The frugal blogs do more than pinch pennies. They make us think, twice, about our personal spending habits, getting our financial lives in order, living well (and well) within our means. Frugality is a life maxim, some times from necessity, many times by conviction.

Here are some ideas about facing the facts of home, financial and life management from favorite frugal blogs.

NO MORE LIES ABOUT MONEY

"I used to often lie to myself about money. I’d buy things on the credit card without checking balances or considering the consequences, believing it wasn’t that big of a deal or that I could easily afford it later. Sometimes, I’d figure out my complete financial state, know on some level that it was atrocious, but tell myself that it wasn’t bad and that I had things under control. Here are some of the tactics I used to overcome that tendency to deceive myself about my financial state. Without these tactics, it would have been much more difficult to turn my financial life around."

~ read Overcoming a Habit of Lying to Yourself about Money from The Simple Dollar

SAVE TIME & MONEY ON FOOD

"You want to cook more from scratch because (a) it’s cheaper and (b) it’s healthier. But who has the time to make homemade bread and yogurt an then cook 3 meals a day from scratch? It can seem like quite the daunting task … until you learn about all the little shortcuts and secrets those of us inducted into the inner workings of homemaking posses. And today I’m going to share one of my favorite cooking secrets with you - the double (or triple, or quadruple, or even more) batch."

~ read Cook Once - Eat Twice from Hillbilly Housewife

TAKING STOCK OVER THE LONG-TERM

"Are you curious about how much you could be trading off for convenience and a bit of enjoyment? The answer may astound you. What I’ve done is a simple exercise that shows what would happen if we seriously account for the common money drains that besiege our budget. When taken into totality, our vices, habits, impulse purchases and daily fixes can amount to some huge numbers!"

~ read Lost Money: How Money Drains Add Up to $175,000 in 10 Years from The Digerati Life

SNOWFLAKING - A PAYMENT CONCEPT

"Snowflaking is a debt-repayment process popularized by Paid Twice. It involves not just designating a certain extra amount to be paid towards a loan every month (a debt snowball) but finding little ways to earn or save more money which can then be applied to the debt."

~ read The Logistics of Snowflaking Extra Payments from Mrs Micah

RETHINKING PERSONAL TRANSPORTATION

"Apparently more and more Americans are switching to scooters and light motorcycles these days. In the bigger cities scooter riders can be easily spotted making their way through traffic both cheaper and faster. I’ve been riding a scooter for half a year now and I must say I feel reborn. I can’t even fathom how I didn’t make the switch to one of these vehicles sooner. I’ve experienced something similar to a religious epiphany and I’m intent on promoting my recent new revelation to the masses."

~ read Americans in Big Cities Discover Scooters from The Personal Financier

DON'T TRADE UP, TRADE AROUND

"I like the idea of bartering. The sharing of resources. You have something I need, and I have something you need, so lets make a trade."

~ read Save Money by Bartering from Being Frugal

HOW TO EARN AN EXTRA $20-$30 A MONTH

"I began doing online surveys about one year ago. So far I have made over $125 and I am always joining new sites. The average online survey pays anywhere between $3 to $5 dollars and takes about 20 minutes to complete. This comes out to $9 to $15 an hour. Although doing online surveys is not going to allow you to quit your day job, it can be a source of $20 to $30 a month."

~ read Are Online Surveys Worth the Time? from Frugal Hacks, a guest post by The Frugal Husband

BlogHer food editor Alanna Kellogg is midway in a series of posts, How to Save Money on Groceries.