Finances & Money

Best Frugality Posts from Festival of Frugality 79 and 80

Yep, I missed last week’s Festival of Frugality #79 at Finance is Personal, but since I like frugality topics so much, I wanted to highlight the best articles anyway:

• Advice and Rants tells us 25 ways to make money quickly, easily and legally. I like my own: Start a Personal Finance Blog (relates to #15 on the list).
• Frugal Journey gives a few tips for living without (or with less) air conditioning. Our home is a 1941 Cape Cod with central air. However, the A/C doesn’t reach upstairs or into the addition so the former owners got huge window units. This year, we’ve decided to run the central A/C less and just use the window units when we’re in the room. I think we’ve really cut back on our costs this way.
• Golden Fleece Blog compares bundled cable/phone/internet plans vs buying individually. Personally, I pay $19 for 500 minutes of Vonage, $27 for “dry loop” DSL (no home line, just DSL), and $18 for basic cable (with some free digital cable for a year). That’s $64 per month, and I don’t even use the home phone much. Compare that to those bundled plans (and also see whether you really need all those extra channels they offer).
• Piggy Bank Raid shows the weight loss value in frugal living. I know that by foregoing the $4 parking fee and hoofing the mile home from the metro station each day, I’m saving money AND helping my heart, weight and overall health.

And now for the best picks from this week’s Festival of Frugality #80 at Money for the Rest of Us:

• Money, Matter and More Musings talks about our motivations for frugality. I practice frugality partially because I don’t like waste, as mentioned in “Frugality is more than just saving money“
• The Simple Dollar highlights the benefits and drawbacks of buying in bulk. We shop at Sam’s Club and justify the yearly fee by the $1 (or more) savings on each gallon of milk. We go through a gallon per week (skim only!), and figure we save $40 per year. Also, we’ve split our yearly fee with another PF blogger, so we only pay $20 per year.
• Saving Advice gives a cute list of 83 things you can do with a penny.
• Stop the Ride! gives some hints for picking your own strawberries. I also found a site that helps you find Pick Your Own farms in your state.

I can’t wait for next week’s festival!