In the Envelope Game, you learned how to build your emergency fund by selling things and doing odd jobs. Wasn’t that a great feeling? Don’t stop, though, just because you’ve completed the Envelope Game and started your Emergency Fund! Let’s keep that ball rolling.

Do odd jobs:

• Good at Honey-do’s? Become the local handyman/woman with simple marketing. Drive around the neighborhood and offer to paint shutters, stain the fence and clean the gutters. Do a great job and the referrals will keep coming.
• Love animals? Start a dog walking or pet sitting service.
• Good with kids? What parent wouldn’t want a more experienced sitter than their 14-year-old neighbor?
• Enjoy your job? Moonlight as a freelancer and turn those valuable skills into extra cash.
• Wish you had a different job? Now’s your chance to find out what it would be like. Offer a good rate to do something you enjoy, and your enthusiasm will speak for itself. Who knows? It might be the start of a new career!

What things to sell:

• Sell a craft. Make jewelry, knit scarves or build rocking chairs? Whatever your craft, see if someone might want the results enough to buy them.
• Having the latest and greatest techno gadget is fun, but if you bought a new camera, it’s time to sell the old one.
• Your aunt bought you a sewing machine that has only one accomplishment: collecting cob-webs. Auction it off to some lucky seamstress.
• Have the rims, but can’t afford the tires? Get your money back out of that garage ornament.
• Time to end the shoe fetish or purse addiction. Sell ‘em off.
• Abandoned hobby? Sell the golf clubs or tennis rackets that are just taking up space in your garage.
• Old bicycles, gym equipment, tools…..you name it. It’s probably sitting there waiting to be turned into cold, hard cash.

How to sell things:

• Hold a garage sale. Gather up items that you don’t need or use, put up signs and have a sale. For the best results, pick a clear day, mark prices fairly and clearly, and remember to have plenty of change.
• Use eBay and Craigslist. The simplest way to learn is to just get started. Visit the site, sign up for an account, and try your hand at a simple sell. Describe your item accurately, and remember to be careful about meeting people and have clear payment terms. As you gain experience, you’ll figure out what works for you. For additional help, search online or visit your local library.
• Talk to people you know. If you’re selling something specific, ask around to find out who might be interested. Consider posting a message on Facebook or MySpace.

Each time you successfully increase your emergency fund by selling something or doing an odd job, record what you did and how much you made in your Adventure Journal. You’ll earn valuable Frugality Tokens and gain satisfaction and financial freedom from your efforts. Then don’t forget to head back to Match for Money for another quest.

Here are some other online games you and your family can play to learn more about managing money. For every game you play, you’ll earn more Frugality Tokens when you record your highest score in the Adventure Journal.

Build a Buck – How well do you know your money? This game cuts up cash, and then lets you try to put it back together again. Can you reassemble a $1 bill? What about a $50 bill? Find out!

The Adventurer’s Arcade – That’s right! Your favorite mini-games from The Frugality Game are still available to play. Try your hand again at the Chamber of Puzzles, Chamber of Apples, Chamber of Scarabs and Chamber of Hieroglyphics. Can you beat your previous best? If you can, record your new scores in the Adventure Journal for additional Frugality Tokens.

The Energy Rescue Game – Go on an adventure through the land of excuses to find out how you can tame the ferocious energy-eating monsters in your house. Along the way, you’ll learn how to avoid common excuses and reduce your family’s energy budget. That’ll leave more money for things like savings and getting out of debt.

The Smart Money Quiz Show – In this Jeopardy-type game show about finances, you start with $10,000 in debt. The value of every question you answer correctly will be deducted from your debt. However, if you get a question wrong, your debt will increase. Once you have completely wiped out your debt, your reward for right answers goes into savings. Will you end up still in debt, or with cash in the bank?

Don’t forget to come back to The Frugality Game and play Match for Money again to choose another quest!

Here are seven ways to frugally feed your family. To save tons of money on your food budget every month:

Cook a meal at home. Almost any meal you cook at home can be significantly cheaper than eating out. And the more people in your house, the more you can save. Plus, it’s a great activity: cook together!

Make a double batch. Are you cooking something that you love? Will you or your family eat it again? Try doubling the recipe and saving the leftovers for a second meal. Now you’re saving time (that’s one less meal to cook) and money (by buying in bulk and using your kitchen instead of a restaurant).

Use a grocery list. Know what you’re going to buy before you go the store, and eat before you go. This cuts down on impulse spending and repeat trips.

Clip coupons and shop sales. Buy non-perishable foods on sale and stock up. Take advantage of deals, and you could reduce your grocery spending significantly.

Pack a lunch. Fruits, vegetables, and soup or sandwiches can make a tasty lunch. Not only is it cheaper, but it’s usually healthier, too!

Plan your meals. Decide today what you’ll eat for the rest of the week. This lets you plan your grocery shopping to save time and money. It’ll also save you from eating out simply because you don’t know what else to eat.

When you do dine out, try these tips:

• Skip the appetizer or make it your meal.
• Enjoy dessert elsewhere, at home or simply someplace cheaper.
• Drink water.
• Take home leftovers (and don’t forget to eat them).
• Split a meal. Especially for families, this can be a real money-saver.
• Eat something first. That way you’re not too hungry, but you can still enjoy the food and atmosphere.
• Take advantage of discounts and specials.

What are you going to do to reduce your food expense? Write down your commitment in your Adventure Journal (another way to earn Frugality Tokens), and take the first steps today!

Come back tomorrow and play Match for Money again to embark on another exciting quest!

It’s easy to become so caught up in our own adventures that we don’t think we have any time or money to spare for others. Using our resources carefully is essential, but focusing solely on our own needs just leads to more stress.

So let’s put your situation into perspective. No matter where you are in your adventure with frugality, there’s something that you can do to help a fellow adventurer.

So here’s your quest for today: find someone you can help. That might mean giving a little bit of money away or donating items to a charity, or it could mean figuring out a way to serve someone. Whatever you choose, find some way to do something good for someone else today.

For charities, even small donations are essential to survival. Because recessions strike charities especially hard, $5 or $20 will make a real difference. Try donating an amount every month, and matching it with a deposit to your savings. It’s a win-win!

Instead of seeing time and money as things to horde, you’ll remember what they really are: tools. Tools to control your life and make others happy. When you realize that, you’ll want to stick to your plan even more.

Write what you did (and learned) in your Adventure Journal. Then play Match for Money again to choose another quest!

The “keeping up with the Joneses” culture tells us that entertainment and fancy things are so important that we should go into debt to get them.

But the Frugal Family has discovered a treasure more valuable than all the gold (or Frugality Tokens!) that they’ve ever collected: their relationships. And it doesn’t cost anything to mine this treasure—just a little time and effort.

Here are 15 absolutely free activities to do with the people you love:

1. Go for a walk together near your home.
2. Use what’s in your pantry to make a home-cooked meal.
3. Instead of going to a show, put on a show! Make it as silly or serious as you want. Either way, you’ll have fun.
4. Play cards or board games (only games you already have).
5. Visit your local library.
6. Grab a ball, a Frisbee or a water gun, and go outside! Run, jump, laugh, play. You’ll enjoy one another’s company and get some great exercise. When you’re done, you’ll feel better about your relationships, your health and life in general (including your finances).
7. Dance! Put on some tunes, turn up the music, and let your inner dancer free!
8. Play hide-and-go-seek.
9. Write a story about your adventures.
10. Volunteer.
11. Find a park and play in the playground.
12. Visit elderly neighbors or relatives.
13. Clean the house, apartment or yard.
14. Introduce yourself to the new people in your neighborhood.
15. Write letters or emails to the other people you love.

Not only are these activities all completely free, they’ll also earn you Frugality Tokens every time you record your experiences in your Adventure Journal. And you’ll be building important relationships—which are worth way more than any other treasure you’ll find.

Bonus: There are lots of great things you could do, so for every activity you do (even if you invent your own), you can write an additional entry in your Adventure Journal for even more Frugality Tokens!

Remember to return to Match for Money for more exciting quests!

A night on the town with friends or family can cost enough to eat up your entire entertainment budget in just one evening—and the cost is multiplied by the number of participants. But just because you’re saving doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy an evening together. Instead, gather everyone into your family room and enjoy a fabulous night of mystery, adventure, excitement and intrigue—by playing games!

Let people bring their favorite games, and get ready for fun. You might be investigating a murder, performing an impromptu play, or conquering the world!

See: you don’t need to spend money to have a good time with friends and family.

Get people together and enjoy a game night. Then go to your Adventure Journal and record what you played to earn more Frugality Tokens. After your successful game night, return to the Match for Money game to begin another quest.

One of the best feelings is finding an old pair of jeans that you haven’t worn in a couple of years, reaching your hand in the pocket and pulling out a ten-dollar bill! Man, oh man, ten dollars has never been so exciting.

We’ve all had this happen to us. Maybe it wasn’t ten—maybe it was one dollar or fifty! It’s like finding buried treasure—money you didn’t even know you had. The average American family has about $90 hidden around their home, just waiting to be discovered.

So how much hidden treasure is in your house? Let’s find out!
Since every good treasure hunt needs a map, here are some places to look:

X – Junk drawers and closets.
X – Under furniture cushions.
X – Corners of the house.
X – Old clothes and jackets.
X – Suitcases.
X – Mugs.
X – Knick knacks around the house.
X – In cars: under seats and in glove boxes and ashtrays.

Make it a family activity, and see how much you can find. Now go back The Frugality Game and record your find in the Adventure Journal—how much you found and where.

Eureka! You’ve stuck gold in Frugality Tokens and in cold, hard cash to add to your Emergency Fund.

When you’re done, come back to The Frugality Game and play Match for Money again to receive your next quest.

Do you ever feel like you’re losing your commitment to get out of debt? Try this on for size: create your dream budget, the one you could live on if you weren’t in debt.

Without a car payment and credit card bills, you could have several hundred dollars more per month—thousands every year. Save it, spend it—it’ll be your choice when you’re free of debt!

Here’s your mission:

1. List all your debts. Don’t forget the credit cards, student loans, car payments, etc.
2. Add up how much you’re currently paying on those debts every month (hopefully more than the minimum).
3. Create a new budget that shows how you’ll be able to spend and save once you’re out of debt. Some of the extra money could go to fun things, but most should go into savings.
4. Use this calculator to add up how much money you’ll have in your accounts after using your post-debt budget for a few years. For example, if you put $400 in the bank every month instead of spending it on a car payment, you could easily have $26,000(!) in cash by the end of five years.
5. Daydream! Imagine the freedom you’ll enjoy with all that money in the bank. How you’ll have fewer worries, knowing you have a sizable nest egg. Instead of paying interest, you’ll be earning it, and your savings will continue to grow!
6. Record what you learned about your future in your Adventure Journal. Remember, these aren’t merely hopes and dreams: this vision of a glorious, debt-free future will happen if you just stick to your plan.

You’ll gain Frugality Tokens for completing this quest, and you’ll also gain motivation. Anytime you’re feeling discouraged, go back and reread what you wrote in your Adventure Journal, and you’ll catch the vision again!

When you’re finished, play another round of Match for Money to pick your next quest.

Did you know that the average American family spends more than $2,000 on energy every year? It’s true! Just think: if you can cut that bill even a tiny bit, you could save hundreds of dollars a year!

Reducing your family’s energy budget will leave more money for things like savings and getting out of debt. Here are some ways to get started:

• Adjust your thermostat to use less heating/cooling.
• Seal up drafts and air leaks around doors and windows.
• Use a lower temperature on your water heater.
• Take showers instead of baths and keep them short.
• Don’t run the clothes dryer long than needed. Consider hanging clothes out to dry instead.
• Close blinds during summer days to stay cool. Open them during winter days to warm up.
• Turn the lights off when you leave a room.
• Turn off and unplug appliances and electronics when not in use.
• Wait until the dishwasher is full before running it.

For more tips on how to get the most from your energy budget, check out these articles:

• Simple steps to lower energy bills (Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission)
• How to save electricity in your home (Edison Electric Institute)
• Energy and Water Conservation Tips (Ohio Public Utilities Commision)

When you’re done, come back to The Frugality Game and record your changes in the Adventure Journal for more tokens. Then play another round of Match for Money to pick your next quest!