Published 22 January, 2008 in Carnivals

Festival of Frugality 109

I would like to thank Frugal For Life for hosting last week. Make sure to visit my friend Mrs. Micah when she hosts next week. Don’t forget to visit the Festival of Frugality’s homepage to learn how to participate in next week’s festival!

The early bird edition

Michelle @ Frugal Parenting asks Does Living Frugally Provide Security, Opportunity and Freedom?. I think you might find the answer surprising.

Frugal JD shares how to shop for groceries as she attempts to avoid debtors prison!

Samuel @ Total Wellbeing shares a new food source that is good for you, the environment, and guaranteed to make you jump out of your seat!. I’m not sure I’m ready to be this aggressive about saving money!

Greener Pastures shares her approach to building up an emergency fund. It’s a good first step towards living more frugally.

Kris @ Cheap Healthy Good shares 10 tips on how to get the most food for your money while traveling abroad.

Small Cents shares 25 Frugal Habits that are helping her pay off her student loans a ‘few cents at a time.’

Tip Diva shares her top ten tips for eating on a budget.

Ryan @ Debt Reduction Formula shares five changes that could save you $600 a year.

Coupon Fetcher shares three tips for running a frugal household.

FreeMoneyFinance expands on Ellie Kay’s tip for saving 30% while shopping.

Photo by Noël Lee

Two Pennies Earned offers an important warning to frugal shoppers, returning items purchased with coupons.

The Healthy Living Lounge takes a different approach to frugal living. Learn how and why Carole detox and simplifies her life.

The Financial Blogger points out a very important question we should all ask ourselves: Will I regret it? It is possible to be too frugal. And if we are, we might end up regretting our overly frugal choices.

Money and Values discusses something I personally can identify with—the importance of a good night’s sleep. When you’re tired, it’s difficult to make good use of your time or frugal decisions like packing a lunch.

Life Lessons of a Military Wife ponders the age old question, Do I just want it or do I need it?

Stop The Ride wonders if it’s possible to live without a microwave. This post is worth reading just to find out what happened to her previous microwaves!

Funny about Money offers a thorough guide on how to live within your means.

Frugal Homemaker Plus talks about frugal burnout and how she makes it through the low periods.

Rather Be Shopping discusses three strategies for minimize your propane bills.

Sound Money Matters discusses “winter comfort foods,” some low-budget alternatives, and a homemade chicken pot pie recipe.

Photo by Chad King

Philaahzophy encourages you to be a rebel—hand a clothesline. This is one frugal tip we’ll be following next spring when it warms up enough in Washington State.

Amy @ the Motherload asks if baby carrots are a convenience food? I always though baby carrots were simply small carrots, not processed ones! Thanks for saving me a bundle Amy. You’ve convinced me to switch back to full sized carrots!

Natural Moms Talk Radio blog lists her huge (in a good way) purchase from the thrift store on 25 cent day!

The Great Money Challenge lists how she intends to save money heating her house next year.

Michael Mihalik’s guest post at Millionaire Mommy Next Door reminds us that you define what success looks like, so feel free to be as frugal as you want!

Dollar Frugal resolves to seriously cut back on milk as a way to trim grocery expenses? Somehow, I can’t quite imagine popping a calcium pill with a large helping of brownies.

My Wealth Builder shares five types of fees to avoid when accessing your money.

Paid Twice offers an important perspective on paying for experiences instead of objects.

A Penny Closer shares a unique, frugal place she’s found for nostalgic toys for her kids someday.

Prime Time Money shares 10 Things that Bring Success in Personal Finance. Living a Frugal Life is number eight.

Photo by The Lilac Breasted Roller

Diary of a New Old-Fashioned Gal shares how to make a “warm and fuzzy maple cinnamon oatmeal” from scratch.

Madison @ My Dollar Plan talks about the dangers of being too frugal, specifically in regards to using coupons!

Early Retirement Extreme wonders aloud about the benefits of dollar cost averaging at the pump. Will it work?

Compgifts offers six frugal grocery shopping tips.

Mr. Cheap @ Quest For Four Pillars analyzes you deserve it thinking which is the enemy of frugal thinking.

Another vote for saving money on heating costs comes from Money Blue Book.

Shannon Christman @ Saving Advice looks at the frugal counterculture.

No Credit Needed is running a poll to find out how many of us use a written budget. Right now, over 60% of voters claim to have and follow a written budget.

Cash Money Life shares a real world example of paying too much to heat your house. Personally, we prefer wood heat to our electric furnace, but wood stoves aren’t an affordable option for many people.

Personal Finance Trainer offers 11 tips on how to save money on magazines.

Photo by Sivaprasad R.L

BeThisWay begins part 1 of a Auto Insurance 101 guide.

Free From Broke excitedly shares about a trip to their local library. Public libraries are a great frugal resource that I’ve made great use of in the past.

Campus Grotto shares 7 penny pinching tips for frugal college students.

My Two Dollars shares an online clothing swap shop where every is 99 cents. Sounds like it might be a good option if you’re trying to keep up with the current styles while sticking to a budget.

The Frugal Duchess concludes her frugal event planning guide with some tips for buying pretty, cheap party flowers.

Michelle Dawn added:
January 22nd, 2008

Wow, it looks like a lot of great reading. I can tell a lot of effort went into this. Thanks for hosting! I love the bird and nature photographs on your blog. Very refreshing (especially if you are covered in snow, like me in Atlantic Canada).

PT from Prime Time Money added:
January 22nd, 2008

Thanks for putting these great articles together.

Ryan Healy added:
January 22nd, 2008

Thanks for hosting, Aaron. Great job. I love the bird pictures, especially the last one. Beautiful.

Aaron Stroud added:
January 22nd, 2008

Michelle, oh, it was a lot of reading! I’m glad you enjoyed the pictures. We have plenty of birds in Western Washington because we don’t get much snow. However, we’ve had plenty this winter.

PT, you’re welcome PT. Compiling the list gave me the chance to encounter a lot of cool new blogs like yours. I’m not sure my feedreader appreciates the extra workload though!

Ryan, if you’re in the mood for more. Follow the link for the last picture. That photographer has many excellent bird pics.

Free From Broke added:
January 22nd, 2008

Thanks for hosting and putting together a great festival!

David added:
January 22nd, 2008

Thanks for hosting!

Thanks for visiting Free From Broke & David. Btw David, your “David Network” is priceless.

It’s a work in progress…:-)

You two did create quite an exclusive club.

Carole Fogarty added:
January 22nd, 2008

I’m thrilled you included my article as I just love the free wealthy habits calendar I found.

Thank you so much for all your time in organising and presenting the carnival.

You’ve gota love the birds.

Peace, love and chocolate

Carole

http://www.thehealthylivinglounge.com

Carole, thanks for dropping by. The birds appear to be very popular today! Perhaps everyone is looking forward to Spring at this point.

Kyle added:
January 22nd, 2008

Great pics. It sure does remind me of Spring, can’t wait! Thanks for hosting, well done!

moneychallenge added:
January 22nd, 2008

Thanks for hosting, Aaron! A ton of great articles here.. I am continually amazed at the wealth of information out there and the number of people who are willing to share it so eloquently!

Kyle, my son and I can hardly wait for Spring as well. This was our first year cutting wood for our new wood stove…and we didn’t have time to cut wood throughout the year thanks to a complicated construction process. So Spring can’t come too soon for us.

moneychallenge, thanks for dropping by. I too am amazed at the wealth of free information on the internet!

Four Pillars added:
January 22nd, 2008

Thanks for hosting and including our pick.

Nice birdies…

Mike

paidtwice added:
January 23rd, 2008

Thanks for hosting and including my article! Nice job on the festival

BeThisWay added:
January 23rd, 2008

Hey, thanks for including my article! There’s some really good work here.

Stephanie added:
January 23rd, 2008

I’m glad you enjoyed the stories of microwave mishaps, but the link to my article leads to someplace else…could you correct please.

http://www.stoptheride.net/2008/01/can-i-live-without-microwave.html

thanks!

Aaron Stroud added:
January 24th, 2008

Thanks for dropping by Four Pillars, paidtwice, & BeThisWay.

Stephanie, I am really sorry about the misdirected link! I type my posts up in markdown which is essentially plain text with a few nominal changes like footnotes, italics, headings, etc that are automatically converted into html.

However, when you have 50 links or so in a post, sometimes things get garbled. Your link was present, but somehow another link got pasted in front of yours in the footer!

Stephanie added:
January 24th, 2008

It happens. Thanks for fixing it.

Tip Diva added:
January 26th, 2008

Thank you so much for including my post!

Money Blue Book added:
January 29th, 2008

Thank you for hosting!