The Carnival of Personal Finance Aug. 25 edition was hosted by Broke Grad Student. Here are some of the posts you’ll find on all things financial:

• The Bag Lady presents Solutions to educational debt slavery. “If you could shave one semester,term, or even year off your college education then you would save quite a bit of money. It involves a lot of hard work and creative class scheduling, but it is worth it.” At the very least, do whatever it takes to stick to a four-year plan! I had a four-year partial scholarship, so I had financial incentive to stay on schedule. My daughter also has to pay attention to the details of her partial four-year scholarship.
• The Money Answer Guy presents Why don’t we save more than we do?: “The next time you find yourself drifting into wanting something that you do not have, imagine yourself with the item and having to put up with the expenses of owning it.“ That is one of the reasons why my husband has not upgraded his iPhone to v.2. Why pay extra to have 3G connections when we’re traveling when 3G isn’t available in our neighborhood? However, my husband has enjoyed some of that new software that can be used on the older phone!
  
• Monroe on a Budget presents Pay attention to college kids’ medical benefit statements. “You may be allowed to keep a college student on the family insurance plan for a certain time. But in order to do so, you have to follow the policy rules.” I also explained to my daughter why that paperwork is critical to keeping her coverage intact.

Festival of Frugality Aug. 26 edition was hosted by FIRE Finance. Here are some of the posts you’ll find on frugal living concepts:

• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents Don’t go to a private university: “Going to a private university puts you at a disadvantage in life because you are paying significantly more for your education, thus saddling you with debt obligations, with no benefit. …You can build just as strong a network at a public university as you can at a private one.” If you are debating where to go to college based solely on price tag, and many of you have to do that, yes, public school is cheaper. And my public university degree gave me a very solid start in my career. So why is my daughter attending a private college? Because that’s where she got the best bottom line financial aid offer. Since it was her first-choice school, it was a fairly easy decision to accept the package.
• Modern Parent presents Save money on formula and diapers: “I am a member of the Similac and Pamper’s clubs and I usually get coupons every month from them. The savings are a few dollars off diapers and up to $10 dollars off formula.” Yes, I know about breastfeeding and cloth diapers. Those aren’t options for everyone. Personally, I wasn’t able to breastfeed for very long; and I didn’t have a washing machine when my daughter was young. Cloth diapers were for emergency use only in my home, because it was too expensive to do all that extra laundry at the coin-operated laundry centers.
• Stop the Ride presents Using the drugstore stockpile: “Items can be donated to shelters, food banks or other agencies that help those in need.” Local readers – you know how difficult the economic situation is here in southeast Michigan. Yes, the area food pantries have been running thin. If you can put your free toothpaste or tea bags in the food pantry donation basket, you’re helping another family stretch their funds.