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festival of frugality #152: affected by recession edition

November 18, 2008
fwp
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welcome to the 152nd edition of the festival of frugality!  i am fwp, your host for this week.

if you haven’t been here before, welcome. while you are here, there are a few things i would encourage you, dear reader, to do:

so here we are in a recession. as a few of you may or may not know, i lost my job friday morning, along with many other americans across the country. and the saga continues.

given this sudden lack of regular income and disruption to cash flow, it is more important than ever for those in a similar predicament to be wary of spending money needlessly.  being frugal and saving can be our most powerful allies during times like these.

as such, here are this week’s carnival submissions that i believe share ways to spend sparingly, not wastefully, or preserving one’s money. thanks to everyone who participated!  please visit the bloggers’ sites to read their full posts, to offer feedback and support.  share this issue with others, and socially-bookmark!

recommended reading:

general

lifestyle

on shopping

on meals

recipes

DIY

specific products/services, reviews, deals

on saving

other

next week, eco joe’s will be hosting the 153rd festival of frugality.  submit your post today!

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guest post at clever dude: broke because you want to be — 12 rules for debt elimination

November 17, 2008
fwp
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last week, i prepared a guest post for pf blogger clever dude which was published at his site today: you’re broke because you want to be: 12 rules for debt elimination.

Last month, I finished reading a copy of “You’re Broke Because You Want To Be“
by Larry Winget.  [..]

Winget is very straightforward and to the point. he doesn’t and won’t put up with (almost) any excuse as to why someone is in debt. There is no hand-holding or gentle encouragement from this author.  There are no parables.  If you’re in debt, you put yourself in that situation, you chose to, you wanted to, and you must start taking responsibility and get yourself out!  That’s all there is to it.  Although he will come off as blunt and crass to some, i found his telling-it-like-it-is attitude rather refreshing.

[..]

In this article, I review Winget’s steps for getting oneself out of debt.

please visit clever dude’s blog to read the rest of this article.

thanks to clever dude for hosting an FWP post!  while there, please take a moment to look around and check out some of his own posts, and offer feedback and support.

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carnivals, dbn weekend roundups & announcements

November 17, 2008
fwp
Debt Bloggers Network, progress report, roundups

announcements

carnivales

this week, i hosted an issue of the finance fiesta, and participated in the following pf blog carnivals:

* hosted

next week, i will be hosting an issue of the festival of frugality!

debt bloggers network (dbn) roundup

last spring, on a quest to be debt free wrote about her garage sale and results.  apparently she made $100 from 8 hours of selling in a group effort.  seeing this article’s title immediately piqued my curiosity, as i decided this weekend that it would be a great idea to hold a garage sale at our house next weekend.

quest to be debt free saw the money as debt snowflaking money.  how inspiring!  i too will hold the garage sale to sell off the SO’s and my stuff that we don’t need or want any longer with the hopes of earning money that we might apply towards our respective debts.  alternatively, i was thinking of putting aside any profits for our japan fund, but i reminded myself that right now debt reduction takes precedence over savings (for a fund fun especially).

lulugal’s article this time last year on what she would do if she won the lottery at save money made me smile.  i recall fantasizing about a similar scenario in my head only a few months ago as well.

it is great that her first priority is to pay off her debts for all of the various possible amounts she lists she might win.  it probably should be everyone’s first priority, as i can only imagine it would make life so much easier, less stressful and less burdensome for anybody with debt.  i know without a doubt that i too would apply such funds to debt first, everything else second.

i enjoyed ryan’s analogy of debts to holes at debt reduction formula last year.  he advises against digging additional holes by borrowing more and more from others.  instead, focus on finding ways to fill up the hole(s) that you already have.

it really has felt as though my various debts have been ‘holes’.  at times, when i am discouraged and wonder if i’ll ever pay off my consumer debts, i see these holes as bottomless pits.  pits where i feel as though i am throwing away my money earned without hope of relief.

extending the metaphor, i look forward to the day that someday, my own hole(s) will be not just filled, but overfilling and turn into hills! meaning that i will have an abundance of ‘dirt’, or money in the form of awesome savings.

i am encouraged to see that our dbn team (along with many others in the pf blogging community) has been finding and continue to find ways to eliminate our respective debts through earning additional income, prioritizing the role of extra income, and understanding what debt is.

as for myself here at FWP, i share with you my story on the beginnings of my debt about a decade ago.  it can be quite challenging trying to understand money, credit, and debt, how to use financial resources, and not to abuse them as a new adult.  i have learned much from my own experiences.

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