Weekly Reading: My Favorite Links

Happy Father's Day: The following items caught my eye this week:

From Frugal Freedom: Another Month Closer To Financial Freedom

From The Simple Dollar: How We Organize Our Coupons and Execute Our Coupon Strategy

From The Digerati Life: Increase the Value of Your Home With a Few Simple, Affordable Changes

From SingleGuyMoney: My New Financial Plan

From Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life: How My Mother Gives to Charity


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Frugal Musings, Used Cars & Time Sheets: My Weekly Roundup

From time management to money management, there's plenty to read in the world of personal finance. Here's my weekly roundup of posts that caught my eye:

From AllFinancialMatters: 5 Things My Wife and I Want Our Kids to Know About Money

From Consumerism Commentary: The Frugal Lifestyle: Are We Missing Out on Life?

From Get Rich Slowly: Ask the Readers: What Do You Splurge On?

From Consumerist: Use Your Gift Certificates: Linens 'N Things Expected To File Bankruptcy Tuesday [Bankruptcy]

From SingleGuyMoney: Most Reliable Used Cars

From Chief Family Officer: Our car buying experience - Part Two: Financing and the Trade-in

From Mom Advice: "How Did I Get So Busy?" (A Busy Bee Quiz)

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Digg!

Online Groceries & Privacy: My Weekly Reading List

From online groceries to online privacy, there was plenty to read this week. Here are a few of the posts that caught my eye.

From Single Ma's Fabulous Financials: What are you saving for?

From The Simple Dollar: Amazon Grocery: When Is It More Cost-Effective Than the Local Supermarket?

From Five Cent Nickel: Dealing With the (Possible) Theft of Your Personal Data

From Consumerist: ISPs Are Maniacal Stalkers Who Read Your Email And Watch You Surf The Web [Contracts]

From Moolanomy: The Cost Of Instant Gratification

From FSBO Jane: Are You Living Risky? (insights about the riskiest real estate markets)

From The Digerati Life: 5 Clever Ways Other Entrepreneurs Can Help Your Business

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Digg!

Weekly Reading: My Favorite Links

Great posts this week. Here's my weekly roundup of interesting reading. The following posts caught my eye:

From The Budget Fashionista: The Financial Diet: Personal Finance

From Blunt Money: The high cost of inertia

From I've Paid For This Twice Already: How Small a Transaction Before Plastic Seems Absurd?

From Wise Bread: If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?

From The Diary of a Reformed Spendaholic: Taking the rush out

From Beachgirl's Budget Blog: My Story
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My Favorite Posts: Weekly Roundup

Once again, My Two Dollars has posted on a topic that hits me where I live: The rental market. Boston Gal's Open Wallet has an interesting post on rental prices. Here's my weekly roundup of articles that caught my eye.

From My Two Dollars: 10 Tips For First-Time Apartment Renters. My favorite tip from this post:

"3. Talk to the neighbors if you get a chance. If only I had done this at a few of the places that I lived, I never would have moved in. Between finding out about the guy that sings love songs to his old girlfriend at 3am to the chain smoker in the apartment next door, you can learn a lot just by being friendly with one of the neighbors. Ask them what they think of the place, how the landlord is, etc. - get a feel for your new home before you sign anything."

From Mighty Bargain Hunter: Discipline and personal finance: "Successful personal finance requires planning and regular, purposeful maintenance, and that takes discipline."

From Boston Gal's Open Wallet: Home Sellers' Pain Is Renters' Gain: "Savvy renters in struggling markets are playing landlords off each other."

From Chief Family Officer: February: Month of the All-Cash Spending Experiment:"So that's the purpose of this experiment: to see if going to an all-cash system curtails discretionary spending by 10% or more."

From Queercents: Pink & Green Parenting: Lost in the Plastic Rainforest: Greening Your Home: "I knew that having a baby would change my life in unforeseen ways, but there’s one aspect of modern parenting that I was totally unprepared for. Like Mr. Robinson in The Graduate, I have one word for you, potential parents: Plastics."

From Frugal Bachelor: Is the working class left out of bulk buying? "But I have to say I don't totally understand why the bigger package is cheaper per roll. "

From Punny Money: Bought a Diamond in the Last 14 Years? Get Tons of Money From Class Action Settlement: "De Beers, the company which essentially has a monopoly on the world’s supply of diamonds, is settling a massive lawsuit brought against it under allegations of monumental price fixing."

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Favorite Post-its: Links I Like From Last Week

I wish that I had more time to read blogs. Some posts really educate and entertain me. This week, for example, I picked up insights about fortune-shaping childhoods and mind-shaping public libraries. Here are just a few of the posts that I have enjoyed reading.

One Money Dummy has a cute post about recent shopping finds at an estate sale. I appreciated the shopping reality check featured in this post. Before making a purchase, this blogger asked a very smart question about the merchandise.

"Since I had nothing better to do this morning, I hit a couple of estate sales. It was the second day of each, so of course the really hot stuff was gone, but I still got these dishes (combined from different sales) for 2.75 and the necklace for a buck..."

I loved the Simple Dollar's recent post about libraries. I enjoyed this item because it features some of my favorite uses for the public library: free Internet service, garden cafe, DVDs & CDs. It's a great resource.

"A good local library is worth its weight in gold. It’s a place where you can check out thousands of books for free and read them to your heart’s content. Yet most libraries offer much, much more than that also for free."

Get Rich Slowly has a very engaging conversation about parents, childhood and lessons about money. I loved reading about Sparky & Stew. I value this post because it provides insights into how our parents & childhood experiences shape our views about money.

"I had dinner with two friends from high school last night. We shared good wine, good food, and, especially, good conversation. Much of our discussion focused on our shared history: the things we did twenty years ago (or 25!) that now seem as if they might have been done by a stranger. (Yet those strangers were us.) We talked about how we perceived money when we were younger."

One Frugal Girl has a thoughtful post about her frugal classes at a university. I liked reading this post because I've also enjoyed several inexpensive classes at universities and colleges, including different poetry seminars and other workshops.

"So far the classes have been a fairly inexpensive way to learn something new and meet new people."

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The Frugal Duchess Booktique
The Frugal Duchess of Beauty Store
Book Shop of Fear
The Poetry & Drama Queen
Frugal Jazz & Blues

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Post-its: Links I Liked from the Past Week

From student travel to rowdy home-value wrecking neighbors, I had lots of fun reading this week. www.pf blogs.org is a great place to go for catching up on personal finance bloggers and news items.

Here's my weekly roundup of some of my favorite posts.

Greece is an important symbol for Mapgirl. While in high school, she had a great opportunity to go to Greece.

The trip was going to cost approximately $2200.00. There was no way my parents could have foot the bill for that much money on top of my private school tuition and college tuition for my sibling --Mapgirl

Lesson: She found a frugal way to finance the trip through hard work, creativity and dedicated adults (parents/teacher).


Money and Investing offered a thoughtful piece about pennies. Is it worth it to pick up a cent? What's the value of small actions?

I understand the value of jumping at the opportunities life throws at us.I am of the philosophy that everywhere you are there is an opportunity to improve yourself and most probably to make money.--Money and Investing

Binary Dollar has a helpful piece about inexpensive and homemade household cleaning solutions.

Stop buying expensive household cleaners. All you really need is some baking soda and some vinegar. --Binary Dollar

All Financial Matters featured a funny piece about his new neighbors. Will this man ever be able to re-sell his home?

I was SLIGHTLY TICKED! IDIOTS! I realize some people are going to argue. But, when you start driving across MY yard, that’s where it stops! If they want to act like hillbillies, they should buy a place out in the country.-- All Financial Matters

And at Frugal for Life, Dawn offers her "very very best frugal tip:" Dumpster Diving.

keep your eyes peeled when driving by apartment complexes or dorm area or trash day in the suburbs. -- Frugal For Life

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The Festival of Frugality is Running

The Festival of Frugality is up at The Weight of Money. Congrats to the host for managing and sorting the field of submissions. (Our host sorted a large field down to about 12 posts.)

It's a rich range of posts. I especially enjoyed Mapgirl's piece about her liberation from a car note and her fantasy about a Mini Cooper S Convertible. Cute Car; great post!

A Girl Worth Saving has a fun post about the tightfisted tips she picked up in college. I enjoyed Kelly's comments about not shopping retail and tapping into ethnic grocery stores for supplies.

My Two Dollars has an insightful post about halting the bottled water craze. Excellent info with well-made points.

Actually, I enjoyed all of the posts. Really good stuff and I'm honored to be included in that lineup.

Congrats and Thanks to The Weight of Money for providing the space, time and energy!
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Post-its: Links I Liked

Tips for buying a car, different signs of a thrifty lifestyle, an expensive international wedding are a few of the fun posts I read this week. Here's a roundup of some of my favorite personal finance posts from this week.


Your Money to Keep offers an update on America's Cheapest Family: The Economides.

I also liked this post from No Limits Ladies about a wedding, a $3,000 plane fare to Australia for the nuptials and the importance of emergency funds, my pet topic last week.


The Digerati Life ran a super series featuring different ways to be thrifty.

The Pro Bargain Hunter posted an insightful piece about getting a good deal when buying a car.

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Single Ma's Great Tribute to MLK & My Other Favorite Post-its

Single Mom has a great tribute to Martin Luther King. I didn't see her version until after I posted mine. Kudos to Single Ma...Right on time, with a great post!

Binary Dollar has some solid tips for cutting energy costs. I like the binge ironing tip and the computer shutdown reminder.

Money Smart Life provides super tips for eating out without spending a fortune.

I like the tip about splitting large portions. I've been taking my kids out for one-on-one dates with Mom. The portions have been huge and we've been saving a lot by sharing servings: soup, salad, main course, dessert and smoothies. Lots of food 4 less.

Young and Broke offers the latest Carnival of Personal Finance. Lots of good reading.

Flexo at Consumerism Commentary posted some thoughtful comments on re-thinking the Latte Factor. His argument: Sweat less over the small things; target the big-ticket items. Great piece. I'm a small-change woman, but Flexo makes valid points.

My Open Wallet has a cute post about the itch to spend and her recent I-want-this list.

Wise Bread provided this insightful piece about the Shrinking Stigma on store brands.

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My Weekly Roundup of Favorite Posts

From green goals for 2007 to frugal weight loss plans, last week's posts on www.pfblogs.org offered a lot of valuable insights. Some bloggers posted about their roles as personal finance writers and others provided information about weird questions a financial adviser may ask.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from last week.

Wise Bread offered this thoughtful post about $1,000 an ounce skin creams. Here's the inside story: Low-budget skin-care routines work just as well.

No Credit Needed has a thoughtful post on being a PF Blogger vs. a PF expert. I enjoyed his internal debate about his role as a blogger. He's emotionally honest and entertaining.

All Financial Matters has a super piece on loaded questions (and inappropriate queries) that a financial advisor may ask. JLP offers a good read and a very informative piece.

At Frugal for Life Dawn has a great piece on her green goals for the 2007. Living greener translates into a healthier environment and a greener wallet.

Living on a Budget posted a timely piece on about a frugal online weight loss program and community. Sounds realistic.

Your Money to Keep posted a helpful piece about best home businesses.

Queercents has an insightful piece about living below your means. The article is part of an Investing 101 series.

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Posts I Liked From Last Week

From a new way to literally flush down money to financial goals for 2007.
here are a few of my favorite posts from other bloggers over the last week:

Money, Matter and More Musings offered this funny and insightful post about eliminating $299 in a toilet/fish tank contraption.


I loved Single Ma's goals for 2007. Instructive, concise and specific!

Blunt Money addressed a topic that is near and dear to my heart right now: clutter busting. I'm going to print out the article and use it as a blueprint for my organization efforts.

And The Simple Dollar offered excellent tips for increasing net worth.
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