Festival of Frugality #278 – Military Money Edition

The Festival of Frugality is a weekly roundup of financial articles designed to help readers learn how to save money and more importantly, be better stewards of what we have been blessed with. That means more than just saving money with coupons or finding good deals. It also means being frugal – reusing things, recycling, and being creative with what we have – or being creative finding alternatives to what we want. It can also mean spending consciously on the things you like and finding ways to cut back in other areas so you can enjoy the life you want to enjoy without the constraints of a limited budget getting in the way.

The following articles were hand selected out of over 60 entries. These articles are varied in nature and represent a variety of opinions, stories, testimonies, and examples of how you can better use the resources at your disposal to live the life you want to live. I hope you enjoy them.

Saving Money on Banking:

• Donna Freedman presents Five Ways to Outwit the ATM posted at Get Rich Slowly, saying, “Resist the siren call of “Easy money! Just enter your PIN!”"
• Tim Chen presents Top Military Credit Union Picks: Finding the Best Credit Card Deals posted at NerdWallet Blog – Credit Card Watch, saying, “Military servicemembers don’t look for the same credit card attributes as their civilian counterparts do: they face a unique set of personal finance challenges, but are also entitled to the benefits of their service. So finding the right credit card for a member of our armed forces involves a slightly different selection process.”
• Bankman presents Save Money with Credit Cards.
• Craig Ford presents Best Ways to Maximize Cash, Credit Card, and Debit Card Rewards posted at Money Help For Christians, saying, “How to maximize your credit cards or debt card rewards.”
• Jeri Ford presents American Express Membership Rewards Review and Value Analysis posted at Help Me Travel Cheap, saying, “An evaluation of the American Express Membership Rewards program.”
• Consumer Boomer presents Top 5 Bankruptcy Myths Dispelled for You posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “For those who have been considering bankruptcy, but are concerned about the overall impact it could have on their financial future, we are going to break a few myths.”
• N.W. Journey presents What is Compound Interest? posted at Networth Journey, saying, “A basic introduction to compound interest.”
• Jacob A. Irwin presents One Call, Save Thousands On Your Credit Card Bill posted at My Money Blog – Personal Finance and Investing, saying, “A description of the steps to take for a telephone call that can get your debt interest rates cut in half.”

Saving Money on Entertainment:

• Glen Craig presents Inexpensive (Cheap) Date Night Ideas for Parents posted at Parenting Family Money.
• Suba presents How to watch TV for free posted at Wealth Informatics.
• BIFS presents Now Available at a Library Near You posted at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff, saying, “There isn’t anything more frugal than borrowing the things you need at no cost. That’s why the library is the ultimate friend of the frugal. Here are some things you may not know about that your library has available.”
• Joe Plemon presents 7 Alternatives to Cable TV posted at Personal Finance By The Book, saying, “One doesn’t have to continue paying high dollar cable TV…there are other options.”
• Kyle James presents Hot To Take Frugal Family Vacation posted at Kyle, saying, “Thanks for hosting!”

Saving Money on Food

• Fred Lee presents 10 Easy Freezer Friendly Meals posted at Parenting Squad.
• Rodney Maley presents 3 Keys To Saving 50% Or More On Your Grocery Bill posted at Life-fficient.
• Tom presents How to Save Money at the Grocery Store posted at StupidCents, saying, “I’d like to share a few tips on how to save money at the grocery store.”
• Beth from SmartFrugality presents Why Making My Own Yogurt is Frugal posted at Smart Frugality, saying, “When determining if a money saving activity is worthwhile, often people look at how much it saves and how long it takes. It is also important to consider how much time the alternative takes too.”

Saving Money on Housing:

• Glen presents When is a Good Time to Consider Refinancing Your Mortgage? posted at Free From Broke.
• Jim presents Buying Timeshares: Developer Sales, Resale Market posted at Timeshare Secrets Exposed.

Saving Money on Living Expenses

• Ann presents Day 114: maybe tomorrow he’ll want to settle down… posted at The Year of Shopping Detox, saying, “Hitch-hiking may not be for everyone, but here’s one man crossing the country with little more than a ukulele and a dream!”
• Dr. Dean presents The Wedding Is OVER: Yeah! Plus 6 Wedding Attending Money Saving Tips! posted at Dr. Dean’s TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, “Second to the cost of a wedding comes the cost of having to attend one! With gifts, flights, hotels, meals, and drinks, attending a wedding can really put a dent in your pocketbook. Here are some tips to keep that cost down.”
• Tom Drake presents 10 Ways To Save Money At The Gas Pump posted at Canadian Finance Blog.
• debt kid presents Giving/Serving While Getting Out Of Debt posted at Debt Kid.
• Dana presents 7 Tricks to Increase Your Savings Without Decreasing Your Lifestyle posted at Not Made of Money.
• FMF presents 25 Ways to Save Money posted at Free Money Finance.
• Sandy presents Is The Frugal Movement Over? posted at Yes, I Am Cheap.
• Adam presents Avoid Hitting the Rocks of Financial Ruin posted at Magical Penny.

Saving Money on Shopping

• Neal Frankle presents What is Groupon and Why It?s Evil posted at Wealth Pilgrim: Money Management Advice, Financial Stess Management, Addiction Recovery Plan & Resources, saying, “You’ve probably heard about Groupon and how it’s the best thing since sliced bread. I don’t like it because it’s going to result in lots of people struggling with how to get out of credit card debt (you’ll see why in a moment).”
• Melissa Batai presents My Experiment: Is It Worth the Gas to Shop Multiple Grocery Stores? posted at Mom’s Plans, saying, “My husband complains that I am probably losing the savings from grocery shopping at two stores because of the high cost of gas. So, this week, when I went shopping, I priced out items at both stores and the amount of gas the trips took. Here is what I found:”
• Money Beagle presents Cut ALL Your Coupons With Scissors posted at Money Beagle, saying, “We all want to be frugal, but make sure you’re not hurting your store (and yourself in the long run) by going overboard with coupon clipping. Keep it simple and don’t ruin it for the rest of us!”
• Fanny presents 4 Extreme Couponer Blogs to Follow posted at Living Richly on a Budget.

That concludes this edition. If you want to participate in next week’s Festival of Frugality you can submit your entry with this submission form, courtesy of Tom at the Canadian Finance Blog. (BlogCarnival.com has been inconsistent over the previous few weeks).

Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.