Frugal Mania

As you may recall we started a coupon train here at Frugal Mania a few weeks back.  Unfortunately as is wont to happen on occasion with this sort of thing, the train got stalled in a station and was apparently unable to continue.  As I said, these things do happen, but I don’t want those of you who were unable to participate the first time to miss out entirely.  So it is time to once again rev up the engine and get the Frugal Mania Coupon Train on the tracks!

If you are not familiar with how a coupon train works, the rules are quite simple:

1. Send Michael an email with your name and address.
2. When the coupon train is scheduled to make a stop in your area, you will receive an email from Michael with the email address of the person from whom the train is coming.
3. When you receive the coupon envelope, email Michael and look through the enclosed coupons, pull those you want and those that will be out of date in the next 7 days.
4. Add your own unwanted (in-date) coupons to the package and mail it to the next stop on the train (Michael will email you the address information when you tell him that you have received the package.)
5. Mail the coupon train to the next stop and you’re done!

This time I promise to be more proactive in making sure that the coupons get to the requested stops.  If you have any doubt whatsoever that you will be unable to receive and send the coupon train package to the next stop within 48 hours, please do not request to participate.

In looking at the traffic statistics here at Frugal Mania, I thought it might be interesting to share a few of the most popular pages as shown by visitor traffic to the site.  So here without further ado are the top ten pages on this site:

Take the Worry Out of Watering Your Plants
http://www.frugalmania.com/tak…y-out-of-watering-your-plants/
In this post I show you a simple and cost-free way to make sure your plants are watered adequately even when you might forget about them or go out of town for a few days.

Frugal Friday Week in Review
http://www.frugalmania.com/frugal-friday-week-in-review/
A regular feature here at Frugal Mania, this post also mentions the Festival of Frugality, CVS Extra Care Bucks and frugal uses for coffee grounds.

Thirty Days
http://www.frugalmania.com/thirty-days/
Inspired by the Morgan Spurlock television series of the same name, in this post I challenge people to give me thirty days of their lives to try and live more frugally.  Several people have accepted the challenge and each one of them have admitted to being happy with the results.

Penne Carbonara Recipe
http://www.frugalmania.com/fru…d-made-simple-penne-carbonara/
My frugal version of this Italian favorite remains a favorite recipe on the site!  If you haven’t tried it yet, you really should!

Interview with Dawn from “Frugal for Life”
http://www.frugalmania.com/int…iew-dawn-from-frugal-for-life/
From my interview series with other frugal bloggers.

Frugal Savings – Part 1
http://www.frugalmania.com/frugal-savings-part-1/
From a series on how to save money without making major changes, this post covers credit cards and how to get the most without spending anything more

My Night With Apple
http://www.frugalmania.com/iph…-restored-my-night-with-apple/
In all honesty this wasn’t really a frugal topic to begin with, though I did save money by not having to spend it on tech support calls or visits to the iPhone store.

Oatmeal Pancakes Recipe
http://www.frugalmania.com/fru…-menu-monday-oatmeal-pancakes/
I’m not sure why this one has received so much traffic, but apparently I struck a chord by posting this absolutely delicious recipe for pancakes made with oatmeal!

Using Your Noodle
http://www.frugalmania.com/using-your-noodle/
My homage to the perennial frugal favorite, ramen noodles, has received a ton of visits from all over the world! Find out why!

There is no shortage of websites dedicated to the ideas and concepts behind frugality, but sometimes finding the best of the best can be a bit difficult if you don’t have (as I do) a horribly boated bookmark folder. Seriously, my bookmark folder in Firefox is so big that it can take me as much as thirty minutes to find a site. I really need to organize it more.

Well in case you didn’t know, there is a weekly Internet festival called the “Festival of Frugality” that can make easy work of finding a load of excellent frugal tips each easily linked in one convenient location. The weekly blog carnival has become so popular that it warranted the erection of its own website, though each weekly edition is hosted by various frugal maniacs from all over.

Aside from my desire to bring you all the great tips I can, I do have an ulterior motive in mentioning this week’s Festival. See, I have a post from this very site included in this week’s edition! That’s right, Michael the Frugal Maniac has stepped up!, and the recent post “Taking the Worry Out of Watering Your Plants” has reached the frugal big time!

I do hope you will stop by Funny about Money and enjoy the 127th weekly Festival of Frugality: And the Beat Goes On. Check out some of the great links and be sure to tell them you heard about the Festival at Frugal Mania!

Yeah, I am a shameless self-promoter. Sue me.

All Aboard!
Coupons! They are one of the most fun frugal practices that I use all the time, yet I know that a lot of people don’t share my enthusiasm for this free money. In order to hopefully change your mind, I want to invite you all to join in on the inaugural voyagle of the Frugal Mania Coupon Train!

Here’s how it works:

1. I am the conductor of this train. That means that I will start the journey by clipping tons of coupons, using what I can, and putting the rest in an envelope.

2. I will then send the envelope to the next stop on the coupon train, which could easily be your place!

3. You clip coupons and do the same thing I did. The only difference is that at each stop, the person receiving the coupon train will be responsible for checking the dates on any coupons that remain in the envelope and removing any that will expire in the next week.

4. At each stop, the recipient takes what the will use and adds what they don’t need, keeping the train in motion within 48 hours each time.

Unfortunately, this Coupon Train is limited to the Frugal Maniacs here in the United States, since the majority of coupons will only be applicable to this particular part of the world. Not to worry, you frugal foreigners, I will always be on the lookout for ways that you can save too!

In order to get this train out of the station and keep it in motion, we need at least ten scheduled stops to start. As the conductor, I will maintain the list of names and addresses for all participants and your information will only be revealed to the participant who will be sending the train to your station. In other words, it is safe and your info won’t be going all over the country, so jump on board!

How to Participate: All you have to do is send an email to the conductor (that’s me!) with the subject line “Coupon Train” and your name and address in the body of the email. I will respond with the name and address of the next stop on the train and you simply send the coupon train on to the next person. Simple, Frugal and FUN!

HOW TO WIN FREE STUFF: As a special incentive to all participants, a random coupon train participant will receive a special gift from Frugal Mania, just for being a part of the coupon train!

Welcome, Frugal Maniacs!

I’m so excited I could scream!

Okay, so maybe that’s an overstatement, but I have to tell you that when I was contacted about writing for a website called Frugal Mania my frugal little heart did skip a beat or two. You see, the word frugal has had such a negative connotation for so many years that I guess you could say most people have been hiding in the frugal closet. They keep their frugality under wraps, often even concealing it from their families and closest friends out of the fear of being pegged as cheap.

Congratulations, you frugal few! You can come out of the closet with pride now and no one will make fun of your penny-pinching ways!

Now that the economy is taking a swan dive into the toilet, people are finally realizing just how beneficial frugal living can be. With hundreds of thousands of people across the country living with the threat of losing their homes to foreclosure, you can bet that they’re looking for ways to save a few bucks here and there. When they do, guess who they’ll be coming to? That’s right, you frugal freaks.

Now more than ever, the world needs Frugal Mania!

But enough about them, let’s talk about me.

My name is Michael Nolan and I’ve been living frugal for a hundred years since I was a kid. For those of you doing the math, I’m 35 so that makes it technically about 30 years now. At the tender age of five, I convinced my parents that I could raise chickens and get eggs for free. Sounds cute and ever-so Laura Ingalls of me, doesn’t it? Well before you picture me in pigtails and prairie dresses you should know that I grew up in suburbia and I walked to school not because it was the 1800s but because it was only 3 blocks away from our house.

I got my chickens, and they even produced eggs. At one point I even had a duck named Donald (Gimme a break – I was five!) until he flew out of the kiddie pool I’d set up for him one too many times and my mother made me give him to a guy with a lake on his property.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I love telling stories about my life and lucky for you, that’s exactly how I plan to approach this thing we call frugal living here on Frugal Mania. It is important for you to realize that the best way to learn is to do – reading about being frugal isn’t nearly as beneficial as actually doing it. In other words, get off your frugal butts and use what you learn!

If you ever have a question or a comment about something you’ve read here or elsewhere, please let me know. I encourage reader questions and you never know when something you are curious about might help someone else.

Bookmarks, links, trackbacks and fencepost (or water cooler) conversations about Frugal Mania are all strongly encouraged.

And now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s go crazy you Frugal Maniacs!

Michael the Frugal Maniac

Those of you who have been reading Frugal Mania for any length of time know that I don’t tend to get political very often, but when I do it is about something worth hearing. Today is the National Day of Silence brought about to draw attention to anti-gay name calling, bullying and harassment in schools. For that reason, I am foregoing my usual posts in order to focus the attention on a very worthwhile cause.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and even questioning youth are fighting a losing battle just by being true to themselves. Thousands of GLBT teens are being kicked out of their homes because of their sexual identity.

I am a gay man. At 36 I have a good life. A partner of four years who loves me, a comfortable home, a car that gets me where I need to go (most of the time) and more than enough food on the table. When I was a child I was taunted and teased on a daily basis because I was small and soft-spoken. I had no interest in sports because I couldn’t play, and that made me an outcast well into my teen years.

Several years ago I was the victim of a brutal hate crime that left me on the brink of death for several weeks. Thanks to brilliant medical professionals I am very much alive and well, but the incident made me realize just how dangerous it still is to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender in this society.

Please take a moment to watch this video featuring Lance Bass (of N’Sync fame):

And to find out more about the Day of Silence, visit dayofsilence.org