Festival of Frugality

Welcome to the 238th Festival of Frugality!

It’s easy to spend more money watering your garden during these hot summer months, but Family Balance Sheet suggests these 6 ways to conserve water and save money can help you save both gallons and dollars.

As the heat of summer sets in, our utility bills can heat up when we use our air conditioners to keep cool. Here are 9 tips on staying cool without an air conditioner from Realm of Prosperity.

Summertime often means home improvement projects. Everyone needs tools, but you don’t have to always buy new ones. Next time you need a tool for your project that seems way overpriced at your local hardware store, consider other options. Home Tool Review offers best places to buy used tools.

Summer also means vacations. But you don’t necessarily need to go far far away to have a vacation. Help Me Travel Cheap submits 10 tips for saving money by going on a staycation.

Being frugal means knowing your “goes ins” and controlling your “goes outs”. We have all had times when money is tight, and this week’s festival has some great tips:

• Being frugal is a lifestyle, but learning to be frugal is not an easy task. These principles of a frugal lifestyle from Coupon Shoebox can help you get started.
• If you need some cash, one easy way to generate it is to sell items that are just laying around and not being used. The Digerati Life offers garage sale tips to bring in cash.
• The majority of adults and seniors rely on prescription drugs, but they can break the bank when times are tight. Money Management submits money saving tips for buying prescription drugs.
• Creating a budget is an important part of gaining control of your wealth. If you need help getting started, read through some of these budget tips from The Military Wallet.
• Saving money for a rainy day should be something that you factor into the budget – and MileHiMama has some great tips.
• You will need to know your salary to create your budget, but ptMoney submits knowing your daily salary can be helpful when considering which items you are going to spend money on during the day.
• When you are going over your monthly expenses within your budget, think about whether those expenses are necessities or luxuries. Ask yourself – do you really need to be spending money on that? CashMoneyLife asks, Should you be spending money on cable every month? And Ace of Wealth submits Do we really need that 2nd car?

After you have your budget created and know how much you can afford to spend, Penniless Parenting suggests you may need a few tips to help you recover from your previous spending habits.

Next time money is tight and you are considering taking out a payday loan, do your research so you know what you are getting into. Saving Money Today suggests you look before you leap.

We all want to invest and grow our nest egg, and sometimes we are tempted to use credit cards or other sources for funds. But these may not be smart moves. Rabbit Funds submits 4 reasons not to use debt for investments.

Being productive with your time is important. Live Real, Now suggests you consider making a calendar for life to remind you of all the little tasks that get neglected in this busy world.

It’s important to know your credit score. Richly Reasonable submits tips to discover and improve your credit score.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for all of the submissions!