloupe, kiwi, cabbage, watermelon, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, and mushrooms are all examples of fruits, vegetables and legumes that won’t have adverse affects on your health if their inorganic versions are consumed. Figure this into your grocery list.

Something else to consider is where you’re buying your produce. If you buy from Whole Foods or another specialty health store, then yes, the organic foods are going to cost you a pretty penny. But if you’re smart and go to farmer’s markets and buy from local farmers, you can get incredible deals on organic food. Towards the end of the day, many farmer’s markets will feature even better deals. It’s not uncommon to walk out with several bags of produce that you only spent a few bucks on.

Buying locally from farmer’s markets is important for another reason too. The produce will last for longer. Store-bought fruits and vegetables have been aging in transit and could have been sitting on the shelf for days, even weeks. Farmer’s markets produce is fresh and is much less likely to spoil. This means you will waste less and spend less on your groceries for that week.

For these reasons, the perception of organic as an expensive luxury is a myth and an extremely unfortunate one. Eating organic can save you money on groceries in the short run and can save you money on medical bills in the long run. Studies have shown that people who eat organic are healthier overall, which means you can expend to live a longer, more productive life. What could be more frugal than conserving on health and grocery costs?

Hey Y’all, we are back with another announcement for another great Festival. This May Day flavored post is hosted by This That and The MBA.

Check out their editors picks:

Kurt Fischer presents Income-Based Student Loan Repayment posted at Money Counselor.

Adam presents The Reality of Self-Employment posted at Magical Penny.

Jefferson presents The Big Bag o’ Frozen Chicken posted at See Debt Run.

Tim presents Teaching Kids About Money posted at Faith and Finance.

Jeremy presents Thank You For Irresponsible Credit Card Usage posted at Modest Money.

Be true to your hearts and come back next week for a great festival to be hosted by See Debt Run. Until then, send your entries and be sure to contact me if you are interested in hosting a future festival (don’t make me contact you). Open dates can be found on the schedule and you can use the contact page if there is a date you are interested in.

One of the hardest parts about being an adult is frugality, financial responsibility and saving money. Let’s face it: our inner id, the kid side of us, wants us to spend, spend, spend! Feed the beast, as it’s said. You see something you want, buy it! But as we grow older, we realize that’s not a sustainable way of living. Even if you’re rich.

How many horror stories have we heard about incredibly wealthy individuals going bankrupt because of profligate spending? Indeed, a stunning percentage of professional athletes go bankrupt within only a few years of retiring because of poor money management and obscene debts.

Many of us don’t have the luxury of worrying about losing millions. However, many, if not all, people do have to worry about saving for retirement and having enough money to care for their families. There is no shortage of major long-term expenditures: health care, college tuition, retirement plans, car payments, utility bills, etc. The list goes on and on. Settling into responsible financial habits is hard, but important. Here are a few habits you should embrace into your lifestyle that could save you some cool cash in the long run:

Carve out a portion of your paycheck for savings. Even if you aren’t paying into a 401(k) or Roth IRA account, that doesn’t mean you can’t slowly grow a savings. Simply setting aside a few hundred dollars every month will allow you to save a thousand dollars or more over the course of the year. If that money is left untouched it can grow to a sizable savings.

Pay as you go. Don’t live off of a credit card. This is a hard lesson that many Americans are learning as we attempt to reduce our personal and collective debt. The best way to ensure that you don’t wind up paying off whopping credit card debts is to pay for things with the cash you currently have in your bank account. If you can’t afford it, you don’t buy it.

Rid yourself of excess. It’s hard to turn down that second martini, the sushi dinner, the pretty dress, the new pair of shoes. But sometimes you have to make sacrifices of frugality in order to create good financial habits. Next time you are tempted to buy something expensive, ask yourself: do I really need this?

Establishing sound financial habits is difficult, but you will likely find that the more money you save the more positive you will feel about living a life of frugality. Part of being an adult is coming to terms with this reality of money and learning to live within your income.

Frugality is often confused as cheapness. However, the two are not the same. There are important distinctions that will give you pause next time you think to call someone cheap. Frugality is a form of financial responsibility, whereas cheapness is a form of social and personal distress. Let’s say you go out to eat with some friends at a restaurant. The bill comes and what you ordered comes to $14.99 before tax and tip. You give the person collecting the money a ten and a five and go to the bathroom. Now that’s cheapness. You’re shortchanging your friends three or four dollars rather than paying your full share of the meal. Frugality, in this same situation, would have been if you had gone out with your friends but elected not to eat because you didn’t want to spend the money.

Frugality is way of compartmentalizing finances so that you’re able to make snapshot decisions about what you can expend money on and what you can’t. Cheapness is the opposite—failing to plan your finances in advance, which forces you to make curt and rude stipulations in the moment. In this case, eating out—which is a common source of overspending—has been singled out. But it is not the only example of products and services Americans overspend on. Cell phones, cars, alcohol, cigarettes, clothes, haircuts all contribute to our consumer debt.

The reason why this is important is that it is essential that we reclaim frugality as a positive word in this society. With Americans facing rampant debt and problematic financial situations across the board, frugality and modesty could be the lifestyle that allows us to crawl back from the ledge and become financially responsible once again. Instead of making fun of people who are frugal by calling them ‘cheap,’ we should be rewarding this kind of behavior. Indeed, more and more Americans are demanding that the federal government spend less, yet those people carry around whopping credit card debts and bloated mortgages, because of poor financial planning and overspending.

The next time you think of calling someone cheap, think about whether the term actually applies. Is the person in question refraining from the purchase of something they can’t afford? Are they looking to save more into a high yield savings account? That’s not cheap, that’s frugal. Cheapness is buying the item in question and then failing to pay it back in a timely manner. We need less of the latter and more of the former.

Welcome to this weeks great announcement for an even greater Festival. This weeks post is hosted by the amazing Buzzraid.

The editor’s choice for this week is the article from PT Money about receiving his Home Mortgage Pre-Approval Letter. In the post he takes you through his experience with getting a pre-approval letter as well as the importance of a pre-approval letter and how to increase your chances of being approved.

Next weeks host will be Chris from This That and The MBA. Make sure you check out his site for some real world financial advice. Until then, send your entries and be sure to contact me if you are interested in hosting a future festival (don’t make me contact you). Open dates can be found on the schedule and you can use the contact page if there is a date you are interested in.

Welcome to the late announcement for this weeks Festival. Head on over to Budgeting with the Bushmans for another great post. This one offers great real world advice as well as some stellar top picks (see below):

LOVE the post by Living in Financial Excellence about how to get started making a budget! Personal Finance Journey also provided three great tips about growing your emergency fund. 20s Finances weighs in with more easy ways to save money. I liked Married With Debt’s non-traditional look at early retirement. Also among my favorites was Brip Blap’s top 10 healthy and frugal foods. LOVE The Happy Guy’s take oncreating your own fast food.

Until next week, send your entries and be sure to contact me if you are interested in hosting a future festival (don’t make me contact you). Open dates can be found on the schedule and you can use the contact page if there is a date you are interested in.

Welcome to the announcement for this weeks Festival! Always a great frugal topic, One Smart Dollar‘s post is all about savings!

1. Kevin presents The First Step to $1 Million of Net Worth posted at Thousandaire. – I would say that a majority of Americans are late to the party when it comes to saving for retirement.  Kevin had an article last week about a reader of his who is just 20 and already starting to think about saving for retirement.  First off props to him for his duty in the military and for thinking about retirement at an age when most are thinking about the next party they’re going to.

2. Amanda L Grossman presents The Groundhog Day Financial Lesson I am Doomed to Live Over and Over Again posted at Frugal Confessions. – I love the meaning of this article because she hit on an awesome point that just because something is on sale doesn’t mean its a deal.

I think I need to make sure my wife reads this article.  She loves to see what kind of deals she can get at thrift stores, but the sad thing is I have donated some of those clothes right back to the goodwill with the tags still on them.

3. Bobbie Bushman presents Voluntary Simplicity or Poverty? posted at Budgeting with the Bushmans. – I love this article because it points out the fact that just because some people like to live a more simple life it doesn’t mean they’re poor.  It instead means they are happy and debt free.

Come back next week for another post by Bobbie from Budgeting with the Bushmans. Until then, send your entries and be sure to contact me if you are interested in hosting a future festival (don’t make me contact you). Open dates can be found on the schedule and you can use the contact page if there is a date you are interested in.

Before we get to announcing this weeks host I would like to share this interesting infographic I came across this week.

I like numbers. Here are some observations of mine:

• Cost of the census raised by 1,240% from 1940 to 2010.
• Not what to take from this but the median annual salary for men raised by 224% and by 263% for women (adjusted by inflation). Cool to see a movement towards adequate pay for women…still room for improvement.
• People with bachelor degrees has increased by 506%. In my opinion the supply is booming but the demand is not as evident. I understand it for the corporate world but there is a lot that can be done without a degree.

Via: Home Insurance Guide

Is it April already!?! Yep, it sure is. Here to ring in the first Festival of the month presented by the always great, Dewey’s Treehouse. It’s all about something I know very well, mis-readings, mis-understandings, mis-takes…and just about any other mis you can thing of.

Winning his top three “Dreams That You Dare to Dream Really Do Come True” awards are the following:

1. Start Investing Money presents What Does Investing in Kids Really Mean? ”One of the best gifts you can give your kids is to teach them about money and how to handle it.”

2. Brip Blap presents What Message Are You Sending?  “If a parent thinks they are being nice to a child by giving in to their every desire – giving them a “perfect childhood” – they are laying the groundwork for the road to (financial) hell.” Brip Blap also has a question: if you were designing a financial-sense t-shirt, what would it say?

3.  Steadfast Finances presents 7 Smart Tips For Teaching Your Kids About Money.

Please head on over to the post itself for the best of the rest. Next week will be hosted by One Smart Dollar. Until then, send your entries and be sure to contact me if you are interested in hosting a future festival (don’t make me contact you). Open dates can be found on the schedule and you can use the contact page if there is a date you are interested in.