Welcome to Festival of Frugality #307

The “Why Does Everything Always Break at Once?”Edition.

First thing – an apology. This Festival of Frugality post should have been up yesterday morning, but as always seems to be the way, things went wrong at the worst possible moment. (Although my boychild reminds me, there’s never a good moment for things to break or go wrong.)

My computer decided that Monday evening was a great time to come down with the flu. Or in this case, a nasty virus that had my computer locked up tight for a while. Several hours, and a brand new install of Windows later all seemed to be fine. Back on track I could get the post completed and up by end of day yesterday. Or so I thought. Again, Murphy’s Law laughed at my puny attempts and decided that it was a great time to knock out the cable for nearly 24 hours so that I had no internet. Ok, so I don’t know that it was Murphy – it might have been the construction guys that happen to be replacing the elevators in my building and fixing the roof after the heavy rain this week. And maybe one of those guys is named Murphy. Either way… here we are with a late, but packed-to-the-brim with great stuff, Festival of Frugality #307.

Onward!

Christmas

• Miranda at PTMoney.com has some great finance-oriented gift ideas for kids – 10 Fantastic Financial Christmas Gifts Ideas for Children.
• Marie decks the halls with Five Budget Christmas Decorating Ideas.
• Amanda suggests you Create Memories with 6 Inexpensive Experience Gifts.
• Money is the Root dares you to Challenge Your Holiday Gift Giving Traditions.
• The Holidays don’t have to blow your budget – 9 Ways to Save Money on Christmas Gifts.
• Lisa at Cents to Save updates us on the $500 Holiday Challenge.
• Some great tips from Hank with 7 Ways Not To Go Into Debt This Christmas.
• Miranda has 3 Tips for Giving Cards This Holiday Season.
• Marie has advice on How to Make Money From Unwanted Gift Cards.
• Ever struggle with what to buy for those impossible-to-buy-for people? Shopping Detox has some answers.

Extravagance

• Shawanda discusses justifying extravagances with $36,000 a Year for Private School and Other Reasonable, Ridiculous Ways to Spend over at You Have More Than You Think.
• Corey ponders Does Cheap Perfume Exist? at 20′s Finances.
• Jason suggests we pull the plug - Five Ways to Save Money on Cable.
• Squirrelers has a few ideas on Saving Money on Watching Movies.
• Jon the Saver gives us 11 rules to Save Big with an Entertainment Book.
• Free By 50 suggests you Consider Waiting Until Summer to Buy Entertainment Books.

Travel

• Boomer & Echo discusses Air Mile Travel: Redeeming for Flights.
• Traveling Abroad? John at Wallet Blog explains how using credit cards can actually save you on currency exchange when you travel.

Home Sweet Home

Everything Else

• How to Make Your Own Clothes – a great primer from Prairie EcoThrifter.
• Frugality Gone Bad? Ashley learns that sometimes frugality can go wrong, oops!
• The Frugal Toad defines the CPI – Consumer Price Index as part of a Finance for Dummies series.
• 7 (More) Weird Things in Your Trash Worth Cash ties in nicely with my electronics woes this week.
• Alex suggests some Cheap Activities To Do With Your Kids When It’s Raining.
• Lazy Man and Money breaks down both the good and the bad of Republic Wireless’ $19 a Month Unlimited Android Plan.
• What’s the cost of convenience? Save Money on Food by Buying at a Grocery Store Instead of a Drugstore.
• Control Your Cash answers some financial questions.
• These 23 Powerful Tips and Tools to Eliminate Debt will show you how to get to know your debt and create a debt repayment plan.
• Chris discusses how not all coupon sites are created equal with Deal Websites That Actually Help You Save.
• Jacob suggests you start’m young – Important Money Skills to Teach Your Children.
• Melissa explains The Three Best Financial Moves You Can Make For Your Child.
• Have you started saving for your child’s education? How to Save For A Child’s Education will guide you.
• Roshawn asks What You Would Do Differently?
• Financial Highway gives us 45 Ways to Save Money on the highway to financial freedom.
• Is Income Disparity Good? Darwin explains why it is.
• Matt shows why spending a little time shopping around can save you money.
• Hannah explains how she graduated with a surplus.
• Barbara discusses being frugal and green with cloth napkins.
• Mama Squirrel offers a toast to hard times.
• D.J. has Ten Tips on Saving on Winter Clothing.