Frugal Friday Feb. 27
Another quiet week in the frugalosphere.
In a follow-up to last week, I must report that Almost Frugal gave into temptation and bought a new dishwasher after all. This in spite of the dozens of encouraging comments she got, cheering her on in her efforts to live dishwasher-free. It almost makes you wonder why she bothers blogging if she’s going to lose her mind and spend money like a drunken sailor.
Speaking of blogging, today’s Little People Wealth has helpful post about how you can get some free cheese. All you have to do is review the cheese on your high traffic cheese-related blog. Finally, a tip we can all use.
As true devotees of frugalism know, being frugal is not merely a way to get rich, it is a lifestyle. Frugal posts this week explored taking this further and transcending the Frugal Lifestyle (FL) and living what might be called the Substance Abuser Lifestyle, or SAL.
Money Saving Blog brings us a list of 20 things in your house you can sell. This post begins with the commonplace observation that “the first thing that I do when I suddenly realize that money is getting tight towards the end of the month is to look around my home to see if there is anything that I can sell.” This is a good start, but I think that really living the SAL would mean looking around in other people’s homes for things you can sell.
Bargaineering suggests Dumpster Diving. The post is short on details, but apparently in some garbage heaps there are more things you can sell.
The Greenest Dollar picked up the SAL pace with a post on living in shipping containers. It’s an informative post, but the author lost my interest when she started discussing how much it costs to buy a container. Of course, a serious SAL practitioner would find one.
Not to worry. Tight Fisted Miser has an informative post, with a follow-up the next day, on what he calls “Extreme Frugal Housing Options.” His first suggestion is to live in a van, which he thinks he would really enjoy, but concedes that his “GF” would not. (I’m not sure what GF stands for. In context, girlfriend seems unlikely. Goldfish? Grandfather?) If not a van, he suggests an RV, which again he worries that GF would not like. Also, they’re hard to handle on the road and burn a lot of gas. But, then again, there’s no room for a dishwasher.