A lot of frugal living bloggers have participated at some point in the weekly Festival of Frugality. Here are some of the posts I’m finding in recent editions:

• Automatic Finances presents Why Cash for Clunkers will Hurt Low-Income Drivers. “People who drive cars that are nearly worthless have the most incentive to participate in the program, but we suspect the least ability. People who drive more valuable cars probably have the most ability to participate, but the least financial incentive.” I thought this post would be of interest to my local readers in southeast Michigan!
• Lucrative Investing presents The Top Five Worst Things to Do When in Debt. “Some of us do have that relative that is honestly more concerned with your financial wellbeing than getting paid back. Normally speaking, however, using a person, no matter how close, as a bank is the way to severely strain relationships.” If a relative gives you money, that’s a different scenario. But if he or she needs or expects to be paid back and you can’t make those payments later … trouble!
• Online University Lowdown presents 25 Simple Tricks to Painlessly Cut $100 a month from Your Spending. “Cut prescription costs. Even with $20 to $30 copays, prescriptions can still add up to a $100 a month expense. Ask if your doctor if a generic drug will work just as well.” Even if you can’t get all your prescriptions switched to less expensive medications, switch the ones you can and look for those generic drug deals that are available at many pharmacies in the Monroe area. That’s money saved.
• Wealth Pilgrim presents My Kid Starts College in September and My Savings are Gone. Now What? “What both Jerry and Catherine share (with me) and lots of other folks (maybe you) is that they are unable to pay to send their kids to expensive colleges…. Never mortgage your retirement in order to pay for your kids’ fancy schools.” Some of you know that my daughter attends an out-of-state private college. Here is how she is doing it: she was awarded a partial four-year scholarship to that school and has to keep her grades at a certain level to renew it. There are lots of options for college funding, but you have to be resourceful and watch those deadlines! Go to my college planning and financing sidebar for imformation specifically aimed at southeast Michigan residents.