Great news! Ten (Other) Ways to Make Your College Education Pay Dividends appeared in Festival of Frugality #160, hosted at FIRE Finance.

Two other posts I noted from this edition included:

  • Don’t Go to a Private University at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. I seem to really enjoy arguing on Jim’s Devil’s Advocate posts. In this one I point out that the effective cost of a private college education, after financial aid is accounted for, can quite often be less expensive than a public college education, especially for low income families.
  • Benjamin of Trees Full of Money writes about My Inexpensive Do-It-Yourself Geothermal Cooling System. Even though this isn’t a system I can implement in my own house, this article impressed me. It’s a novel topic that I haven’t seen addressed in any Festival of Frugality, and the author gives concrete advice that you can put to work today. All around, a rare find.

I’ve also entered Gender and Finance: How Much Do Your Spend on Hygiene? in a carnival, but that won’t be out for a few more days. I am hoping to get more exposure for that article so I can reap a greater “sample size” before posting the results.

I am heading off on vacation tomorrow morning, so in the meantime I present my own responses to the questions I ask in that post:

What is your gender? Female
What is your occupation and level of responsibility? I’m a research analyst for a market research firm. I have no employees for whom I’m personally responsible, but I do answer directly to one of the senior VPs.
About how much have you spent on clothing for yourself in the past six months? I bought about $80 worth of bras from Macy’s, a $45 shirt from Land’s End, a $20 dress from Target, and a $17 sweater from Target. Total: $162.
How often do you get your hair cut? How much does it cost each time? Approximately once every three months (sometimes more frequently; sometimes less) at $46 each time.
What products do you use on your hair (shampoo, conditioner, sprays, gels, mousse, etc)? How much does each one cost? Matt and I share bottles of Suave Daily Clarifying shampoo, $3.49 on drugstore.com. I also use V05 Detangle and Shine spray; $3.99 a bottle from walgreens.com.
Describe your morning routine on a work day (or a day where you have to “dress up,” if you’re not currently employed). Wake up, take a shower (involves shampooing, shaving, and using a scrub on my face), spray conditioner in hair, put contacts in, (optionally) style/blow-dry hair (it seems to look the same no matter what I do), brush teeth, put on perfumes, deodorant, get dressed.
If you have a similar category to “clothing/beauty/hygiene” in your budget, tell me your monthly expenditure for just you. Over the past five months, approximately $69 per month of our spending has belonged to this category. At least half of that is mine, if not much more.

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