Announcing: Frugal Fridays!
I mentioned earlier this week that I've been considering doing a weekly column. I've so enjoyed Works-For-Me-Wednesday and thought it would be a fun thing to have here, too. But, I didn't want to overcommit myself and I didn't want to start something just because it might be "the thing to do." I really wanted it to be something that would be beneficial and helpful to many different people and something that everyone could participate in. After much thought, prayer, and consultation with my husband, I felt at peace to "take the plunge" and I'm excited to announce....
Yes, that's right, every Friday, this blog will be hosting a column with all kinds of great frugal tips shared by wonderful blog readers around the world. Er, at least, that's the point. The only way it will work, though, is if you help spread the word and participate. If it bombs, oh well, I'll know not to try something like this again!
To participate, just write up a tip or post on frugality, somewhere link to my Frugal Friday post for that week, post it, and come here and add your link to the handy-dandy Mr. Linky form. It's as simple as that.
The more who join in, the merrier. Anyone is welcome to participate provided your blog and specifically your post is family-friendly. We all can use help in the area of saving money and this will provide a motivation for some of you to share those great tips that I know you have on the tip of your tongue.
Feel free to use the graphic (I made it myself, can't you tell graphic design is not my forte? Oh well, I get an "E" for effort, don't I?) but you're not obligated to do so in order to join in.
I'm starting this early this week to give you time to get a post up and linked in the next 24 hours. Here's my frugal tip of the week:
Frugal Fridays: Free Books
Did you know that if you have a blog, you are considered part of the media? Yes, that's right, you are. The mainstream media might still think all bloggers are people who wear pajamas all day and couldn't even get a job at McDonald's, but most other places are wisening up.
As a member of the media, you can get a lot of cool perks - perks that most places are happy to give you in exchange for "advertising" on your blog. They know that bloggers are one of the best ways to tap into a huge network of their best source of advertising - word-of-mouth advertising.
Why am I telling you all of that? To tell you this: If you are a blogger with any good size readership (i.e. maybe around 500 visitors total per week), publishing companies would usually be more than happy to send you review copies of any of their books, free of charge, in exchange for your willingness to do a review on your blog.
All you have to do is ask. If you have a book you are interested in reading/reviewing, just find out who the publisher is and contact the media/publicity department and ask for a review copy. It's usually that simple. Some places request a copy of your review or a link to your review when it is done. Most do not.
However, now that you know this, don't abuse the system. Don't go off and request 200 books and don't request books unless you can also commit to reviewing them. Remember: As a blogger, you represent bloggers - for our sakes, be a good representative!
That's my Frugal Friday tip, what's yours? I can't wait to hear! Leave your link below.
Yes, that's right, every Friday, this blog will be hosting a column with all kinds of great frugal tips shared by wonderful blog readers around the world. Er, at least, that's the point. The only way it will work, though, is if you help spread the word and participate. If it bombs, oh well, I'll know not to try something like this again!To participate, just write up a tip or post on frugality, somewhere link to my Frugal Friday post for that week, post it, and come here and add your link to the handy-dandy Mr. Linky form. It's as simple as that.
The more who join in, the merrier. Anyone is welcome to participate provided your blog and specifically your post is family-friendly. We all can use help in the area of saving money and this will provide a motivation for some of you to share those great tips that I know you have on the tip of your tongue.
Feel free to use the graphic (I made it myself, can't you tell graphic design is not my forte? Oh well, I get an "E" for effort, don't I?) but you're not obligated to do so in order to join in.
I'm starting this early this week to give you time to get a post up and linked in the next 24 hours. Here's my frugal tip of the week:
Frugal Fridays: Free Books
Did you know that if you have a blog, you are considered part of the media? Yes, that's right, you are. The mainstream media might still think all bloggers are people who wear pajamas all day and couldn't even get a job at McDonald's, but most other places are wisening up.
As a member of the media, you can get a lot of cool perks - perks that most places are happy to give you in exchange for "advertising" on your blog. They know that bloggers are one of the best ways to tap into a huge network of their best source of advertising - word-of-mouth advertising.
Why am I telling you all of that? To tell you this: If you are a blogger with any good size readership (i.e. maybe around 500 visitors total per week), publishing companies would usually be more than happy to send you review copies of any of their books, free of charge, in exchange for your willingness to do a review on your blog.
All you have to do is ask. If you have a book you are interested in reading/reviewing, just find out who the publisher is and contact the media/publicity department and ask for a review copy. It's usually that simple. Some places request a copy of your review or a link to your review when it is done. Most do not.
However, now that you know this, don't abuse the system. Don't go off and request 200 books and don't request books unless you can also commit to reviewing them. Remember: As a blogger, you represent bloggers - for our sakes, be a good representative!
That's my Frugal Friday tip, what's yours? I can't wait to hear! Leave your link below.
posted by Crystal Paine at 5:35 PM
38 Comments:
What a great idea! HOpefully I will be able to participate somehow....
how about some recipes for making sauces etc... that are way cheaper than buying them? Will that work?
~Samantha
Absolutely! Anything to cut costs or save money in any area is great. Or just even anything on saving money in general. I wanted a topic that was broad enough that it would hopefully never be exhausted.
You couldn't select a better topic IMHO. :) As you mentioned, this can really help a lot of people. I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks, Crystal
Great idea for the frugal fridays! I can always learn more ways to save money!! :)
This is a super idea! I am always looking for great frugalish ideas! THANKS!!!
Thanks for all your encouragement - so many great ideas have already been shared.
By the way, is anyone familiar enough with Mr. Linky to know how I can make the links/text smaller on that? It just looks huge on my screen. Is that something I can do with an upgraded account? Anyone know?
hi, really gald that you are starting on this. As women of God, we are called in all aspects to be a good steward of God, that includes resources and money provided by God. May this blog post continue to shine for our God.
This is a great topic! Thanks so much for hosting this for us!
Holly and Mums Talk - can you redo your link to have it link to a specific post you've done for Frugal Friday? Sorry if you misunderstood! Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks to everyone who has participated so far!
Ahhhh....I just realized I didn't do a specific link...blame it on having not had my coffee yet :) Anyway I will put up the specific link. Crystal, could you delight the first one please?
My post is on making homemade bread, specifically with our bread machine.
Can't wait to look at everyone's later today.
I posted a link! =)
What a great idea, Crystal! As I said in my post, this is an area where I need vast improvement. I will probably be reading more than posting, but hopefully this will give me ideas to stop spending money unnecessarily.
I love this. Of course in my excitement to add my name to Mr. Linky I forgot to put what mine was about. Now I look rather silly, or maybe mysterious. You HAVE to come to my blog to find out what my frugal idea is. LOL. No. Im sorry. My idea is about family entertainment. A picnic at the beach...at night.
Thanks for doing this! I am so excited about all the great ideas, especially since my husband and I are tightening our budget! As I was thinking of a tip, it occured to me that maybe I'm not as frugal as I've always thought that I've been because I had a hard time thinking of something! So..I need this!! =)
What a wonderful idea! Like Ashley said, I'll probably read more than post--because I could use a little help in this area--but I'm so glad you've started this! (o:
Crystal - somehow mine got posted twice - I'm not sure how! It is posted under Tiffany, which I linked myself, and now it is also posted under TAS, which I didn't do...not sure how this happened! (Unless you saw that I had done it and posted it for me). Just wanted to let you know - I'm not trying to hog your spots!! =)
Tiffany: That was me, sorry! For some reason, the new links weren't showing up on my desktop and so I thought you hadn't posted the link to your great tip. Then I logged into Mr. Linky and saw that you and a number of others had posted and it wasn't showing up on my computer. I checked my laptop and it shows up on there, though. Anyway, I fixed it, and sorry for the mix-up. I was confused since my browser was being difficult. I'm still figuring Mr. Linky out!
I posted a link on two different ideas we use...this is so fun!
Andrea: I tried to leave a comment at your blog and it wouldn't let me. Here's what I was trying to say:
Thanks for sharing!
By the way, we've made hundreds of dollars selling Jesse's law textbooks back through Half.com rather than through the school - we get a LOT more that way and have sold almost all of them for almost as much as we bought them for or even more. He bought most of his textbooks online the last year and saved money that way as well.
I can always use money saving tips and encouragement. ~Diana Miller
www.xanga.com/islandlife
Crystal, I posted a link to my blog on making your own mixes. Thanks for doing this, there have been some great posts!
Love, Heather
yeah, half.com is a GREAT resource...Unfortunately, when you're a Lit Studies major, they can find some pretty obscure titles (read: dumb, boring, and no one wants to read them!) for syllabus listings. I actually perused half.com this year for textbooks, but them I cheaped out on myself. ;)
I'll have to look into the commenting thing...I use wordpress, and I'm none too happy with it right now. *sigh* its not very user friendly.
Love this idea Crystal. It fits my focus on simple living very well. I plan to participate and grow in more areas of frugality as I do. I hope i did it right.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--teacher-sexchange0906sep06,0,7183908.story
check out this link - It's another "Why we homeschool"
I just discovered this via "Life in a Shoe." What fun! And to think...my blog is called "Sorta Frugal!"
This is a great idea, Crystal! Thanks for helping my brain get going today!
I left a frugal friday tip. Great ideas!
I posted a link about an inexpensive birthday cake and gift closet.
-Lela
Mine is kind of silly, but I promise to do better next time. :)
I've been doing my own Frugal Friday for several months now. I was thinking about doing it as a theme day with Mr Linky and never got it done. Glad you are doing it!
Don't have a personal blog or website link to share; thought I'd post through the comments instead.
For home education and crafting resource books, online sites such as: eBay, half.com, bookfinder, biblio, amazon, etc. can offer wonderful quality at bargain pricing. Consider, also, the library and interlibrary lending system...often searchable online with many communities. Usborne is frequently included and a good teaching supplement; for those wanting to learn sewing, there are good reads, too(sometimes even inclusive of vintage titles by Tanous, Eddy/Wiley, or Erwin on pattern drafting and blocks that can go for big $$ with online auctioning)! Hope this helps! Joyce *|:-)
Frugal Friday's is a great name for a great topic. I'm always trying to figure out ways to save but not look like it or feel like it! This is a great idea to draw people to you blog on a Friday.
Thanks for the link also.
Just FYI: I deleted all the links of those who didn't actually do a post on Frugal Friday. You are more than welcome to still add in your post, but please make sure to have actually posted something, not just left a link "advertising" your website. Thanks for your understanding. I'll probably post more detailed instructions for next week since there seemed to be a bit of confusion.
Joyce, yes! you are more than welcome to post your tip here. I meant to say that the first time around since I know we have a lot of readers who don't have their own blog.
Thanks Crystal...
I posted and added myself last week but somehow got deleted for some reason. I re-signed again.
I am enjoying the post that everybody did on their blog.
Holly
Crystal...
I should have read the comments. I will redo it and repost it again.
You will have to delete the one I just did and I am reposting now with the direct link.
HOlly
I found you! I couldn't find this site this morning.
Anyway, enjoy the tip!
This is a great idea. I'm almost definitely the newest blogger here so don't have anything like enough readers but I'll keep it in mind gor the future. I love reading and plan to write about some books so this would be perfect for me.
Thanks, Kate
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