Festival of Frugality #68: Clever Picks
This past week, I participated in my first Festival of Frugality. Just like a Carnival, it’s a mix of articles from various writers about a certain topic. Can you guess what this festival was about?
This week, a fellow D.C. resident who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, Mapgirl, hosted the 68th Festival of Frugality.
I submitted my own article about dethatching your lawn as a “frugal workout”. Here are some other highlights of the festival:
- Amy at PFAdvice has a great article on dining out on a budget. We use coupons almost everywhere we dine (see our article for some more tips on dining coupons). I also like how Amy mentions Ethiopian food. It’s by far my favorite cuisine and readily available in D.C. (the largest Ethiopian population outside Ethiopia). I’m also planning a review of a new local Ethiopian cafe here in Maryland.
- Financial Hack mentions numerous benefits of living a low-cost lifestyle. I myself have a VERY strong urge to get rid of all our non-home debt, but I had trouble qualifying all the reasons why. FH has helped out my own arguments. Thanks!
- John at Queercents questions using a coupon on the first date. Personally, I think it’s an excellent test of your potential future mate. If they expect you to spend needlessly to romance them, perhaps they’ll expect it when you’re a more permanent couple. Granted, I myself always have fresh flowers for my wife at our home since we got married (I made that promise to her), but I try to get a decent mix for $8 rather than a beautiful bouquet for $20. Romance doesn’t always have to be expensive!
- Shadox from Money and Such explains some ways you can use credit cards to get OUT of debt. We’re actually using a credit card balance transfer to pay off our Chevy Malibu with a lower interest rate. You can see our debt scale on the right sidebar. Currently, it stands at about $8700 left to pay of the original $15000 by August. We’re still on track.
- Cap and Noah from MyMint post a great rundown of various ways to reduce your expenses. We’ve seen alot of these methods all over the place, but they’ve collected them into a single article.
There are even more great articles that I didn’t highlight over at the Festival. I personally like this festival because it always has great personal stories and ways to save money and live frugally.
Thanks for the link repost!
Hey, good job on the Malibu debt repayment. It’s an inspiration. I am having a fiscal challenge right now, as the blog name states.
Thanks for the link to my post about using credit cards to get out of debt. Using a credit card offer to reduce the rate of on your car payments is another great idea. I will add it to the original post with a link back here.
My wife and I were just there in November for a conference, but of course I wouldn’t have known you then. Not sure when we’ll get back there now. Sure was nice, even though we couldn’t ever afford living there (even with our DC salaries I think).
Dude,
Thanks for the link. If you are ever in the Bay Area please hit me up.
I just moved out my mom’s house so I know what you mean about high cost of living;)
Great links man! Ways to reduce expenses always helps, haha.
O btw, that is pretty cool you always have flowers for your wife. Interesting thinking about the future implications of for instance using a coupon on a date. Never really thought about it!