Festival of Frugality

Or maybe they do, when they come to rest at Yes I am Cheap! The festival this week looks at New Beginnings, in honor of the new year and new resolutions. These made the cut as editor’s picks:

• How To Achieve Your Top New Years Resolution posted at Wealth Creation Blog.
• January Extreme Challenge posted at The Conscious Shopper.
• File Your Taxes on the Cheap This Year posted at PT Money.
• 365 Days of Saving Money: Streamline Your Bathing posted at Modern Tightwad.
• 101 Ways to Cut Your Spending This Year posted at Being Frugal.

Thanks for hosting! Make sure to be included in next week’s festival by submitting your posts bright and early!

One of the things I have tried to do in my own life is live a life without clutter. I am not very successful at that, but I do make a conscious effort to reduce the amount of things in my life that have no real meaning to me and simply take up space.

One of the ways I accomplish that is by eliminating many of the things that come into our home before they find their own place to be. After the holidays is one of the biggest times that a lot of unnecessary stuff comes to my house to find a home. So I work to find new homes for the things that I don’t want or need.

If your house looks a little overrun – donate what is useful to some but not useful to you. Your home will be a little easier to manage and someone else can use and treasure what you may not.

The Festival of Frugality gets off to a rip-roaring start, beginning 2010 at Eliminate The Muda. Hop on over to find out what Muda is (I didn’t know!) and check out the great articles! One that especially caught my eye, being that I am far from handy, was:

Funny About Money: When DIY Doesn’t Save Much. It would save nothing for me in a lot of cases! Recently I thought I’d have to tear out my ceiling because my bathtub was leaking and a plumber determined it was actually the wax seal on my toilet (a very easy fix). Goes to show me.

Thanks for hosting!! If you’d like to host a future edition of the Festival – contact us! We’d love to have you.

I’m not really all that up on the borders of decades, but this week’s host of the Festival of Frugality, Foreigner’s Finances, points out that this week’s Festival is the last of the decade. Where does time go? And with that, he celebrates a decade’s worth of frugal people, and a decade’s worth of entries as well, including a few I picked out:

Free Money Finance: Are Outlet Stores a Good Idea?

Frugally Green: The Art of the Staycation

Thanks for hosting! Make sure to be a part of the first festival of the NEXT decade by entering your best work here!

Holiday times are upon us, and many many people take advantage of the pre-holiday sales. But what about the post-holiday ones?

I am not just talking about sales on Christmas merchandise – but on many many things. My supermarket, for example, stocks a number of things during the holidays that they don’t want hanging around afterwards, even though it is not all holiday-themed. So I can find a great price on anything from toys to cookies to stemware, even if they are not “Christmas” exactly.

If there is something you need – think about where it might not be needed anymore, from a store perspective.

I am on vacation away from home, and my wireless connection is less than ideal at the moment.  So visit Studenomics’ explanation of why birthdays are not always merry, and see who’s who in the Festival of Frugality this week!

And remember to enter for next week’s edition – information on the submission link on the right!  The host is still pending, so it could even be you – see the info on the hosting page linked to the right   Start out the new year right with some Festival goodness.

With all the Blog Carnival issues we’ve been having, it is a small Christmas miracle that we have a Festival of Frugality to enjoy.  But the issues seem to finally be fixed – blog carnival is forwarding the emails to us so we are able to screen them and put together festivals.  Crossing my fingers that it is for good, this time.

This week’s edition is a little late but up at Negotiation Board – they’ve chosen their Top Ten favorite posts to include – check and see if you’ve made the cut!  Next week’s edition is hosted at Studenomics, be a part of one of the last festivals of 2009 and get your entry in!

This is one that has been said many times before, but bears repeating – one of the most powerful ways to save money is to pay yourself first. Meaning – every time you get money, give a percentage of it to yourself, through a savings account, retirement account, or other avenue. Not SPEND a percentage of it – save it. For you, your future, and your life.

If you have to (I do!) treat yourself like a bill. Put yourself on the list, and save save save. You’ll be surprised what it might add up to even by the first of the year. But only if you start today.

Pay yourself first. You are at least that important!

We’ve been having an issue with our current Blog Carnival entry in that it stopped mailing us the entries it would receive for the Festival.  Because of that, this week’s Festival at ABC Frugality is very short, so I will let you go there yourself to check it out instead of summarizing it here.

But we’ve recreated our Blog Carnival submission forms and fixed the problem – so make sure you enter for next week’s Festival through this link – hosted by Negotiation Board it is sure to be a good one!  See you there!

Here is the midwest US, it is cold.  And getting colder, as winter gears up and December rolls on.

As I shudder at my higher heating bills, I also try to create heat where I can find it.  And to me, that means my oven.

NO, I am not using my oven to heat my house.  But when I bake (which I do several times a week as it is), I leave the oven door open after I’m done to let the heat escape into the house.  Actually, I often stand in front of it, because I keep the house on the chilly side.

Do not try and heat your house with your oven or dryer – that doesn’t make sense.  But using a little heat you created anyway…  works for me!

(PS Make sure no children, pets, or silly people get near open appliances.)