Festival of Frugality #217 - Snowpocalypse Edition

(This stunning photograph was taken by my niece after a freak snowstorm in Dallas.)

Valentine's Day might seem the obvious theme for this week's Festival of Frugality, or the Olympics, but here in Virginia, and even more so in Maryland, all we can think about is the snow. These pictures, with one exception, were taken by my sister in Frederick, Maryland, who got a staggering 51" of snow last week! If you are mired in snow like I am, distract yourself from what's going on (or coming down!) outside by reading some of these articles and figuring out how to incorporate these blogger's advice for living a more frugal life.



Valentine's Day is over for this year but maybe Money Strands' 10 Ways to Celebrate Valentines Day on a Budget will give you some good ideas for next year.

Groceries going to waste is a huge money suck. Nature Mom's Blog has 8 Ways to Cut Down on Food Waste. Every little bit helps!

Need to redecorate but have no budget for it? Interior Design Info has a list of 5 tips that will help you Redecorate for Free.

Chasing Prosperity is helping us save money on clothes by sharing How to Extend the Life of Your Clothes. I wash and dry everything on the delicate cycle.

While my list of favorite frugal things wouldn't bear much resemblance to the list compiled by You Have More Than You Think, her Top Ten Most Favorite Frugal Things may give you some ideas!



If you're looking for ways cut every penny, Frugal For Life's guest poster recommends wetshaving. It's cheaper and kind of neat! Just be careful you don't become a collector of the paraphernalia.

Before you buy something new, A Gai Shan Life suggests taking a look at what you already have and considering whether or not anything can be re-purposed to fill your need. That's an excellent economic and environmental tip!

Money Help for Christians wants us to remember that the 1040EZ can be filed online for free if you make less than $57,000 a year. That's a good tip for all of us!

If you don't mind asking your friends and family to combine their gift giving impulses and go in on one big gift for you, Foreigner's Finances thinks it's a great way to save some money. Batch Presents for Savings on Big Ticket Items explains the process. Step one I guess would be finding enough people interested in buying you a gift!

Planning a wedding on a budget can actually be more fun and more creative than going all out. Christian PF has some great ideas!



As the cost of movies continues to climb, Free From Broke gives us 4 Ways to Enjoy the Movie Theatre Experience for Less.

AccountingDegree.com has compiled a herculean link list of 100 Important Personal Finance Posts for Women. That's a long list! A lot of these links are good reads for everyone.

Following the Dave Ramsey plan, Trees Full of Money paid off an impressive $90,415 of debt and is sharing his story.

Did you blow the budget on Valentine's Day this year? Maybe you can use some of Canadian Finance Blog's 10 Ways to Save Money on Valentines Day and do a better job next year!

My one foray into Craigslist was successful so I'm glad to see Buck$ome Boomer's Journey to Retirement suggesting that we shop on Craiglist to save some money.



It's tax time and Four Pillars has some income tax deductions that will save us some money in 2010. Thanks!

If you're trying to save money but still want to get out and about, Bank of America is offering free admission to participating museums for it's cardholders during the first full weekend of every month. Thanks BankShout for tipping us to this valuable promotion.

Single Guy Money allots money for the month, instead of for individual items. His monthly budget review shows how he does it.

What do you waste your money on? Studenomics shares his money wasters.

WenchyPoo is talking about less expensive protein sources to use when cooking and baking



I've been seeing this question a lot lately and I'm not sure why. Credit Card Offers IQ asks, "What Should You Pay First, Your Credit Card or Your Mortgage?"

Some people use pre-paid credit cards as a useful budgetary tool. Prepaid Cards 123 answers the question, "Is Money Deposited on a Pre-Paid Credit Card Safe?".

Although the title of Eliminate the Muda's post is "Money & Time, How Others Waste it", I don't know who those others are. I think it's us!



In a controversial article, Dough Roller investigates using your credit card as your emergency fund. None of his commenters thought it was a good idea.

The Sun's Financial Diary advises us to become master of our financial domain! Additionally, Sun has a post on finding money where there is none.

Always good advice, $uburban Dollar suggests that, when the price is right, buy generic. That's good advice!

Gather Little By Little is wondering whether a cash infusion really would help some of us, asking, "If you can't handle $5, why should I give you $10?".

That's it! I hope you found some good tips. If one of your articles appears here, don't forget to link back to the festival. Also, please help advertise the festival on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon; whatever social media venue you frequent. Traffic to the carnival helps all of us!

Next week's carnival will be hosted by Think Your Way to Wealth. You can submit your article here - http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_162.html