Festival of Frugality #167: Dr. House Edition

Welcome to the 167th edition of the Festival of Frugality! There were many great posts and to make it easier to find what you’re looking for, I’ve organized the submissions into categories: Editor’s Choice, Budgets, DIY Frugal Hacks, Frugal Living, Food Tips and Recipes, Banking, Credit, and Investing, Money Management, Education, and Fun.

The theme for the festival is House M.D. I’m a huge fan of the show and thought it would be great to have some of my favorite quotes and some Twitter friends’ quotes.

Editor’s Choice

There were a lot of great articles to read, so this was tough. I tried to pick some great posts from different topics.

Dr. Cameron: What are you gonna do?

Dr. House: I thought I’d get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual.

• Lower Your Car Insurance Rates! How To Cut Insurance Premiums In Half is a wonderful guide to reducing expenses by The Digerati Life.
• Making Toilet Paper Roll Seed Starter Pots is pretty handy, especially with spring coming up  SimplyForties.
• Think Your Way to Wealth presents Negotiating a Deal and Tips on Becoming a Better Negotiator.
• Madison asks Should We Downsize? posted at My Dollar Plan.
• The Stress of Having Supersized Lifestyle is revealed at  Money Ning.

Budgets

So many good posts and a lot of helpful tips with starting, optimizing, and fixing your budget.

House “It’s a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what.”(SimplyForties)

• Beat Recession Advice #2: Cut your expenses, save money and conserve cash Great post by GeekMBA360.
• Less is More shows how to Adjusting Your Budget for New Monthly Expenses.
• Reduce Spending without Sacrificing Lifestyle #4 – Be Choiceful on Options posted at My Wealth Builder.
• Achieve Financial Freedom By Living Like A Millionaire posted at Find Financial Freedom.
• 9 Excuses Why You Haven’t Started A Budget Yet is explained by Free From Broke.
• What’s Your Long Term Savings Plan? asks Deposit Accounts.

DIY Frugal Hacks

Being Frugal apparently means having many talents.  A lot of bloggers shared their skills and I think you might enjoy learning from their posts.

Foreman: “I think your argument is specious.” House: “I think your tie is ugly.” (Poorer Than You)

• How to Build Your Own Bookshelf was written by the talented and handy Prime Time Money.
• How to Make a T Shirt Quilt is shown at  Condo Blues.
• Secrets for Money shows how to Save Money and Help Your Feathered Friends.
• Brokerages with Free Stock Trading has some great companies found by Investing School.
• 25 ways to save money and bargain shop in small towns and rural areas: Part 1 is a useful post by Engineer a debt free life.
• The grocery pool can help you. Check out Funny about Money.
• 50 Ways to Save on Pet Expenses was great as I’m a pet owner. See more great srticles at  M is for Money.
• Shopping For Low Gas Prices Is A Losing Proposition is argued by Len Penzo.
• The Frugal Musician patches things up? has a way to save your jeans! Thanks the frugal musician.

Frugal Living

Being Frugal isn’t a technique or two. It’s a lifestyle. The great part in that is everyone chooses how they are frugal. There are no hard and fast rules.

Dr. Wilson: Your real fear is me having a good relationship

Dr. House: Yes, it keeps me up at night. That and the Loch Ness Monster, global warming, evolution, other fictional concepts.

• In college and looking for a car? Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has the  Best Used Cars for College Students.
• Consumer Reports 2009 Best New Car Picks is a good review by  The Sun’s Financial Diary.
• Want a unique home? The Greenest Dollar has some with Homes Made From Old Cabooses.
• Free Money Finance explains  How to Save Money Using an Entertainment Book.
• Is the Worst Yet to Come? asks The Tightwad
• Looking at some great deal? Try Off-Season Shopping posted at Domestic Cents.
• Sound Money Matters wants you to  Reconsider Your Subscriptions to Save Money .
• On Being Frugal-Why Bother? Frugal Upstate gives her arguments.
• I’m not frugal posted at LivingAlmostLarge. I think LAL is frugal, just not the stereotype.
• The Smarter Wallet prepares you with  Bargain Hunting Online For Cheap Deals: How To Spot Rip-Offs .
• Keeping Cool on the Cheap – How to Save on Air Conditioning is something you need to keep in mind as it gets warmer. Thanks Personal Finance Analyst.
• My Life ROI shows us how it’s done with  How I Save $4,000/year.
• Surviving With Only One Car is helpful. Check out A Simple Walk.
• How To Be Frugal: The Four Essentials posted at Happy to be at Home.

Food Tips and Recipes

Until this Festival, I did not realize how many frugal people love cooking. If you love food, here’s the section for you.

Dr. House: You let her greedy fingers right into my cookie jar. Which, sadly, is not as dirty as it sounds.

• Eating Out Cheap? is possible as shown by Make It From Scratch.
• Naturally Frugal teaches you  How To Host A Cheap Party .
• How to Save Outside the Grocery Store: Haircuts posted at PennyWise.
• The Easiest and Cheapest Shrimp Pasta Recipe You’ll Ever Make is a delicious recipe at  Generation X Finance.
• Being Boring Saved Me $2,000 was posted at The Writer’s Coin. I’ll be boring for $2k!
• Cheap Healthy Good found out that 1 Chicken, 17 Healthy Meals, $26 Bucks, No Mayo. Tasty!
• Fake wedding cake – hmmm! is a trend noticed by Miss Thrifty. I saw this last week on Good Morning America.
• A Mother in Israel shows you how Creative Cooking Using Leftovers: Chicken Casseroles.
• The Frugal Duchess warns you to remember Scanning for Checkout Errors: Grocery Alert. It has happened once and a blue moon with us.
• How To Make Two Pork Loin Meals in Minutes was posted at HowToMe.

Banking, Credit, and Investing

Watching your money is imporant to frugal people and they have great ideas on keeping it safe and growing.

Dr. House: Less money is made by biochemists working on a cure for cancer than by their colleagues struggling valiantly to find ways to hide steroid use.

• Best CD Rates was posted at MonitorBankRates.com.
• Money Notes from Schwab’s On Investing Spring 2009 was given byt Less is More.
• Cash Back, Award Points, and Gas Cards is offered by Finance Tips 101.
• DebtGoal presents The Cost of Making Minimum Credit Card Payments .
• KCLau’s Money Tips offers How to Refinance your Home Loans Smartly posted at .
• The Dough Roller has some information about a 12-Month Balance Transfer Offer with No Balance Transfer Fee.
• Don’t Pick Investments Based On Taxes warns HarvestingDollars.
• Savings Account was wrtiten by Monitor Bank Rates.
• Portfolio diversification is an important investment concept shown by Monevator.
• Dealsupermarket Blog presents Dealing with the Devil – Getting Better Deals on Your Credit Cards.
• Cash Money Life has gathered Free Stock Trading and Investing Tools.
• High Yield Savings Accounts tells you how to Never Pay ATM Fees Again.

Money Management

These five posts offer sound advice with managing your money. Keep them in mind and you could be a bit wealthier this year.

Dr. House: See, this is why I don’t waste money on shrinks, cause you give me all these really great insights for free.

• Save $50 a Day and Feel No Pain? Hmm…I dunno about that was a great post by Budgets are Sexy. There is such a thing as sacrifice fr long term goals.
• Wealth Junkies gives you 5 Tips For Creating An Emergency Fund.
• Random Linkage: Help a Reader Version was posted at Frugal For Life.
• Why Avoid Bankruptcy? is explained aand answered by Jeff Rose.
• Gas & Electric Bill Update – The Paycheck Chronicles was given by The Paycheck Chronicles.

Education

Education is a great investment and frugal people realize that value is important; not just costs.

Dr. House: I’m a jerk to everyone. Best way to protect yourself from lawsuits.

• Extra College Money for Military Members and Veterans is a great resource. Please check it out at Military Finance Network.
• Beware of Fake IRS (Internal Revenue Service) Phishing Email Scams gives a warning to all of us by Pecuniarities.
• Debt-free College shares helpful tips with Ten Steps to Scoring Scholarships .

Fun Stuff

These posts defy the other categories and so are place in their own. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Dr. Cameron: I have fun.

Dr. Chase: Yeah, she’s got some scheduled for February.  

• Don’t buy stuff you can’t afford – A lesson from SNL is an unusual frugal post by Christian Personal Finance.
• What to do with toilet paper tubes was posted at Stop the Ride!.
• Recent incidents where I avoided spending money and it was good is the personal experience of  Chief Family Officer.
• Redefining Frugal: Preventing Financial Disaster has sound advice. Thanks Modern Gal!
• Do you Stop and Smell the Roses asks Personal Finance.
• Using an Auction to Save Money Never thought about this, so I enjoyed reading it. It’s by Out of Debt – Christian Finances and Debt Help.
• Save your pennies can be very helpful as explained by the ¢entsible life.
• Peak Personal Finance gives some Rent to Own Advice.
• Buying new versus used is a wonderful post by Real World Advice.

Thanks for catching the Festival this week! Next week’s Festival of Frugality will be hosted over at Funny about Money.

Photo Credits: Nessa Land, daughter of chaucer, clegga87

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