Free Stuff

Spotted this article today titled "Free Stuff You Actually Want".

Need I say more?

Travel Tips for the Brave

My father works for a major airline company, and can therefore travel wherever his roaming heart desires for virtually free. However, unless he has a friend to stay with, there are always hotel costs - and that's where traveling can punch you in your pocketbook.

While reviewing submissions for our blog carnival (refer to the last blog), I came across this blog about Free Lodging on vacations.

His links are definitely useful, although I think you'd have to be the adventurous type to actually use their services, even if they are free. For example, his first link is to a site that can connect you with strangers all over the world who are willing to offer their couch to you (or guest room). Still, they are very interesting, so check them out.

Fellow Blogger? Take a Trip to the Carnival!

If you are someone, like me, who enjoys the sharing of information with others through blogging, then I highly recommend joining a Blog Carnival. My best friend (and co-contributor to this blog), heard about Blog Carnivals and told me to look into them. What I found was not only an awesome community of fellow bloggers, but also a means of increasing the traffic to my site. And anyone who desires to write and make money from blogging knows that traffic is "muy importante" (VERY IMPORTANT!)

A blog carnival starts with a host. For example, today my friend and I are hosting a blog carnival called "Recession Obsession". We listed our blog at blogcarnival.com/bc and gave a description of what our next edition would be about. Of course that's easy for us, because the entire purpose of all of our blogs is to share money-making/money-saving tips. We gave a submission deadline and then the e-mail submissions started rolling in! People sent us links to their individual blog enteries (not their entire blog) that they felt were relevant to our topic. Some were dead-on, others not-so-much. But we appreciated all the interest in joining our first carnival.

Finally, once it was time to publish our next edition (which is what you are currently reading), Blog Carnival provided us with the HTML code needed to add the chosen submissions to the bottom of our blog - community doesn't get much easier than that!

Even if you're not interested in hosting a carnival, you can always just join someone else's. Choose a blog entry of your own and search for upcoming carnivals that you feel are relevant to your topic. Read the submission guidelines and then submit your article. Then check out the host's page on the date of their next edition, and you might find a link to your blog. I did this once with my other blog, Temporarily Disabled, and was so excited to see someone include it on their carnival! It really is a lot of fun. Plus, I got to read a bunch of other people's blogs that were related to my topic, which was also really cool.

Bottom Line - increase traffic to your site while supporting fellow bloggers. There's something for everyone at the carnival!

RECESSION OBSESSION BLOG CARNIVAL SUBMISSIONS
Thank you for your interest!

travelcat4 presents Thinking About Starting Your Own Business? posted at Latest Inventions.

DR presents Why Some Online Credit Card Applications Say ‘Hurry Up And Wait’ posted at The Dough Roller.

David presents Stupid Advice from a Payday Lender Courtesy of Google News posted at Payday Loans Review.

David presents Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards Credit Card Review posted at Credit Card Offers IQ.

The Smarter Wallet presents Will The Obama Economic Stimulus Check and 2009 Stimulus Plan Save The Economy? posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Noel Roberts presents An investment in knowledge, is the BEST investment posted at The Official Blog of RKOTB.

Peter presents Raw Vegan Food posted at we overstep.

Peter presents Visualization Trial posted at we overstep.

MBB presents Review of TurboTax and TaxCut Online posted at Money Blue Book Finance.

Tax Time Blues

Well, it's that time again. Yes, already. Taxes are due in just over two months, and I know a lot of people not so happy about this. For those of you who have already filed, dance your happy dance and don't bother to keep reading. . . But for the rest of us, here is a helpful hint.

You don't have to pay an arm and a leg to file your taxes, and no, I'm not suggesting TurboTax (although that's fine too). There are quite a number of online sites that will allow you to complete your taxes and file online FREE. Yes, I said free, but before you rush off to find one, there is a catch. Only the federal return is free, so make sure you find out how much it will cost you to file your state return before you decide on a site. I have personally used (and loved!) the following site for the last two years and will use it again this year: http://www.freetaxusa.com/ With this site it's only $9.95 to e-file your state return, so it's way cheaper than using a professional service. Best of all, it's super easy too! I promise.

Ditch Your Cable/Satellite Provider

When my husband and I decided to buy our house last September we decided to save money by attempting to live without our cable TV (something I was VERY addicted to). But you know what? We don't miss it at all!

These days there are MUCH cheaper (and yes, legal) options for viewing a majority of your favorite shows. Most major TV networks will let you watch full episodes directly from their websites. There are also other legal sites for watching full TV episodes AND movies.

Check out:

NBC
ABC
CBS
MTV
Comedy Central
HULU

and there are many more.

Drawback: You do have to deal with "buffering" lagtime sometimes and free TV and movies usually come at the price of frequent forced advertisement. But how much does cable cost these days? A short wait here and there is definitely worth it to us.

Not Free, But Still Cheaper Than Cable/Satellite

Some other ways that my husband and I get our TV fix is by buying movies, shows and DVD collections. Some can be expensive, but you can usually find good buys on:

Ebay
Amazon's New and Used section (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
iTunes
Half.com (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
or the used sections of stores like Rasputin

We love to buy and share our collections with friends, or invite people over to watch movies or for TV marathons.

Series we currently own or are in the process of collecting:

Other Cheaper Ways We are Entertaining Ourselves

Games - Lately we've had several Scrabble nights and after my birthday party last weekend a group of us played a game called Apples to Apples and had a blast! Board/Card games may seem silly at first, but they can be a jumpstart for conversation and a good time in general. Have everyone contribute an inexpensive snack, and it's all the better. I also geek out on Saturday nights playing DND and sometimes Magic the Gathering. Games that require some initital investment, but can be hours upon hours of entertainment.

We also find ourself playing a lot of video games. Sure, the initial investments of most game systems can be costly, but the newer systems are especially great for parties and getting people to interact. WE LOVE OUR Wii and XBox 360! For less than we'd pay for cable in one month we can buy one or two used games. And, being complete geeks (we admit it!) we still LOVE our old-school Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64. Games for those systems are CHEAP. Right now we're addicted to Rock Band 2 for the 360 (especially when friends are over) and my husband and I in our alone time are playing Diddy's Kong Quest for the Super Nintendo. I cannot believe how much use we get out of our old games, but I'm glad that we do.

Reading - This is something that my husband and I have done together since we started dating. We both love to read comic books (especially him) but at 2.99 or 3.99 a pop (sometimes more!) he has had to reduce the number of titles he follows every month. Eventually a lot of comic runs are reproduced into bigger volumes called trade paperbacks or hardcovers. Both can be expensive, but many major bookstores carry them (Barnes and Nobles, Borders, etc.) We have spent many hours combing through bookstore shelves and enjoying the quiet library-like atmosphere, reading books together. Be careful to eat before you go, though, or else you might end up buying a $10 designer muffin at the coffee shop inside the store.

Of course you can also buy used books for super cheap at Amazon and Half.com. There's also an awesome site called Paperback Swap where you can trade books with other people for free. You only pay when you ship your book to someone (which is very cheap), not when they ship it to you.

The only way I will ever get cable again is if I can afford a DVR. Otherwise I feel like I'm just wasting my money. But that will be a long time from now. Besides, I seem a lot more productive without the constant flow that is television. Now watching something is more of a treat because I have to intentially seek it out.

What entertainment cost(s) have you cut? Do you miss it/them?

Are there any entertainment options that you would recommend?

Wardrobe Savings

Another cool site about how to stretch your wardrobe budget:

20 Wallet-Smart Ways to Makeover Your Style

Dining Out vs. Dining In

Looking over my husband and I's bank statements, I will often notice a trend. It goes like this:

McDonald's
McDonald's
Carl's Jr.
Arby's
Subway
Subway
Subway
In & Out
McDonald's
Long John Silver's
Strings
Strings

and so on.

We don't blow big chunks of money at once anymore, but dining out sure drains our bank account over the month. So, whenever possible, we're trying to eat at home. Even with the rise in grocery costs, it's still cheaper than eating fast food all the time. Especially given the fact that we are entertainers - often feeding friends as well as ourselves.

I'm always looking for articles on saving money foodwise, and I came accross this one today. Check it out these Top 10 Money-Saving Pantry Essentials.

Have any tips on saving money when it comes to buying groceries? Please feel free and share!

Are You Crafty?

If you have a knack for knitting or are crafty in some other way, I've stumbled accross a cool website called Etsy.

You can buy and sell crafts and supplies as well as various vintage items. Building your web store is easy - no HTML knowledge needed - they'll walk you through setting it up in minutes.

Listing your items for sale costs only .20 cents per item. You have four months to sale an item before it must be relisted (for another .20 cents). Etsy earns only 3.5% of your sales price (not including shipping) and you pay once per month.

I'm a pretty crafty person, but I've been specifically trying to brainstorm a product or products that are especially useful during the recession. Example (although admittingly not a very good one): people are probably drinking less coffee at $3+ a pop and therefore drinking coffee at home more frequently. With this in mind, coffee mugs might be fun and useful to make. (I say this is a bad example because you can buy mugs EVERYWHERE, but I hope you get my point).

My mom knits awesome slippers and sews killer pillow cases, so I'm definitely recommending this site to her.

Plus, isn't the name "Etsy" just adorable?

Awww....

Not Interested in "Get Rich Quick" Schemes

I think being rich would be nice (although the great Notorious B.I.G. does warn me - "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems"), but I am much more interested in finding something that my husband and I can do on a regular basis that will be both fun and fruitful. Plus, due to my health conditions, I would also LOVE to work from home - at least a majority of the time. Above all, I want my work to be purposeful and helpful in one way or another.

With all this in mind, I have been on a quest; looking for both ways to earn money as well stretch the money we do have. I think a lot of people are in the same boat as my husband and I.

I invite you to join me on my quest. I'll be posting links to sites that I've found useful, as well as sharing any other findings. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions.

Thank you, and God Bless our journeys!