Festival of Frugality

Welcome to this week's edition of the Festival of Frugality.

For those of you who don't know, this carnival is about frugal living and saving money. (BTW, entries not matching this description have been left out.)

I'm sticking with my usual method of hosting a carnival -- listing a summary of each piece with the author's reason for submitting the post to the carnival (for those that submitted one) and/or a bit of the post itself as a summary -- so you readers know what to expect before you get to the post.

With that said, here we go:

• Is It Possible to Be a Frugal Collector? - This entry is essentially a meditation on whether it's possible to be a collector (of comics or dolls or whatever) and still be frugal. The best part is the comments.

• Save 5% at gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies - Discussion of saving 5% back on everyday purchases by using certain credit cards.  I focus on the details of the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card but also mention other options.

• Frugal Party Planning - We've been partying at our house lately. This month we've hosted a graduation party for my daughter and a birthday party for my son. I tried to make my money go farther for these celebrations by planning ahead. Here's some of what worked for me.

• Tips from my freezer - Inside my freezer you can find evidence of frugality. Join me for a look inside.
• My best frugal tip: find enjoyable ways to spend money, and remember them - Trying to get great deals isn’t a bad thing, but I’ve found a far more effective and long-lasting way to be frugal: by remembering the enjoyment I felt spending money on a few special items, I’m far less motivated to spend casually.

• Frugal parking: How to work the system - My part time job has a parking lot with subsidized parking, but I find it's even cheaper to park on the street when I'm working the swing shift.

• How cheap can gardening be? - The Bargain Queen shares some tips for having a great garden without spending too much.

• Watching Fashion Trends Is Frugal - Integral to my frugal wardrobe strategy is awareness of the ebb and flow of fashion cycles.

• Negotiate Your Best Car Deal! - One of the keys to negotiation is understanding the language.

• Shoes, croc or not? - Where can I get good prices on shoes?

• Buying books vs. library loans - We rarely go to the library. We love books, but we actually find it more cost-effective to buy them.

• The Mindset for Saving - There are 2 things that has drastically changed my mindset towards money.

• Car Trade Allowance Explained - I have customers every day tell me that their trade in is worth $2000 more across the street. Let me tell you why it is worth more there.

• The Upsides of Downtown: Frugal living in the heart of Chicago - Sure, living downtown in a big city can be kind of pricey. But there are also some amazing perks: not just quality-of-life benefits, but things that can save some serious money, too.

• How Necessary Is A Cell Phone? - Everyone seems to have one, but coming back to the US, I wonder how necessary a cell phone really is.

• Car Coaster Alternative - An attempt at keeping a mess at bay while using what is around the house and instead of buying something.

• Frugal Chicken Dinner and Freezer Meals - At .19 a pound, chicken was a much better deal than Ramen, even if we did have to buy ten pounds of leg quarters at a time.

• Tracking Cash Spending Using Quicken - If you are using Quicken, here's a tutorial on how to track your cash spending to help make the most out of every dollar you have.

• Fuel - Rethinking the summer road trip.

• Leftovers How To: It's All About Presentation (Part I) - People tell me it's hard to get kids to eat leftovers. My family is a little bit different. My biological children and my niece know how to make themselves something to eat, reheat or reinvent leftovers. The oldest won't eat or reheat leftovers, he wasn't raised by me... Anyway, to solve this problem I decided to use different tactics. Maybe he doesn't want to eat reheated food, but what if it doesn't look like leftovers?

• Friday Freebie: Free Samples - Today I am going to post a few free samples that you can take advantage of, for our Friday Freebie.

• See a Penny, Pick it Up - Even if you only dropped a penny it is probably worth your time to pick it up. It shouldn't take more than five seconds to pick it up. That works out to 60 cents a minute which comes out to $36 an hour.

• Not Much Stomach For Gambling - Although I'm an aggressive investor when it comes to mutual funds, I really don't have the risk tolerance to watch money disappear in casinos (or in individual stocks!)

Finally, here's one that sounds good but their server was down: The end of my frugal rope.

Thanks for visiting the Festival of Frugality!

Comments

[story3girl]

Thanks for hosting a lovely festival! Sorry my blog's server was down, it looks like it's back up now.

[muse]

Great job!!
Thanks for the link!
http://me-ander.blogspot.com/2006/06/frugal-vanities.html