Welcome to the Festival of Frugality #120. That makes this one of the longest running blog carnivals ever. A Penny Saved is lucky enough to be the host this time around, and I’ll try to be a good host. Without further adieu, here’s the frugal posts:

William Blake presents: Time to Examine The Way You Spend at Becoming Debt Free.

Pants in a Can presents: Find IT on eBay at Pants in a Can. That ranks up there as one of the coolest blog names ever, by the way.

Tejvan writes about haggling: How To Haggle and Pay a Lower Price.

Bryce writes: Avoiding Impulse Buys at Save and Conquer.

Steve writes: Tips on Saving Money.

Betsy writes about saving money on your child’s prom: The $300 Prom Challenge.

Sally writes: The Freeloader’s Toolbelt: 50 Tools to Help You Get Anything Free Online. No better way to save money than to get everything for free, right?

Margaret offers up some great money saving ideas: 5 Money Saving Alternatives to Stuff We Do All the Time.

Penelope writes: Homemade Coin Bank for Saving Wayward Coins. Save money on a piggy bank, and save cash at the same time.

Money Crashers has a great list: 31 Ways to Be Frugal And Save Money.

Kris offers some tips on takeout: Healthy Takeout on a Budget.

Jennifer reminds us why we are frugal: 32 Reasons to Be Frugal Besides Saving Money.

FMF gives us the Frugal Fundamentals.

Aryn writes about simplicity: Clean the Clutter Out of Your Life to Free Your Money.

David writes about mass transit, and busses in particular: $10 Bus Fares: Frugal or Frightening?.

Jenny B talks about saving cash on books: Buying Books

Joe D tells you how to avoid bankrupting yourself for breakfast: Starting Your Day Off Right.

Ryan writes about the 99 Cent store: Hunting for Discounts: A Trip to the 99 Cent Store.

Need to give a gift but don’t have much cash? Joanne wrote this just for you: Homemade Gift Basket Ideas For Any Occasion.

Seb presents: Five things you should buy used.

Ted writes about schoolbook bargains: Cheapest Textbooks Online.

Enoch Ko put up a great post: Minimize expenses (revisited).

Mrs Micah presents: The Amazing Powers of YourRxCard.com’s Prescription Card.

RC presents: 30 Ways To Stretch and Maximize Your Dollar.

Sarah teaches you how to save by paying more: Birkenstocks: A frugal love story.

The Happy Rock presents: Virgin Mobile Deal: $60 For One Year Of Prepaid Virgin Mobile Service.

Frugal babe writes about saving money on gardening with: Automatic Flowers.

Food and Groceries

Squawkfox writes: Top Five Frugalicious Lunches.

Stephanie presents: Meal Planning Without a Menu.

Kevin writes: My Toothpaste Paid Me 17 Cents at No Debt Plan.

Paidtwice offers this tip: Frugal Tip: Vinegar, Baking Soda’s Best Friend.

NtJS writes: A Dirty, Frugal Job – Cloth Diapering at not the jet set.

Transportation Tips:

Deamiter writes about gas: Gas Prices Too High? Slow Down!.

FIRE Finance offers a unique way to save on transportation costs: Car Pool, Ride Share, Hitch Hike your way to Fun & Dollars!.

Penny Nickel has another post about the benefits of traveling by bus: Travel by bus: save hundreds of dollars, the environment, and your sanity!.

Whew. When I was about 3/4 of the way through the submissions, I realized that there’s something called the “Instacarnival”, that basically makes the carnival super easy to put up. Naturally I didn’t notice it until I had done nearly all the work by hand! Yikes. Lesson learned, although a bit too late.

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Festival of Frugality #120 is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

I’ve been on a carnival rampage, and several carnivals have linked to A Penny Saved.  Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s highlights:

Carnival of Budgeting

Personal Finance Money Tips

Carnival of twenty-something finance

Check out the other articles in the carnivals as well – there are a lot of great ones.  If I missed one, please let me know so I can add it.

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. A Penny Saved in Carnivals is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

Welcome to the Carnival of Money Stories, Edition #17.  I was kindly asked to host this time around, and happily agreed.  There were a total of 15 submissions to the carnival this week, but I could only accept 9.  The Carnival of Money Stories is focused on personal money related stories – so there needs to be a personal touch.  Here are the 9 great posts that I picked – be sure to check them all out and leave your comments:

• MoneyNing explains what he could have done when his checking account balance read a whopping $4.32, and he had bills to pay.  It’s a tough spot to be in, but there are ways to get by.
• Super Saver from My Wealth Builder writes about his/her daughter’s alternate form of currency – a pretty neat look into a kid’s world.
• Free Money Finance writes about what makes people happy – sometimes it isn’t just about the money.
• Stephanie over at Stop the Ride cracked the $300 monthly mark in online earnings this past month – congratulations.  Time to save that money or pay off some debt.
• Nina at Queercents talks about how it can be difficult when your partner out-earns you.  Her first partner made thirty times what she did – wow!
• Trent from The Simple Dollar relates a story about one of his readers and her very difficult financial situation.  Any time you couple crushing debt with medical problems, there’s bound to be trouble.
• Cheap as Chips tells a story about his first house – and how his father’s loan made it all possible.  Nice to have a dad who will help you out like that – not all parents are generous enough to do so.
• The Silicon Valley Blogger writes about how the real estate bubble is surrounding her – right in her own neighborhood.
• Active Duty Military Money and Matters writes about his recent experience with USAA.  I’m a huge USAA fan, and have nothing but great things to say about them, in my experience.

Whew, I didn’t even have time to write up my own submission.  I’ll have to make sure I get in for the next edition of Money Stories, which will be hosted Monday over at Sushi Money, so be sure to keep your eyes open. You can submit your money stories here.  Remember – keep it personal, and you’re good to go.

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Carnival of Money Stories #17 is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

It’s been a while since I’ve participated in any carnivals, but I figured with the new domain, that I could use the extra links. So, this week I’ve participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by The Simple Dollar.

There are a lot of entries as always and nearly all (Ok. All) of them deserve a little of your time to read them. Trent did a wonderful job of hosting and sorting and listing. Entirely too much effort Trent. But we appreciate it.

I also participated in the Tax Carnival this week. You can read it and all of it’s taxy glory at Don’t mess with Taxes.

[tags]carnival,personal finance,taxes[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Carnival! is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

Well, I’ve been waiting for a while to be the host of the Carnival of Personal Finance. It’s the crown jewel of money carnivals garnering so many submissions that it borders on overwhelming. I’m about to try and do it justice. If I don’t, please forgive me.

• David B. of Make Money and Get Rich: How to save money when shopping online
• Money Man of Watch your Wallet: How to do Great Work Hammings Take
• Bryan C. Fleming of Bryan C. Fleming: Million Dollar Savings club hits 100 days
• Erik of Money Crashers: Communication is key when it comes to managing your money together
• David of My Two Dollars: Love and Marriage: Impress yourselves not your friends
• David E. of Worldwide Success: Ten Good Reasons for owning a home
• Golbguru of Money, Matter and More Musings: Fidelity myPlan Retirement Calculator: Numbers can be tricky
• Thomas Ott of Digital Breakfast: Small Cap Value Pick – ChipMOS Technologies (IMOS)
• Flexo of Consumerism Commentary: How to be the CFO of your own life
• CJ of The Coin Jar: A Holiday gift for your kids that will last a lifetime
• Lua Augustin of Save Money: Improve your Credit Score
• Jimmy Atkinson of Ask the Advisor: Top 25 Web 2.0 apps for money, finance, and Investment
• WenchyPoo of Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket: Credit and Identity in Shreds
• TMT of The Money Tortoise: Are we Having Fun Yet?
• Yan of Probargainhunter.com: Send and Receive free Faxes
• Kristine McKinley of Beacon Financial tips and tools: IRA withdrawal for 1st time home purchase
• Andy Oshiro of Exchange Ingredients: How to negotiate a pay raise
• Savvy Steward of Savvy Steward: How to keep track of your spending
• Cody McKibben of Time for some thrilling heroics: 6 simple financial tricks for college students(or anyone for that matter)
• Binary Dollar of Binary Dollar: PMI is now tax-deductible
• Eric of Free from 9 to 5: Automatic Millionaire, Implemented!
• Sharpie guesting at Adult ADD and Money: ADD and the fear of dealing with money
• William Wallets of A Financial Revolution: Uncle Sam’s Revenge part 1: Tax Basics
• TFB at The Finance Buff: Investing a Small Amount
• MNC of My New Choice: Stupid Investment of the Week
• Pete of My Financial Awareness: Does your spouse press your buttons because your hair is purple
• Steve Faber of Debt Free: Brrrrr. should you put your credit on ice?
• Getting to enough of Getting to Enough: Wal-Mart deserves the Nobel Peace Prize?
• Jeremy of Generation X Finance: Having trouble with your budget or spending? Go green!
• FMF of Free Money Finance: Why you shouldn’t listen to the financial media (and what they don’t want you to know)
• Mr. Credit Card of Ask Mr. Credit Card: The best and worst of credit cards in 2006
• Jeramie Beaudry of eFIPO: Get your A$$ out of debt – must read post!
• Jim of Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: Deducting student loan interest
• Amelia of Around the Sun: Saving on Software
• Scott of Scott on Money: Getting a better car insurance quote
• Will Chen of Wise Bread: Top 100 most popular personal finance blogs
• TJP of Investor Trip: 20,000 reasons why College is Worth Your time
• Bill Trent of Stock Market Beat: Plantronics and Oracle Scratch each others backs
• bluntmoney of Blunt Money: Money and Marriage
• Craig Higdon of Investment Property Insider: Commercial real estate: how you win even if you lose
• Trent of The Simple Dollar: Rewriting Money’s 25 rules: A summary
• Big Cajun Man of Canadian Financial Stuff: Non-Profit sector a growth area?
• Wanda of Well-Heeled: Liberal arts to law school?
• Andy Boyd of Credit Cave: Types of fraud alerts: initial and extended alerts
• Praveen of My simple trading system: 0% interest gotchas
• Super Saver of My Wealth Builder: Making college part of a wealth building plan
• Bob Vineyard, CLU of InsureBlog: Subtle (and not so subtle) rate increases
• Silicon Valley Blogger of The Digerati Life: 10 year end money management reminders
• ISPF of International Student Personal Fianance: Building Credit History
• Nina at Queer Cents: Ten Money Questions for Donna Mete
• Mr. Juggles of Long or Short Capital: Playing the Menstrual cycle and PMS Spreads
• The Dividend Guy of The Dividend Guy Blog:Yearly Dividend Income update
• Frugal at My 1st Million at 33: Ways of taking capital losses
• 2 Pennies Earned at 2 Pennies Earned: Saving Money on Wrapping Paper
• Ruby of thoughts and riches: The High cost of Procrastination
• Tim at Reverse Mortgage Information: Reverse Annuity Mortgage can be a sensible strategy
• Michael K. Dawson of Time and Money group: Free Credit Report
• Paul of Paul’s Tips: Increasing your hourly rate in order to get rich
• Tom Hanna of Financial Options: The week ahead
• The Prince of Thrift at Becoming & staying debt free: Save vs. Borrowing: Why borrowing is stupid
• Making your way of Makingourway: Financial Goals for 2007
• Harrison of Journey to Financial Freedom: Reverse Mortgage Information
• Dad at Five Cent Nickel: Roll your own discount on Disney tickets
• Nickel at Five Cent Nickel: How to protect yourself against identity theft
• Ben of Money Smart Life: How persistence will make you rich,someday
• Dominic Foster of Trader Knowledge: Growing your Investments with Compound Interest
• Joe Kristan of Roth & Company Tax Update: IRS guidance on year-end giving
• Ed at Daily dose of Optimism: Feel Clever while Saving money on Printing
• My financial journey at My financial journey: The pursuit of the perfect savings rate
• Fire Finance of FIREFinance: Brokerage went Belly Up – Where are my Investments
• Joe Caterisano of How to save Money: 13 ways to save on Gasoline
• Jennifer Lynn of Broke-A$$ Student: Advantages and disadvantages of online savings accounts
• NCN of No Credit Needed: Getting ready for 2007 part 2

Well, that was quite the list of participants wasn’t it? I’m tired from all the typing and reading. I haven’t picked any favorites as there were just way too many to read each one thoroughly enough to make that decision. I did eliminate a few that were duplicate submissions and submissions where the same author submitted more than one entry. Sorry, but them’s my rules.

Maybe you all should pick some favorites! Speaking of favorites, be sure to check out the list of favorite posts here at A Penny Saved that is sitting over to the right. I’m sure you’ll find a few good entries. Also pay attention to the Related Posts section at the end of each post as it can help you find some other great A Penny Saved articles.

Also, if you like what you see here, be sure to Subscribe!

Next weeks Carnival is over at My Personal Finance Blog. It’ll be on Tuesday after Christmas, but I believe the deadline is still 6pm on Sunday.
[tags]Carnival of personal finance, carnival, personal finance[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Carnival of Personal Finance #79 is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

The carnival is up at Everybody loves your money and it’s a doozy. A great job on getting it inline and ready in plenty of time.

So if you’re in the market for a used PF article(you’ll get it when you get there), head on over to Everybody loves your money and take a gander at the Front Lot, and when you’re done with the front lot, take a look-see at the back lot where my article on Investment pyramids is parked.

[tags]carnival,carnival of personal finance,money,investment[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Carnival of Personal Finance #75 is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

Welcome to the ninth Festival of Under 30 Finances. There’s a plethora of great posts this week, so make sure to read as many of them as you can. I’ve tried to sort them into categories as best as possible to make it a little easier to read by topic. I’ve also weeded out a few that were not even vaguely near Under 30 Finances related and limited submissions to one per site.
Frugality & Savings tips.

The Good Human brings us Car sharing services save you money and make you money!

My Wealth Builder brings us Teachers Know – Start saving young.

Wenchypoo brings us Counting the cost of convienence.

Ask Uncle Bill brings us Getting off the dime.

Simple Dollar brings us Turning off the Financially Irresponsible Mindset.

Christine Kane brings us Don’t GET rich quick. BE rich quick.

Bryan Fleming brings us Million Dollar savings club update.

My opinions brings us How I compiled my portfolio.

Universe of Success brings us Seeking Security can be Dangerous.

Debt, Debt management, & Debt avoidance.

All tips and tricks brings us Student Credit cards consolidation.

eFipo.com brings us Credit Cards. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Verve Coaching brings us Getting out of debt.

Exchange Ingredients brings us Rules for getting out of debt.

That’s it, that’s all, there isn’t any more. If you’d like to submit to the next Festival of Under 30 finances, you can do so at BlogCarnival.

[tags]debt,credit cards, frugality, savings, portfolio[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Festival of Under 30 Finances #9 is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

The festival of Under 30 Finances is up at City Girl’s Financial Blog. Yet another Festival chock full of fun and useful information for those of us that are under 30. Make sure you go over and read them all.

As you’ll see when you visit City Girl, I’m hosting the next Festival on November 3rd. You’ve got two weeks to get your submissions in. You can submit at blogcarnival like normal or if you’re too lazy to go over there and do it, you can always use my contact form. Just be sure to mention the Festival so I know what to do with your submission.

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Festival of Under 30 Finances October 20,2006 is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

Visualize your debt payments

If you’re a visual person, you may like this debt repayment calculator I discovered via Consumerism. After you input the terms of your debt (only one account at a time), it presents a colorful timeline of your payments and end-of-year totals.

Getting ahead gets Harder

While it’s certainly true that having a college degree is becoming more and more common, that it’s not inexpensive and that the college wage premium has shrunk, there is still a tremendous economic benefit in going to college — up to $1 million or more.

Why you should understand your credit card debt

I am at a point in my life where I pay off my credit card balances every month. I wish I could say that has always been the case and no credit card company ever made money off me. Wish I could, but can’t. Like so many college graduates I left campus with a diploma AND hefty credit card debt (students loans as well, but not the point of this post).

[tags]credit card, debt payment, debt, credit, payment, loans[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Nuggets for 02-17-06 is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

A semi-regular feature of A Penny Saved…

Cash Back Credit Cards

Get real. These things are CRAP. Why? Because, when you use credit cards, you are using a form of payment which is not “real”. Whenever you spend real cash, you “feel” the transaction. When you use credit, you don’t “feel” the money leave your pocket. Be honest…

A Billionaire’s Budget

Turns out that the personal financial advisor to Oracle Corporation founder Larry Ellison, worth about $17 billion and the nation’s fifth richest according to Forbes, sent him a series of emails that warned him of his “habitual runaway spending.”

Opening an HSBC Direct Online Savings Account

After reading about HSBC’s new 4.80% APY rate teaser (good through April 30, 2006), I finally decided to open an account. Before I go any further, I should say that there’s currently a $25 bonus available for opening a new account. Simply use this HSBC Direct $25 Bonus link and use ‘start‘ as your promo code.

[tags]Credit, Cards, HSBC, Savings, Billionaire[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Nuggets for 02-02-06 is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.