Festival Of Frugality #59: Frugality Is For Everyone Edition

Welcome to the 59th edition of the Festival of Frugality. Let me start the festival by thanking Jim over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity for allowing me to host this festival. I have tried to categorize the entries under various vague sub-headings; but with so many entries, I may have misplaced a few of them. Ok, lets start with the articles already before I put you guys to sleep.

Frugality @ home

Read Barb’s thoughts on using a gadget to make the most out of paste tubes on How To Get To The Last Drop posted at Great Family Gadgets. That is one interesting toy.

Lisa Knight describes her insulating venture with a duct tape in Sunday Insulating Adventures posted at The Frugal Momma. I will vouch for this part “..sometimes it’s easier to pin point the problems once it’s cold..” ..realized it during the recent ice-storm.

Jenn puts forth a case in favor of aprons in Why Are Aprons Frugal? posted at Frugal Upstate. Here is a part of Jenn’s arguments:

Do you really want try to get stains out of your dress clothes? Do you want to have to take them to a dry cleaner and pay extra to try to get oil stains out?

Mama Squirrel presents her philosophy of using creativity and household items to generate unique educational toys/media in An Abundance Post: Make It Do posted at Dewey’s Treehouse.

Tag presents EveryDay Money: Baby Gear (budgeting) posted at EveryDay Money. Tag’s money saving concept is based on the argument that babies don’t need “new and matching stuff”. Get your baby stuff at garage sales seems to be the message here.

Nina presents Can Shampoo Save You Money? posted at Queercents. She is trying to test the difference between ordinary drugstore brands and expensive salon brands.

Frugality @ travel

Stingy Student tells us about how to eat our way to free miles and mentions other resources for getting free miles in his post Free airline miles! at Stingy Students.

Terah Shelton talks about the scope of making money from airline vouchers in Valuable Vouchers posted at Traveler’s Pen. This is about those vouchers that some airline companies offer, if you are ready to give up your seat on an overbooked flight.

Spend more time working out of town? No problem; learn about how to save money while on the move, by reading Makingourway’s More ways to save money while travelling on an expense account posted at makingourway.

Frugality @ everyday life

Check out Ispf’s frugal living tips on Automatic Frugal Living posted at Personal Finance for Students and Fresh Grads. Here is one interesting frugal tip from his list:

Do grocery on weeknights. Or an hour before your favorite show on TV

Take this frugality quiz presented by Ben in the article Money Saving Pop Quiz. How Frugal Are You? posted at Money Smart Life.

Silicon Valley Blogger over at The Digerati Life presents Stop Overspending Now! 14 Ways To Conquer Binge Buying. Here is what appears at #2 in the list.

Sitting around twiddling your thumbs can bring on temptation and things that are harder to control. What’s that old English adage again? An Idle Mind is a Devil’s Workshop. Well, just think of it in terms of spending.

Frugality @ food and drinks

King of Debt presents 8 Ways To Save At The Grocery Store and Stay On Budget at We’re In Debt. Read what the King has to say in point #1 about shopping when hungry and then quickly read this. I am glad more people are acknowledging the “hunger-effect”.

Tannaz Sassooni gives some ideas on how to drink large on small budget in Pop that corkage: Giant list of restaurants that allows you to BYO wine posted at Wise Bread. Honestly, I had never heard of corkage fees before, so this one is all news to me.

Andy suggests ways avoid getting “eaten” by food expenses on 5 ways to save big on groceries posted at Money Walks. Here is the inaugural line of his post:

Not only do you need to eat food to live, the expense of it for the average family can eat you alive!

Kevin Surbaugh shares his free-food endeavors in Eating Well on $0 posted at Eating On A Budget. Some students I know do this on a regular basis. I call them “free-foodies”; they are totally organized about which organization is having which function/gathering over the next couple of weeks and what type of food they will serve.

Debt Hater has more money saving tips in her article Debt Diet — For your wallet and waistline posted at Debt Hater. You will follow her advice when you read this:

I stopped eating cookies and milk every night to save the money. That alone probably accounts for half the weight I lost!

Elizabeth presents some practical ways to cut food costs 7 Ways to Save on Lunch Costs posted at Money for the Rest of Us. Personally, I do not fully agree with the “buy pre-made” advice on the list, and have tried #4 unsuccessfully a couple of times. But, it might work for some of you.

Sharon the Frugal Duchess shares a secret tip on saving money on coke, from her former frugal boss, in NY Editor Saves over $1,400: My Old Boss Shares Secrets: Designated Stadium Driver posted at Frugal Duchess.

FrugalTrader cooks up a saving strategy to amass $1300/year by cooking lunch at home. Read about his ideas on this post Saving Strategy: Brown Bag Your Lunch! at Million Dollar Journey.

Brett McKay shines light on some frugal cooking with eggs in 25 Ways to Cook an Egg posted at The Frugal Law Student. I haven’t heard of this one before:

Egg’s nest- cut a hole in a piece of bread, put contents of egg inside hole, cook in pan.

Two different bags, two different names, but just the same popcorn. Stephanie makes an interesting observation in her post Kellen gets a lesson on brand names posted at Stop the Ride!.

Frugality @ cars

David at My Two Dollars contemplates whether he should give up on his personal car and go for options like Flexcar. Read about it in his post Getting Rid Of My Car Would Save Us About $700 Per Month.

My Financial Journey went from a BMW to a Ford Escort ! Read about why he did this in My Financial Journey’s pimp ride posted at My Financial Journey. Check it out, his Escort is one true piece of eye candy.

Trent at The Simple Dollar also encourages buying late model used cars and offers some tips on how to go about doing it in Time To Buy A Car? Follow These Ten Steps To Maximize Your Deal.

Frugality @ books

Yan explains how students can save money on textbooks using Chegg.com in his post Save on college textbooks with Chegg posted at Pro Bargain Hunter. For non-students it’s slightly less cheaper.

Now this one is applicable to all; In his article, The Best Place to Save on Books posted at Free Money Finance, FMF shows some numbers from a Consumer Reports survey about which place might be the best for buying books.

Frugality @ rings and jewelry
Mr Credit Card wonders on what people may be thinking when getting their rings (other jewelry (?)) from less glamorous places like Costco in this post Is it OK if Your Bling Bling Comes From Costco? posted at Ask Mr Credit Card’s Blog.

Frugal writes about how he bought he bought a diamond ring for his wife from an online store, and gives some pointers on diamond shopping in Guess where I bought my diamond engagement ring? posted at My 1st Million At 33.

Frugality @ fixing stuff up
Read about some innovative uses of plastic grocery bags to combat cold weather in Frugal Cold Weather Clothing by DeputyHeadmistress posted at The Common Room. Here is the author’s suggestion for missing mittens:

Missing mittens? Put a sock on each hand, then put a plastic bag over each hand (sandwich bags work for little hands) and another sock over the bag.

Prince of Thrift wants to avoid paying $4 to repair the holes in his jeans pockets by trying to learn how to sew. Read about it in Patching Holey Clothes posted at Becoming & Staying Debt Free. What? PS3 burnt a big hole in your pocket? you can take some cues from Prince of Thrift about patching that up

Frugality @ mailing things

NCN offers some quick tips on efficient shipping methods in his article Save Time and Money When Shipping posted at No Credit Needed Blog.

Jim comes across a situation where frugality might be more of a foolishness. Read about it in When Frugality Is A Fault: Certified v. Regular Mail posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Frugality @ home improvement

Alexandra presents Thrifty Remodeling, Our Home Before and After posted at Happy Hearts At Home. This one highly elaborate post. Alexandra discusses a total home makeover –the frugal way.

Dorky Dad will take you through his furniture buying experience in Saving Thousands on Furniture posted at Trying to get it right. For the astute , there is a subtle hint in this post which reads like this:

Remembering, “Happy wife, happy life,” we agreed on a style and fabric,…

Penny Nickel is having a “lifestyle-inflation” pang! and asks for your opinion on frugal ways to handle it, in this post When’s it time to “grow up” and upgrade your stuff? (& does it have to break the bank?), posted at Money and Values.

There, those are all the entries folks. Hope you guys had a good time reading through all of them :). Some entries were not included in the festival for various reasons; sorry about that. If you are interested in contributing to this festival, read more about it here. The next Festival of Frugality will be hosted by Dawn @ Frugal for Life. To submit your articles, click here.
Image sources: toothpaste: http://www.2wheels.org.uk ; airline: http://www.photoblogster.com ; food: www.ame-today.com , ; books: http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au ; ring: http://goldprice.org ; car: http://www.carbiz.ro ; house: http://www.delorie.com