Festival of Frugality

Holy November! It is already the special 306th Festival of Frugality. What is even more amazing is that you can find the announcement for it right here on the Festival of Frugality main site!!! How great is that?!?

This amazing “Thanksgiving Grocery Price” edition is filled all the giving and sharing needs that are necessarily to have and receive in this Thanksgiving season. Be sure to check out the great picks by this weeks host, My Dollar Plan…no need for top picks in this post, they are all great!

Be sure to check back this week for what is sure to be a great post hosted by Frugal Family Life. Don’t forget to send your entries and be sure to contact me if you are interested in hosting a future festival. Open dates can be found on the schedule and you can use the contact page if there is a date you are interested in.

Wow, what an amazing week to be frugal minded. Just got back from a trip to Vegas and am happy to say that I did not lose any money. Check out this weeks great Festival of Frugality from Afford Anything.

Editors top 3:

#1: “Lots of people feel they can’t … help others if they don’t have money or time,” says Suba from the blog Wealth Informatics, who presents 15 creative ways to help a charity without spending any money.

Most people throw the word “creative” around, but Suba’s post is the real deal. This is a well-researched piece that’s densely packed with great advice on how to help great causes when you have zero money and minimal time.

#2: SB from the blog One Cent at a Time advises us to Get Into Debt Now, Before Time Runs Out. (In case you couldn’t guess, that title is sarcastic!) It’s easy to read advice about what you SHOULD do. It’s much more jarring to read advice about what you SHOULDN’T do – and to realize, oops, yes, I’m guilty of that.

#3: Squirrelers insists that Asking for a Discount Can be Fun! (Complete with exclamation point!) He shares a story of wrenching a 28 percent discount on a stuffed animal at the mall, before acknowledging that “it’s funny that as a grown man I’m excited about getting a deal on a stuffed animal.” Hey, you said it, not me.

Come back next week for yet another Festival. It is sure to be a great one hosted by our friends at My Dollar Plan. Also, don’t forget to send your entries and be sure to contact me if you are interested in hosting a future festival. Open dates can be found on the schedule and you can use the contact page if there is a date you are interested in.

Look out friends, it is raining cat and dog in this weeks Festival! What is even better is that it is hosted by Remodeling this Life and is filled with all the greatest frugal articles (as well as real cute dog and cat). Check out all her great editors picks!

• A Simple Technique to Help Parents Meet Their Savings Goals
• Simple Technique To Help Parents Meet Savings Goals
• It’s Okay If You Suck When Starting Your Budget
• Emergency Fund Circa 1939
• Waste Not, Want Not — A Guide to Using Leftover Food
• Don’t Let Your Purchases Fall Prey to Your Emotions
• Did Americans Get Poorer or is USA Today Wrong?

Yo, there is another festival…Yah.

This weeks spooky Festival is brought to you by Count Skimpula of Money Crashers. The ever frugal Count has chose to go with one great editors pick this week. Check it out right away!!!

Frightening Fanny from Living Richly on a Budget writes a tale of horror and trickery with a varning to those getting ready to party this Halloween: Don’t Get Tricked – Save Money on Halloween!

Come back on November 1st for the 304th Festival hosted by the amazing Remodeling this Life; and don’t forget to send your entries. It is better to be a participant than a spectator!

Hey, check out the Festival! This great “Gratitude Edition” is hosted by the frugal mom, Penny, of Penniless Parenting. Looking for some great editors picks? Well look no further! They are conveniently pasted below for your frugal minds to enjoy.

Penny’s Picks:

I Care About Money, from One Cent at a Time. As a frugalista, I get people telling me all the time “You only care about money, its become an obsession, and that’s what your life revolves around. Its sad!” This post really hits the nail on the head and explains why we make money saving a priority- not because we only care about money, but because we value our life and time spent with people we love, and don’t want to be a slave to our jobs to make as much money as possible. Instead, we try to conserve money as much as possible so that we can have free time to do the things we really enjoy in life. 

How Clutter Costs and How to Tackle It from Totally Money. This post was really timely and resonated with me, because we just majorly decluttered so that we could turn our storage room into a kid’s bedroom and not need to spend more money on renting a larger place. Clutter definitely costs, no question about it!

How Much Does She Earn from Afford Anything. This blogger did something similar to what I’ve done- calculated how much a woman really earns once you count all her work related expenses. In this woman’s case, she still is making money after everything, so it still remains worthwhile for her to work, but in my case, such calculations made me discover that the most cost efficient thing for me to do is for me to work part time from home, keep my kids home with me instead of sending to daycare, and have extra time and energy to do all the frugal activities that I wouldn’t be able to do if I worked full time or our of the house. 

Happy Thursday! This weeks host, Funny about Money, took a minimalist approach to the festival. As with anything, it is always good to be frugal and your time is no exception. So, in the spirit of the festival I will leave you at that.

EDITORS PICKS!!!

Suba
Wealth Informatics
Should You Buy or Rent?
Whoa! This is a tour de force! Suba has built a rent-vs.-own calculator, created a video tutorial to explain how to use it, and built a nifty infographic describing not only the issues involved in making the big decision but also matters buyers and renters each tend to overlook. Even if you’re not in the market for real estate, you should read this cool post.

Darwin
Darwin’s Money
My Kid Flooded Our Home. What’s the Worst (Most Expensive) Mistake Your Kids Have Made?
{gasp!} What can one say? About the best I can come up with is ooooohhh…m…g…!

Please check back next week for the 302nd festival from brought to you by the visionaries of Penniless Parenting. Don’t forget to send your entries here as soon as you can!

Holy frugality Batman! Put on your prettiest costume and check out the great pre-Halloween festival brought to you by Nerd Wallet. This one is a candy bucket of tips for all your frugal needs and desires. For the best of the best take a look at the editors picks:

EDITORS PICKS

Boomer presents Treating Your Marriage Like A Business (Financially) posted at boomer & echo. Boomer leads you through the essentials of working out a business plan for life with your spouse.

FMF presents Paying Cash for Gas May be a Worse Deal than Paying on a Credit Card posted atFree Money Finance. FMF does the breakdown on paying with cash vs. credit for gas. You may be surprised by the results!  [editor's note: NerdWallet offers a local gas price tool that does the gas vs cash math for you!]

Sustainable PF presents We Bought Less House than We Could Afford posted at Sustainable Personal Finance. Looking to buy a home? Sustainable PF explains the importance of buying below your limit.

Corey presents Say Goodbye to the University Meal Plan posted at 20′s Finances. Corey takes an in-depth look at whether college meal plans are actually worth your money.

For the best of the rest get off my site and take a look at the whole post!

Well, hasn’t this just been great; 300 festivals and counting! Come back next week for the 301st Festival of Frugality hosted by Funny about Money. Don’t forget to send your entries here as soon as you can!

After a long and grueling wait, Festival of Frugality #299 is finally here. Well, it is actually over at Credit Karma Blog; but the announcement is here! That is a good thing. Check out all of the many well selected and very organized editors picks.

Money saving tips

Editor’s Pick: Kyle James presents 3 Quick & Obscenely Easy Money Saving Tips posted at Rather-Be-Shopping.com.

Credit card advice

Editor’s Pick: Andrew presents History of Credit Cards posted at CreditDonkey.

Frugal living

Editor’s pick: Crystal presents Preparing for the Inevitable posted at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff.

Personal finance commentary

Editor’s pick: John presents College and Future Earnings: What’s the Connection? posted at Wallet Blog.

Come back next week for the 300th Festival from our friends over at Nerd Wallet. I am sure it will be a great one. Don’t forget to send your entries here as soon as you can!

What is going on!? It seems that there is an amazing new festival every week!…but I am not one to complain, I am merely the messenger. Be sure to check out this weeks Festival of Frugality from our friend Jacob at My Personal Finance Journey. Check out his top three editors picks for all your great frugal needs.

1. Darwin presents Older Americans Are Going to Wreck Your Life – Here’s Why posted at Darwin’s Money, saying, “There are several surprising demographic and financial reasons why older Americans are set to wreck your life. Nobody’s talking about it, but the outcome is undeniable.”

I would give this article the top ranking merely for the picture at the top of this post (just kidding, but check it out anyway! haha). However, on a more serious note, this post brings up some VERY important issues about how the Baby Boomer’s and other aging individuals will affect the economy in the near future.

2. Mike Holman presents A practical way to estimate and budget for home maintenance costs posted at Money Smarts Blog, saying, ”Traditional methods of calculating home maintenance costs can be misleading. Here is a more accurate to handle house maintenance costs.”

The posts you read while surfing the blogosphere that make you think to yourself, “I need to perform this same analysis with my specific situation,” are true gems! Indeed, they are probably the reason that many of us read blogs in the first place. This article is one of these posts. Personally, I have been using the percentage method of calculating home maintenance costs for the past year and a half since I bought my condo. The method described in this post seems much better though, and it definitely warrants me to give it a try!

3. Evan presents Can You Tell One Scotch from Another? Price versus Preference posted at My Journey to Millions, saying, “Just because you pay 50% more for your cell phone service doesn’t mean it is better …just because you overpaid on an engagement ring doesn’t make it more valuable…and just because your bottle of scotch is 4 times the price doesn’t mean you’ll like it more!”

Personally, I’ve never been able to see how people discern a significant difference between a good $15 bottle of a wine and an expensive $80 bottle of wine. Heck, I’m happy just having a $2.77 (price just went down) bottle of Oak Leaf from Wal-Mart for every day drinking. So, this post really resounded with me! Give it a read!

Be sure to come back next week for the 299th Festival from our friends over at Credit Karma Blog. Don’t forget to send your entries here as soon as you can!

Also, #300 is still open for hosts along with the rest of October! Let me know if you are interested as soon as you can as these will fill up fast. Please see the guidelines and, if you meet them, send me a message of interest to get on the schedule.

Happy Tuesday! Welcome to the first ever Cockney Slang Edition of the Festival of Frugality. This one is brought to ye by Totally Money and is filled with all the greatest frugal insights, as well as some interesting bits about Cockney rhyming slang terms related to ‘bread and honey.’ Be sure to check out all of her great editors picks.