I hope you had a fun and safe Halloween. After years of not paying much attention to the holiday, Halloween quickly became a favorite again after having kids. My kids went as a witch and a bumblebee this year. Too much cuteness! I’m not biased at all. I was going to share a picture here but my computer and camera are having another fight, so I can’t. Instead, I’ll share them from last year as a kitty and a puppy

This week’s editor’s picks are as follows:

• A Simple Technique to Help Parents Meet Their Savings Goals
• Simple Technique To Help Parents Meet Savings Goals
• It’s Okay If You Suck When Starting Your Budget
• Emergency Fund Circa 1939
• Waste Not, Want Not — A Guide to Using Leftover Food
• Don’t Let Your Purchases Fall Prey to Your Emotions
• Did Americans Get Poorer or is USA Today Wrong?

I know, lots of editors picks. Hate me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now, the rest of the links!

Frugal Tips for Around The House

• Long Distance Voice Plan vs Skype With Roaming Data Plan
• Entertainment on the Cheap
• 101 Ways to Use Vinegar–the Magic Elixir
• 10 Tips to Save Energy and Money This Winter
• 15 Items that Impact the Cost of Homeowners Insurance

Saving Money

• Inadvertent BOGO
• Free Trips to Japan and $1 Houses: Too Good to be True?
• How to Cut Those Scary Halloween Costs
• 7 Ways to Save More Money

Making Extra Cash

• Great Fall and Winter Jobs for Kids
• Is Working Overtime Worth It?
• 10 Common Characteristics of Millionaires You Can Follow
• 5 Easy Ways to Find Extra Cash This Holiday
• Help Raise Money for Charities by Selling Your Old CDs

Budgeting

• How to Budget on a Fluctuating Income
• Frugal Traveling Budget Tips

Thanks for visiting this edition of the Festival of Frugality – thank you to all who submitted links!

It’s been a while since I wrote on smarties and instant gratification. If you are allowed to have favorite posts of your own, then that is one of mine.

This pack of smarties was given to me by my 4 year old who was given them by a teacher and kindly handed them to me knowing they are my favorite. It’s been in my purse for weeks and I see it laying there in a side pocket every time I peek in to grab my keys or wallet. I carefully consider if I want them or not and thus far have said no. A weird thing for me, but it makes me smile each time knowing that I have gotten to a place that I truly can see something I like, know I will enjoy, but can still say no because I don’t want it or need it. I am sure the time will come that I will want them and that will be the time I say yes. I will enjoy them more that way, instead of just mindlessly consuming them because they are there.

A sure sign I’ve become much more mindful of all the choices I make when it comes to consuming, saying yes, and waiting until the time is right. There is so much more satisfaction that way, I think.

I was standing in a goodwill the other day, weighing options for my daughter’s summer (what people in other parts of the country call spring) wardrobe. Shorts, skirts, dresses, tshirts, sandals. So many cute things to choose from for a girl who needs some things that fit her body that won’t give up on growing. I know, I have many more years of this. Sometimes I can’t believe how fast it goes, though.

When I am shopping for her (and me!) at Goodwill, it can be so hard to limit myself. The prices are so right, the quality is almost always fantastic at my Goodwill so I don’t have to worry about buying a bunch of worn out junk that isn’t worth it. For $1.75 tshirts and $2 shorts, skirts and pants, I sometimes can find myself wanting to go overboard, especially when I find a slew of stuff someone just donated in one of my kid’s sizes (or mine).

Each time I have a cart full, or armloads, of clothes for them in their current or upcoming sizes, I remind myself of the laundry monster that lives at home. Each article of clothing, inexpensive as it may be, is one more thing that will fill the hamper, the washer, the dryer, and a laundry basket to be folded and put away. Too many cute things makes for one *really* big pile of laundry.

Granted, most of the time that I am there and searching racks, I have also dropped off my fair share of outgrown clothing. Not all the time though. And those times I have to remind myself before I add it to the buy pile that every item of clothing is another piece of laundry.

Every item for my home is another item to store, organize, dust.

No matter how good the deal is, I have to remind myself that there is only so much we *need*.

One of the big questions I ask myself when I am in a store and before I buy is “Would I replace this if it was ruined/broken/lost”. If the answer is no, I don’t *need* it, I just kind of want it or really want it. And then I can overthink from there.

Are you a shopping overthinker? Please tell me I am not the only one that stands in an aisle and does this every single time.

Last month, during my 31 Days of Living Simply series, this photo was shared in this post. For the first time since the start of this blog (3 years ago last week!), I received a handful of critical emails over that picture because sitting there on that little makeshift cart turned cabinet are a handful of Le Creuset dutch ovens and a skillet. What these emails had in common was the opinion that it was neither simple nor frugal to have a collection of Le Creuset cookware.

I knew the cookware was nice and quality. Indeed, the cookware I use on a daily basis is expensive to buy – some of the pieces I have retailing for over $300. I can see how in one tiny glimpse into my kitchen it could seem a bit contradictory to have over $1000 of cookware sitting on my make-do $10 kitchen shelf while proclaiming the values of frugality and simplicity. Here are some thoughts on this:

I love cooking. I value quality and craftsmanship over cheap prices. I care less about shelves than I do about cookware. I still care way less about cookware than most things in my daily life, which means shelves fall way down the list when looked at in the big picture.

I like to spend money on things that will last because then I don’t have to replace them every couple of days, weeks, months, years, or however long an item lasts. It is less wasteful and more valuable to buy something quality that I can count on and not have to worry about. In the long run, I believe you save more money by spending more up front in many cases.

The collection of pots and pans that I use that were the cause of some unnecessarily mean emails were given to me about 5 years ago as hand-me-downs from my mother. She used them every single weekend of most of my childhood when she cooked for my family at the cottage. Packed full of years of memories in that kitchen – pancakes in the skillet on Saturday mornings, soups in the pots in the evenings – I learned to cook things with my mom at an old gas stove with those pots and pans in a kitchen that is only a memory. When they had to tear down the cottage and rebuild, everything came out including that cookware and she gave it to me. So now I make memories in my kitchen with my daughter as we use them together. Does it make the memories more valuable because the cookware is more expensive? Of course not. The pots and pans don’t make the memories, but they are part of the story and they will continue to be part of my family’s story because they’ve lasted.

Not only does this make me feel more strongly about buying quality that will last, but it also makes me feel much more strongly about not making assumptions about people based on what they have. I don’t want to be judged by my pots and pans. I just want to have things that last and keep making memories that last right along with them.

This is a guest post from Katie at Imperfect People. Katie is a relatively new blogger and I love that she’s living a debt free life and embracing the imperfections of the everyday. I hope you’ll visit her or subscribe to her feed .

Debt free and loving it
We live on a world of instant gratification. The “I want it NOW” attitude is satisfied with credit. You can have it now! With the itty bitty details of…yea you just have to pay more for it later.
We are BIG Dave Ramsey Fans. If you haven’t heard of Dave Ramsey then come out from under the rock you have been hiding behind (just kidding) and click here. We are forever grateful for finding out about his program when we were first married. I won’t reinvent the wheel as you can find all of his information on his site but everything is broken into easy to follow BABY STEPS.

There are so many decisions that i may look at differently if we had a pile of debt. There is so much freedom when you are not a slave to the bill collectors. But whether you are drowning in bills or have more money than you need I believe how you live is a choice.
I know people living in brand new huge homes with new cars and the latest fashions from all the boutiques yet they owe more than they earn. They are living pay check to pay check and slaves to their jobs.
I also know people that buy used cars, shop the sale racks (or my personal favorite goodwill) and have a little bit of “homemade” everything. Many of those people are living comfortably, not stressed at all about money and have enough in the bank to breath easy if something were to happen.
I’m sure there are perks to having all the newest fanciest things but I would much rather choose to live simply. Before we even had kids we decided it was important for me to be a stay at home mom. We planned in advance. While we still had two incomes we put enough down on our home where our payments would be manageable, we paid off all our debt, and downsized in anyway we could. It was a choice. Ultimately we decided money comes and goes but my time with these children is irreplaceable.
Being free of debt allows you to give more generously since you don’t have as many bills and financial worries. I would so much rather make frugal choices and be able to give freely than have a house full of all the coolest and newest “stuff.” As Shane Claiborne says, “Giving is much more contagious than hoarding.”
What we do with our money and how we live is a choice. I don’t know who the “Jones” are but it is exhausting trying to keep up with them.

I was so excited.

It all started off well enough. Hugs, comments on how much everyone has grown, a house tour, followed by these Simple Perfect Enchiladas for dinner.

Time went on. Little comments came. Things about the details on the house. Not every last piece of trim is in place. But it’s a pretty nice place if you ask me. Yet instead of focusing on the good, the little stuff got mentioned. Criticized. Sometimes that is the way people are. The next morning came and coffee was made. We don’t have a coffee maker, but instead use a french press. Our coffee maker died, we chose not to replace it and we’ve loved the french press ever since. It’s simple, it’s not electronic, it can’t break. It works for us. There was nothing wrong with the coffee. It was the looks of only having coffee to serve from that and suddenly we were being scrutinized as too frugal. Like the only reason we could possibly not have a coffee maker made in China and bought at Target is because we can’t afford one. Not because we choose not to have one. And so a new coffee maker was bought for us. One we don’t want or need and one we haven’t used since Sunday morning when we made appropriate coffee.

I realized things were going downhill fast. Suddenly the only conversations were about what we have and do. It was all about money. I was getting uncomfortable quickly. Were the nice things we have in our home gifts? Who paid for them? How did we pay for them? Why don’t we have certain things? We don’t have much stuff. I try to buy quality when we do buy something. We don’t just drop into box stores and drop paychecks off.

All the weekend had to be was a simple one of pancakes and sandy beaches but instead it became about what we have or don’t have. What someone else perceived us as “needing” and making us feel like by going without we were depriving ourselves, our children of a better life.

This life is pretty good, if you ask me. I stay home with my kids (another point of contention brought up), my husband is home by mid afternoon for bike rides, pushing kids on the swings and evenings playing with and enjoying his family while I make dinner and prepare for the next day.  I know everyone does different things for different reasons. I had become very comfortable with what we have, who we are and the choices we make. I was simply taken off guard and suddenly felt the need to defend what is ours that we have fought so hard for and built so purposefully for ourselves.

I took it all personally. I still am.

I have been in a funk and reeling since the visit ended. I have been awash in self doubt. I have been angry and defensive. I have wondered if it’s all true. If what we have going here isn’t enough. If we are somehow failing ourselves and our kids by not buying into the whole appearances matter and stuff matters and labels matter. Did I mention all the labels in our home got analyzed? Yes, really.

It was disorienting and saddening.

I still don’t know what to do with it all but I do know this. I know that it is so important for all of us, no matter what, to be accepting. Accept other life choices, other places in life, other situations. Love that there is something out there – a way, a path – for all of us. And that there is so much more in this world that matters than how much something cost or where something came from or what your zip code is. The saddest part is that so much attention got paid to things that don’t matter, the big stuff got missed out on. There were people here, willing and able to provide a beautiful, simple, relaxing weekend full of love and laughter and instead it was spoiled by the material. Stuff you can’t take with you. The important stuff faded into the background.

What would you have done?

School starts here next week, which means that I have been doing a little back to school shopping. One of the rules at my daughter’s school is that kids in grades K through 3 have to use tote bags instead of backpacks – to save space. We added a tote bag to our list as we headed out over the weekend to pick up supplies. I checked thrift stores and found nothing that would work. And all the big box stores have are backpacks. We found one tote bag at Target that would’ve worked but it was $25 and made cheaply in China. I knew I could do better even though I have never before made anything of the sort. The number of sewing projects I have done is more than one and less than 10.

I raided my stash of fabric that was given to me earlier this year when a relative wasn’t going to do a project she had planned. Went online and found some tutorials to get the basic idea of what I should be doing. I ended up loving this Easy Tote Bag Tutorial and followed that with some modifications for my less than perfectionist self. I also loved this How To Make a Simple Reversible Tote Bag.

I made one for my daughter (the yellow one above) and had so much fun with it and found it simple enough, that I made one for me too (the blue one above). I have all but the straps done on another one for her just because. And I made myself this burlap one as well.

I may or may not have pranced around the house showing off my matching straps and lining to anyone who would listen. The dogs were most interested.

The whole process was so fun for me – to learn something new, enjoy doing it even though I came across a few snags. Thank goodness for the internet to pull me through with tutorials and support when I need it. And my daughter is over the moon excited that I made her a bag for school. There are few better feelings than when she tells me that she loves the things I make her way more than anything she could find at a store.

Total cost for 4 tote bags? $0.

Let Them Get Messy

There is nothing my kids get bouncier over than mom handing them something that they can get all over their hands and won’t get in trouble for smearing everywhere.

Fingerpaints

Whipped cream fights (shaving cream is fun too!)

Play Outside

There is nothing simpler and free-er (in more ways than one) than opening the back door and just letting them play. Soccer, bike riding, swinging, digging in the dirt, playing with the hose, pulling weeds in the garden.

When we do leave the house, I like to go to parks, the beach, free water play areas – things that are really fun but don’t cost a dime.

The times we do spend our pennies, there is nothing better than a drippy ice cream cone with sprinkles on a hot summer day. I love the evidence it leaves behind.

When the heat and humidity gets to be too much, we retreat inside for coloring, book reading, fort building, indoor hopscotch, puppet shows and other creative but not overwhelming fun.

When all of that is said and done, there is nothing like a nap in the hammock.

See? Frugal living really is fun!

What are your plans for filling long summer days?

This past weekend, my family held a yard sale. My kids were encouraged to go through their things and sell what didn’t fit or get played with. They were both told they could keep the money they made. My 3 year old son already knew what he wanted to spend his on the moment he got a few dollars in his tiny little fist. My 5 year old daughter couldn’t wait to purposefully browse Target’s shelves until she saw something she liked.

My son returned home with a remote control truck and my daughter with a piggy bank to put the rest of her saved money in and to add to. Both different, yet the same. In my mind frugality isn’t just about pinching pennies. It’s about enjoying the things we love while saving for a rainy day. I do believe my kids did well in this lesson with money.

Here are this week’s Editor’s Picks from the submissions:

• My piggy banking daughter must’ve read this article from Free From Broke, It’s a Drop in the Bucket.
• J Money at Budgets Are Sexy says Just Because It’s Expensive Doesn’t Mean It’s Good.
• Ryan at Cash Money Life tells us How To Sell Your Car on Craigslist. A great guide I’ll be putting to use very soon.
• Donna Freedman shares in an excellently written article her views on wedding gifting in The Wedding Gift as Price of Admission.
• Squirrlers posts about frugality gone too far in Starlight, Starbright.

The Best of the Rest

(that’s a lot of moola for a little guy)

• Kristina presents What Have You Cut in the Last 2 years? posted at Dual Income No Kids.
• 10 Ways to Cope With a Budget Shortfall from Funny About Money
• Mrs. Not Made of Money presents 4 Tips To Keep Your Hobby Expenses In Check posted at Not Made Of Money.
• FMF presents 10 Things to Buy in Bulk posted at Free Money Finance.
• MoneyNing presents What You Need to Know About CSAs Before Joining posted at Money Ning.
• and on the flipside: Mrs. Accountability presents I Joined a Food Coop and I’m Glad I Did posted at Out of Debt Again.
• MD presents How Rich Do You Want to Be? posted at studenomics.
• Steven and Debra presents The Homeowner’s Dilemma: To Amputate or To Suck-it-Up and Take One for the Team posted at The END TIMES Hoax
• PT presents The Best Online Stock Brokers For Cheap Stock Trading posted at PT Money.
• Penny presents Frugal Sick Days posted at Penniless Parenting.
• jim presents International Restaurant Tipping Guide posted at Wanderlust Journey.
• Bucksome presents Internet Savings: Giveaways posted at Buck$ome Boomer’s Journey to Retirement.
• Lakita | Personal Finance Journey presents Save Tons of Money on Family Vacation posted at Personal Finance Journey.

Thanks for visiting this week’s festival! Enjoy the links!

Many months ago, our coffeepot died. One foggy morning, I stumbled into the kitchen, pushed the start button, and headed to my favorite chair to wait. The usual beep came far sooner than I expected and when I walked over to happily get my coffee earlier than usual, I was greeted by an error button. It was finished. Kitchenaid wasn’t all that helpful. They’d be happy to offer me a new coffeepot at the low low price of $124. While I figured out what I wanted for replacement, we still needed our regular morning caffeine fix. Hubby dug the french press out of the back of the cupboard and every morning since, we’ve enjoyed freshly pressed hot coffee from it.

In this case, we discovered that we’d been using something convenient at the expense of value and quality. Sitting in our stash all along was something simpler, with no electric parts to break, that you can take anywhere, and provides a really good caffeine jolt whenever needed.

Coffee tends to get a bum rap when talking about frugal living. “The Latte Factor” is a term freely thrown around about the small amounts of money that we tend to spend here and there, not considering how much those small items add up and ultimately blow the budget. It is unfair and insulting to assume that if a person walks into a coffee shop and buys coffee once, twice or twelve times a week, they aren’t putting consideration into that. There is a place for all of the simple pleasures in life – hot coffee, books, home decor, cute clothes, haircuts, and good wine. To assume that enjoying those things means that there isn’t a level of consciousness in the spending for them is unfair.

It takes a whole lot of venti mocha lattes to equal the price of an iPhone or cable tv or a long list of other things that are becoming the way the truth and the light in this fast paced world. I’ll take sitting quietly drinking a latte with a friend over texting, tweeting and facebooking with an iPhone. The fact is, we all value different things. Some of us live without cars, riding bikes or walking everywhere. Others have mommymobiles for driving the kids from school to activities to Costco. There is no one size fits all way to live life. There are broader strokes that can apply to all of us. Be conscious. Consider expenses. Enjoy the simple things. Live, laugh, love. Appreciate. When all of those things are happening, it doesn’t matter if one person spends $40 a month on coffee or another spends that going out on a date night or another on a haircut.

There is one thing that I know is true. When it rains – even a light rain – puddles form. If it keeps raining, those puddles get bigger. Raindrops add up just like pennies do. Enjoy your latte. Save your pennies. As adults, many of us see puddles as obstacles. Either of my children would argue they are opportunities. To slow down while walking through that parking lot and enjoy a moment of sheer bliss as they lift those little feet up off the ground and come down as hard as they can to make as big of a splash as a 30 pound kid from 2 inches off the ground can. Just enough to soak the bottoms of their jeans and mom’s flip flopped feet. Enough to remind us that raindrops make something tangible to enjoy. So do pennies if we let them grow into something bigger. There is nothing quite like enjoying a warm cup of coffee while watching puddles form.