Carnival of Personal Finance #183: The Pre-Holiday Sales Edition

Welcome to the latest edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance #183: The Pre-Holiday Special. Thanks to everyone who submitted articles. If you are new to this site, please take time to look around and to subscribe to my feeds.


Given the wealth of entries, I had a hard time selecting carnival favorites. The category --Top Holiday Sales -- represents overall top picks with a seasonal bias. What's more, I have picked a few favorites (*) in other categories. Thanks to Flexo for letting me host the carnival. It's an honor.

*Editor's Picks: Top Holiday Sales: Free to Click



From Art of the Coupon: The Twelve Frugal Days of Christmas

A cute list of 12 frugal activites "you can and should do this holiday season to save yourself a little green at what tends to be a time of year when a lot of peoples budgets go into the red."


From Wide Open Wallet: 10 Holiday Budget Busters

Cash Money Life presents Be Careful Which Gift Cards You Buy!, and says, "Some stores are closing some or all locations, which means their gift cards may be worthless to you in the near
future."

From Monogamoney: 26 (relatively painless) ways to save money this holiday season

Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Give gifts that deliver good value, and says, "Make the gifts you give this year count!"

Single Guy Money presents Beware of Hidden Holiday Costs.


Frugal Franco presents The Diary of a Mad Black Fridayee, and says, "A funny story about one of my friend's previous Black Friday experiences. Since the story is about getting a good deal on a TV, it's not necessarily "frugal" by the strictest definition, but it is about
saving money on expenditures."

Prime Time Money presents 5 Gifts That Will Bring Your Family Together This Christmas.

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The Career Shop

Empowering Mom presents Overwhelming Workload - YES You Can Do it!.

*Broke In The Suburb presents Money IsDisgusting!!!, and says, "The post is in regards to handling money as a teller. The things one comes across on a daily basis."

Sallie's Niece presents Making the Most Out of My Dental Benefits, and says, "In this post I examined my company's dental benefits plan and how it will affect my decision to get my wisdom teeth removed."
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The Economy Boutique

*Counting My Pennies presents Downward Spiral for the Economy and for PF Bloggers?

Free From Broke presents 8 Ways The Economic Crisis Can Be Good For You, and says, "The current economic climate is bad for most but there are some ways it can be good for you!"

LivingAlmostLarge presents Economic Stimulus?

Room Farm presents Lessons From the Depression: The Things My Father Told Me

Fools and Sages presents Kids and Money Stress, and says, "This is a post on how your money stress can be turned into a positive family experience."

Yielding Wealth presents 5 Tips for Dealing with Anxiety Brought on by the Economy.

Insight Writer presents The Complete Newbies Guide to the Economy, and says, "This is a great starter guide for anyone interested in having a good overview of the economy.”

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents Obama’s 21st Century New Deal: An Economic Stimulus.
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The Finance & Tax-ing Discount Mall

Money Smart Life presents TurboTax Review - 2008 Tax Software Product Review, and says, "Included short video from Intuit about the latest version of TurboTax and my reaction based on my experiences with the software."

Think Your Way To Wealth presents Get an Absolutely Free Copy of Your Credit Report from All 3 Credit Bureaus at annualcreditreport.com.

InsureBlog presents Auto Insurance Rates Zoom, and says, "Summary: If you drive a car, InsureBlog's Bob Vineyard has news: your insurance rates may be going up even if you've got a perfect record."

Four Pillars presents Personal Finance According to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and says, "How Buffy relates to PF!"

My Dollar Plan presents How to Take a Loss on an IRA.

Fulfilled Dreams presents The Weirdest Story Ever about Trading and Finance.


Both Sides of the Pond presents Basics of US Income Taxes for Americans Living Overseas, and says, "This article lays out the basics of filing your US income tax returns if you are living overseas."
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Frugal Living Thrift Store

*Naturally Frugal presents Top 10 Ways to Save Money In Your Twenties, and says, "This article is helpful for anyone, but is aimed toward twenty-something readers. "

*The Digerati Life presents 21 Deal Sites and Online Tools To Help You Save Money

Passive Family Income presents Car Buying - New, Used, Or Lease?, and says, "My family is looking to get a new car, so I broke down our options."

Green Panda Treehouse presents Planning a Vacation Without Spending a Ton of Money, and says, "Some tips on how we saved money for our vacation this week."

The Money Kings presents When It Costs More To Save More–Huh?! , and says, "The fact of the matter is that it costs you more money to save money at places like Costco and Sam’s Club.
All of the people that think they’re “saving” money by visiting these stores are
about 50% correct. Here’s the problem: Wal-Monster is all these people have
left."

The Smarter Wallet presents Quality Cookware To Help You Save Time and Energy in the Kitchen

Beating Broke presents Are you a Frugaler?, and says, "A bit of a humorous take on the art of Frugality."

Money On My Mind presents Compound Spending - An Obstacle to Wealth Accumulation

Fiscally concerned presents Oil change coupon worth 10$, just cost me 1200$

Dollar Frugal presents Reason #1 Not to Eat Out At Restaurants Often.

Christian Financial Help presents Fun stuff for Gmail junkies, and says, "Gmail unveils a couple more goodies..
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Investment Strip Mall

Uncommon Cents presents Show Me the Money.

Personal Finance Blog by MoneyNing presents Seeing the Big Picture in Creating Wealth, and says, "Stop letting yourself get in the way of your own wealth building. Make a plan today!"

Investing School presents Introduction to Short Selling, and says, "Shorting a short might be cool but it's risky. Proceed with caution!"


The Financial Blogger presents Investing With Split Shares, and says, "If you buy the full split shares upon emission, you might have a big surprise when you look at your investment portfolio in a few years… "

Everyday Finance presents 3X Return ETFs are Here! The Long and Short of It , and says, "This article highlights the incredible leverage (and risk!) that can be achieved with novel ETFs
that TRIPLE the return of various indices."

Investing presents Dividends - Cash or Reinvest?, and says, "An explanation of reinvested dividends and cash dividends"

ABCs of Investing presents Dividends - Cash or Reinvest?, and says, "An explanation of reinvested dividends and cash dividends"

Saving to invest presents Where to invest in 2009, and says, "Ideas on where to (and not to) invest in 2009"
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The Online Store of Money Management & Related Topics

*Broke In The Suburb presents Money Is Disgusting!!!, and says, "The post is in regards to handling money as a teller. The things one comes across on a daily basis."

*Chief Family Officer from Chief Family Officer presents Managing Your Cash Flow When You're Not Living Paycheck to Paycheck.

PennyJobs.com presents 2008 Budget Reflections.

Saving Advice presents Why I Force My Kids to Contribute to Birthday Party Gifts, and says, "Rather than tell our kids that they could not go to parties, we told them that if they wanted to
go to a party, they would need to pay $10 towards the gift."

FruGal presents Top Payday money-saving tips.


Finance Your Life presents Secondary Income: Shoebox Money is Back , and says, "An
article on my experiences of trying to generate a secondary income stream!"

Stumble Forward presents 10 Bad Money Habits You Should Ditch Immediately, and says, "This post is about the bad money habits we have and how to fix them."

Funny about Money presents Long-term Care Insurance.

American Consumer News presents Finding Ways to Give When Times Are Tough.

Squawkfox presents Do NOT Shred it and Forget it! .

THE STRUMP presents 10 Ways to Tell If You Can Afford It, and says, "If you frequently wonder whether or not you can afford something, here is a quick guide that will let you know if should buy or not."

Money Under 30 presents Give to Charity Without Touching Your Own Money.

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Real Estate Flea Market

Budgets are Sexy presents Sure we financed our house 100%, but ya know what? It works, and says, "Crazy" mortgages aren't crazy for everybody - some of them are perfect for certain types of us :)"

Searchlight Crusade presents Multiple Offers: Weak But Increasingly Common, And It's Your Listing Agent's Fault.

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Retirement Garage Sale

*Tough Money Love presents SadWorlds Collide: The Unretired vs. the Unemployed, and says, "Some retirees are "unretiring" and competing with the unemployed for scarce jobs."

FIRE Finance presents Retirement- All Is Well If Our HEART Is Well.

Steadfast Finances presents Discussing Retirement with Parents: Is a Comfortable Retirement No Longer an Option?

Retire at 40 presents Turning Lifestyle Inflation into Lifestyle Deflation.

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