Finances & Money

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.