I’ve been working away this past week at creating a new blog carnival for the personal finance and frugality blog community. It’s called the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights and its purpose is to showcase quality blog posts from around the personal finance blogosphere.

What the Carnival is For

For Readers

The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights is for anyone looking for a variety of quality blog articles on the subject of personal finance and frugal living. Because blog carnivals feature content from bloggers around the web, readers can quickly find information, viewpoints and tips from a varied pool of sources.

Carnival Topics

• Personal Finance (general)
• Money Management (tips on saving, spending, budgeting, etc.)
• Frugal Living (anything related to frugal living)
• Frugal Home (frugal home and garden)
• Frugal Kitchen (frugal dining, cooking, recipes)
• Frugal Family (frugal parenting, family activities, etc.)
• Green Living (tips that save money and the environment)
• Personal Financial Journey (anecdotes)
• Debt & Credit (advice and tips – not credit card reviews)
• Investing (strategies and advice but not “hot stock picks”)
• Economy (observations and commentary)
• Other (relevant topics)

For Bloggers

Unlike some of the blog carnivals out there, there is no post age restriction, and the focus is content of lasting value, so no credit card offers, deals, promotions and content that has an expiration date.

You can submit posts that you wrote 1 or 2 years ago that is still relevant to today. One of the reasons to do this is to help revive traffic and discussion to good posts that may have been buried among the hundreds of posts in your archives or those written in your early days when your blog had fewer readers so didn’t get the attention they deserved, because some of your best work might come from the early days when you were fresh with ideas.

However, because some of the submitted content may have been seen before, hosts are asked to be very selective in only including content they personally feel are of lasting value, rather than including everything that isn’t SPAM.

Please visit About the Carnival of Peucuniary Delights: For Bloggers for more information.

Hosting and Submissions

This carnival will occur every Thursday with the first edition on April 2, 2009 here at Pecuniarities, and we are open for submissions as well as looking for volunteers to host. Both participating in and hosting a carnival are great ways to increase traffic and exposure to your site.

Please visit the following pages for info on:

• Submissions (for submitting your posts)
  
• Hosting

And please help spread the word about this new carnival. We have created some Carnival Buttons and Banners that you can use on your site.

I look forward to your submissions!

Related posts:

• Pecuniarities is Hosting the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights This Week!
• Finance Blog Carnivals of Late
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights Giveaways: Cute Piggy Bank Magnet Prizes for Hosting and Submissions
• Pecuniary Links ~ July 2009 #2
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #19

It has been a good week for us here at Pecuniarities and I am really excited about some new changes. Here they be (yes, I have been watching Pirates of the Caribbean – the first one – one of Madoline’s and my favorite movies.)

Welcome MSN Smart Spending Readers

While checking my web stats last night and pleasantly surprised to find that Joan Melcher from MSN Money’s Smart Spending Blog did a feature on my post on Free e-Book, Audiobook, Video & Music Download and Online Resources From Your Local Library.

If this is your first time here, we issue you a hearty welcome and invite you to have a look around. Click on the “Popular Posts” tab to the right for a sampling of some of our popular articles from the past year, and please consider subscribing to our RSS feed to have new money-saving tips delivered to your feed reader or inbox.

Subscribe in Reader	Subscribe by Email

Pecuniarities Makes WiseBread Top 100 Finance Blogs

WiseBread recently came out with a Top 100 Finance Blogs list and Pecuniarities was included! On the first day, we were ranked around 50 (I can’t remember the exact figure), but unfortunately other great blogs have since eked their way in and we are now in the 70’s. But we are still very excited to be part of this list and will do our utmost to ensure we stay on it and improve our ranking.

Pecuniarities Joins Frugal Focus

If you’re an avid frugal living blog reader, you may already have heard of FrugalFocus, “a passionate group of people bringing together the very best content on Frugal Living and celebrating living well on a budget.” I am pleased to announce that Pecuniarities has been accepted to join this great group of frugal enthusiasts.

Consumer Safety Resources from the Government to Help Protect You From Scams and Frauds

In case you haven’t yet seen it, be sure to check out my list of consumer safety resources which I spent all last week compiling. It’s not what one would call pleasure reading, but it is important imformation on how to recognize, avoid, report and recover from scams and frauds should you ever need it.

Consumer Safety Resources from the Government on SPAM, Scams, Fraud, Phishing and Identity Theft

Please bookmark it for future reference and share it with your friends and family. After all it is National Consumer Protection Week, which must exist for a reason.

Related posts:

• Welcome MSN Money Central Smart Spending Readers!
• Wall Street Journal Giveaway Winner and Carnivals of the Week
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #3
• March 1st-7th is National Consumer Protection Week!
• Friday Fun: Meme Me! 7 Things You Didn’t Know About Me (Penelope Pince)

We’re hosting the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights this coming Thursday September 17th, 2009.

Personal finance, frugal and green living bloggers, get your submissions in by Wednesday 6:00 PM Pacific Time to be considered for inclusion in this edition!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this fairly new carnival, please visit this the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights website for more information.

Looking for Blog Carnival Hosts

The carnival schedule is open starting the 22nd of October 2009. Hosting a carnival is a great way to get targeted traffic to your blog, so if you blog about finance, frugal or green living, visit the hosting guidelines page to apply.

Our host blog requirements aren’t as stringent as some of the other carnivals so this is a good opportunity if you are a newer blogger and don’t yet meet the requirements to host other carnivals. We only ask that you maintain the quality of the carnival by only including content of lasting value.

Visit the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights site for more information and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

I’ll be back soon with a new post!

Related posts:

• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights Giveaways: Cute Piggy Bank Magnet Prizes for Hosting and Submissions
• Finance Blog Carnivals of Late
• New Personal Finance and Frugality Blog Carnival: The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights
• Giveaways Ending Soon! And Hosting 2 Blog Carnivals Next Week
• Pecuniary Links ~ August 2009 #1

"Sie essen, sie trinken und bezahlen nicht gern." They like to eat, drink and don't like to pay. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Image by Madoline Hatter

We are happy to announce the start of Frugaltroph, a frugal cooking column which we have been planning for some time. From high school through college and beyond, the two of us have been cooking for ourselves and our pets. Our diet has been healthy, frugal, convenient, and–most importantly–full of little luxuries. We have invented not a few recipes, made easy adaptions of traditional and ethnic dishes, and would like to begin sharing our experience with our readers  on a weekly basis.

One of the areas Frugaltroph will focus upon is school lunches for for kids. While growing up, the lunches our mother packed for us were the envy of our friends. Now that we are adults, we are aware that most people have very little time to prepare sack lunches five days a week and make each one seem like a treat or special affair. We have some good ideas to make pampering your kids (or yourself) easier.

We will also post recipes for many ethnic (especially Asian) foods, diet foods, easy family meals and snacks, cold summertime meals, ways to make instant or processed foods healthier and much more.

A brief explanation of our project title and motto

In biology, the term “-troph” is combined with another word to describe a way of feeding (e.g. autotroph, heterotroph). Therefore, “frugaltroph” is our way of saying “Frugal Feeding” or the diet of Homo frugalis.

Our motto “Sie essen, sie trinken, und bezahlen nicht gern” is a line from Epiphanias, a humorous poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe which is one of our favorite songs (music by  Hugo Wolf). In English, it says “They eat, they drink, and do not like to pay.” Our three pigs, represent the three kings of the poem.

We currently plan to do one cooking project a week: to make and photograph the process and results, and write up a post with ingredients and instructions which will be posted here and also at the Frugaltroph site, which is there for readers who are only interested in food. Check back soon for our first Frugaltroph column, and visit Frugaltroph.com to see the new site.

Related posts:

• Chilled Asian Style Noodles with Spinach and Garlic Sauce
• Cup-o-Cakes & Tup-o-Cakes: Easy, Frugal Portable Desserts
• Homemade Noodles: a Surprisingly Delicious and Versatile Frugal Food
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #3
• Yes, Dogs Can Catch Colds … and it’s Messy

• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights No. 1: The Madoline Hatter Pecuniary Art Edition
• Carnival of Debt Reduction No. 185: The Charles Dickens Debtor’s Prison Edition

Now, onto my roundup for today.

From Pecuniary Associates

• At Living Well On Less, Karen had to go away for a week and her husband Tony had to “live the bachelor life,” a point of worry for both of them. See how he planned/dealt with the situation and avoided falling into bachelor spending habits in his guest post How my husband plans to save while I’m away.
• At Financial Nut, Trevor walks us through the process of freezing our credit reports in Freezing Credit Reports Online. Why would you want to do this? To keep potential creditors, companies and thieves from getting access to your report.
• At Greener Pastures, Lisa offers an interesting read for those wondering which stocks to invest in during this recession, and a few tips for keeping the comfort food weight at bay in Is it Weight Gain or Weight Loss This Recession? Plus 7 Tips to Avoid Weight Gain.
• At Counting My Pennies, Megan talks about some of the issues Generation X faces in this economic climate in The “Plight” of the Twenty-Somethings.
• At The Passive Dad, Scott urges us to get a second opinion in Can’t Make Up Your Mind? Call A Frugal Friend.

Elsewhere in the Personal Finance Blog Community

• At The Simple Dollar, Trent gives some great advice How You Can Become a Jack of All Trades and why this can be valuable. Being a mini Jacqueline of many trades, though not as advanced as Trent’s friend Darwin, I have to concur that having a wide range of skills, even if limited, can be very convenient in your daily life as well as making you a valuable asset to your employers.
• At Bargaineering, Jim reminds us about the point of it all in The Secret About Money… (A must see)
• At My Money Blog, Jonathan discusses changing your consumption habits in Internal vs. External Frugality: Different Ways of Saving.

Pecuniarities in the Personal Finance Blog Community

I am excited to announce that Pecuniarities has been included in FIRE Finance’s Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs, ranking at #76. You can expect me to do all I can to make that number smaller!

We have also had the privilege of being included in the Personal Finance Category of a new site called Greatnexus, a  site not unlike Alltop, of which we are also a member.

Related posts:

• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #12
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #2
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #3
• Early to Bed and Early to Rise Makes a Man [or Woman] Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

If you haven’t done your taxes yet, enter now for a chance to win 1 of 2 FREE prepaid access codes for TurboTax Premier Online which includes:

• Free Federal
• State Preparation
• Free e-File

The Premier package is valued at $85 and includes investment income, 401-K  Maximizer, rental deductions and other features to help you maximize and expedite your refund. Click here for more information on TurboTax Premier.

Enter by 11:59 PM PST tonight March 28, 2009 for a chance to win!

Pecuniarities is Hosting 2 Carnivals Next Week!

Submit your posts for double carnival exposure:

• Carnival of Debt Reduction on Monday March 30th
  Submit your post by 5:00 PM PST Sunday March 29th to be considered for inclusion
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights on Thursday April 2nd
  Submit your best post – remember there is no restriction as to the age of the post – by 5:00 PM PST Wednesday April 1st to be considered for inclusion

Apply to host and submit an article for the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights by April 1st for chances to win these 2 cute piggy bank magnets by Madoline Hatter:

“Money begets Money” magnet for article submissions, “Feast on your savings” magnet for applying to host.

This Week’s Blog Carnivals

We participated in 2 blog carnivals this week:

• Festival of Frugality #170 – Frugal Living is Timeless was hosted by Money Ning and included my post:
  When “Free” Things Aren’t Free: Beware the Hidden and Indirect Costs
• Learn The Basics of Investing – Edition #197 of Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by Four Pillars and included my post:
  It Saves to Be Nice Part 4: How to Save Money by Helping Businesses Keep Operating Costs Down

Related posts:

• Pecuniarities is Hosting the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights This Week!
• Hosting Festival of Frugality and Money Hacks Carnival Next Week
• Web Hosting
• Wall Street Journal Giveaway Winner and Carnivals of the Week
• New Personal Finance and Frugality Blog Carnival: The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights

I have some news today. Since the demise of the PF Bloggers group to which I use to belong, I had been thinking about starting a new group, which I did a couple of weeks ago. It’s called Pecuniary Associates, and consists of 6 blogs:

1. Pecuniarities
2. Living Well On Less
3. Financial Nut
4. Counting My Pennies
5. Greener Pastures
6. The Passive Dad

(I have decided to cap recruitment for now in order for us to start getting to know one another and see how we work together, and therefore am no longer looking for additional members at this time.)

A few things we will be doing which you will see here at Pecuniarities:

• Recommending posts from each others’ blogs that we think will be interesting or useful to our readers
• Participating in group and community writing projects in which we will each share our viewpoints and experiences on certain topics
• Community writing projects in which we will invite all personal finance bloggers to participate

So keep an eye out for our first group writing project!

Now on to this week’s roundup.

From Pecuniary Associates

• Counting My Pennies tells a tale of frustration in Friends and money don’t mix.
• Financial Nut reports his experience with fraudulent activity on his credit card this week. This is a good reminder that we can never be too careful and must remain vigilant in regularly checking our statements.
• Living Well On Less offers a suggestion I’d be more than eager to follow if I was ever faced with renting and moving again (but never will because I am determined to never move again unless I want to.) Moving on a budget? Consider staying where you are
• The Passive Dad offers 10 ways to deal with financial stress, something we can all use.
• Greener Pastures advises to just use a little less.

Elsewhere in the PF Blogosphere

• The Paycheck Chronicles offers some tips for Laundry on the Cheap.
• Free From Broke asks: Is Saving 8 to 12 Months Expenses Even Possible Or Practical? I say, definitely.
• Wise Bread advocates Borrowing, renting, substituting, and doing without

Blog Carnivals

We’d like to thank the following hosts for including us in their recent blog carnivals:

• Money Ning hosted Money Hacks Carnival #55 – Thank You Edition which included my post:
  Who’s to Blame for Your Spending? You or You?

• Green Panda Treehouse hosted Carnival of Personal Finance #196: Music Edition which included my post:
  Financial Lent: A Frugal Fast to See What You Can Live Without

Another Reminder

Personal finance, frugal and green living bloggers:

If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to submit your best post and apply to host an edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights and enter the giveaways for some really cute Piggy Bank Magnets which we just received in the mail and look even better in real life than onscreen!

That wraps it up for today, which incidentally is my birthday, so off to party I go! (Before your imagination runs away with you, by “party” I mean watching Sense and Sensibility (and/or another Jane Austen film) on DVD and consuming copious amounts of fish n’ chips.)

Related posts:

• Pecuniary Links ~ August 2009 #1
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #19
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #3
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #18

This giveaway is mostly for personal finance/frugal living bloggers, but don’t worry non-bloggers, we have another giveaway coming up for you soon.

Giveaway #1: Submission Contest

• The Prize: “Money Begets Money” Magnet by Madoline Hatter of a piggy bank family feeding at a trough of gold coins.
• Everyone who submits a post and is included in the first edition is entered for a chance to win.
• If your post makes editor’s pick, you get an additional entry, so submit your best post.
• Add one of the Carnival banners or buttons to your site for an additional entry.

Giveaway #2: Hosting Contest

• The prize: “Feast on Your Savings” Magnet also by Madoline Hatter. This is the official logo of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delight featuring a “suckling piggy bank” on a platter and in a bed of bills and gold coins with a red apple in its mouth.
• Everyone who applies to host by March 31, 2009 (11:59PM EST) is entered for a chance to win.
• Add one of the Carnival banners or buttons to your site for an additional entry.
• Submission deadline: April 1, 2009 6:00PM EST

Contest Terms

• All entries in compliance with hosting or submission guidelines outlined on the carnival site are eligible for chances to win.
• You are welcome and encouraged to participate in both contests!
• Winners will be randomly selected.
• Winners will be announced in the first edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights on April 2, 2009 here at Pecuniarities.
• If you win, you will need to send me your name and mailing address.

More Information

To learn more about the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights, please visit the carnival home page or my previous post for more information:

• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights (home page)
• New Personal Finance and Frugality Blog Carnival: The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights (blog post)

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing your submissions – for both hosting and blog posts!

Related posts:

• Giveaways Ending Soon! And Hosting 2 Blog Carnivals Next Week
• Pecuniarities is Hosting the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights This Week!
• Introducing Pecuniary Associates & Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #17
• Web Hosting
• Carnival of Debt Reduction No. 185: The Charles Dickens Debtor’s Prison Edition

As coincidence, or fate, or luck—depending on which one you believe in—would have it, I had decided to designate this week as Identity Protection and Fraud Prevention Week here at Pecuniarities when I thought to publish my 2 previous posts on IRS Phishing E-mail Scams and How to Protect Your Identity If You Lose Your Wallet.

For the past week, I have been compiling a collection of links to government provided resources on consumer safety and fraud prevention, which I have planning to publish on the 28th. Then just a few minutes ago, I happened a site announcing the week of March 1-7 as National Consumer Protection Week 2009, which is just perfect timing!

What is National Consumer Protection Week?

Whether consumers are trying to stretch their paychecks, improve their credit history, or tell the difference between a real deal and a potentially fraudulent product or service, information is one tool that can always help them get the most for their money.

The NCPW website has the nuts and bolts consumers need to make informed decisions in today’s marketplace. Partner organizations have tips on a wide range of topics, from getting a free credit report to spotting a telemarketing scam, from dealing with debt to deterring and detecting identity theft, from avoiding home and auto repair scams to reporting credit repair scams.

Visit the National Consumer Protection Week website for more information and to order your free copy of the Consumer Action Handbook a government resource provided free of charge to individuals.

As for my own Pecuniarities Identity Protection and Fraud Prevention Week, check back soon for my compilation of government resources on fighting fraud.

“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.” – Albert Einstein

P.S. NCPW web buttons and banners you can put on your own blog/website or in your email signatures

Related posts:

• Pecuniarities News: Top 100 Finance Blogs, MSN Smart Spending, FrugalFocus and Consumer Safety
• It Never Hurts to Ask: Getting Late Fees Removed
• March 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Giveaways Ending Soon! And Hosting 2 Blog Carnivals Next Week
• Blog Carnivals

For those of you who were around you might remember our name being Our Fourpence Worth. We have come a long ways in many ways and have had a great time sharing our thoughts and ideas with you. We’d like to thank you, our readers, both old and new, for being with us, especially those who have been with us since the very beginning. We’ve gone through a name change, domain move, hosting move,  site re-designs (2 of them), some of which went smoothly and some not so smoothly as I am still an amateur at web design.

I’ve learned a lot this past year – about blogging and about frugal living. We participated in many blog carnivals and have hosted 5 blog carnivals here.

The Best of Pecuniarities/Our Fourpence Worth

Here are some of our articles that received some good attention (mentioned by MSN Smart Spending, blog carnival Editor’s Pick, lots of link love, StumbleUpon and search engine traffic) over the past year:

• 101 Ways to Save Money in Your Everyday Life
  
• Monopoly Game Expansion #1: Personal Savings Account
• The Frugal Literate’s Guide to Affordable Reading
• Beautiful Homemade Christmas Ornaments From Eggshells
• Using Nature’s Gift Wrap: The Eggshell
• Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt
• Resisting the Urge to Splurge
• Closing Your Credit Cards Can Hurt Your FICO Score
• Economical Pet and Child Safe Ways to Repel and Kill Ants, Spiders and Other Insects
• Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gift Suggestions
• Fast & Frugal Recipe: Yakisoba (Japanese Chow Mein)
• Free and Frugal Things to Do in Los Angeles
• Our Family Financial History

A Year Ago

At this time, allow me to point out a few of our very earliest articles that, due to the newness of the blog, didn’t get much attention. If you’ve got some time on your hands, have a read-through and feel free comment.

Penelope Pince

• Honestly Frugal: the Ethics of Saving Money
• Language Lesson ~ Frugality is a Virtue
• Language Lesson ~ Finance: A Fine Word
• The No-Budget System
• Save by Knowing Your Shipping & Mailing Options
• Credits Cards Really Aren’t So Bad
• Frugality 101

Madoline Hatter

• The Life Stages of a Dish Sponge
• Cabinet Secrets: Uses for Useless Things
• Thinking inside the box: Some Uses for Cardboard Cartons
• Patchwork Berets from Fabric Scraps
• Save Money by Sewing Your Own Clothes

Thanks again to all of you for sticking with us. We look forward to an even better year ahead of us.

Related posts:

• Announcement: Our Fourpence Worth Store
• Thank you!
• The Life Stages of a Dish Sponge
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #7
• ‘Tis Not a Crime to Pinch a Penny

Calvin and Hobbes Lemonade Stand Economics

My Spanish professor from college forwarded me this Calvin and Hobbes comic the other day, which I thought was a cute lesson in economics.

Click on the comic to view it in full size.

Wall Street Journal Giveaway Reminder

Also, a quick reminder that our Wall Street Journal Giveaway ends tomorrow night,  Saturday 1/24/09 at 11:59 EST. The Wall Street Journal is a great resource for news and information on a variety of subjects relevant to life in these times,  so if you haven’t entered yet, hurry on over. There are several ways to earn chances to win.

Please tell your friends and family about this giveaway!

Penelope Pince on Facebook

Another news item: I have just signed up for Facebook, so if you have an account,  feel free to add me.

Have a nice weekend!

Related posts:

• A Few Tips for Protecting Your Identity Should You Lose Your Wallet
• What’s the silver lining in this recession?
• Make Something Useful Out of Your Christmas Tree
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #20
• Language Lesson ~ Frugality is a Virtue (Re-Post)

Update 7:20PM January 30, 2009

The winner is Lisa Spinelli! Thank you all again for participating in my first giveaway!

Update 9:00PM, January 24, 2009

This contest is now closed. We will tally up the entries, select a winner and announce the result shortly. Thank you to everyone who participated.

I am excited to announce our first blog contest here at Pecuniarities (Our Fourpence Worth until October 2008). Next month marks our first blog anniversary and I am quite pleased with the success that we have experienced in the past year and the direction in which we are headed.

The Prize

I wrote a post a while back on how I received a free subscription to the Wall Street Journal by completing surveys. I have now earned enough points for another, so for this first contest (of many to come) we are giving away a 6-month print subscription to the Wall Street Journal, a $129 value, to one lucky winner. We just had our own 6-month subscription to the Wall Street Journal and have been very impressed with it.

To tell the truth, I wondered at first if it would be a little boring, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it offered more than just stodgy finance reports and stock graphs. I especially enjoy the Personal Journal section that covers a wide range of topics pertinent to everyone. I believe this paper could be a great benefit to our readers, especially in these times when keeping abreast of all news and information on the economy is so important.

The WSJ is delivered 6 days a week and is packed full of interesting news (both national and international) and useful information on business and personal finance, investing and more:

• Summaries of breaking stories, coupled with 24/7 online updates.
• Expert insight on the market and economy and how both can impact your everyday finances and personal investments.
• Expanded coverage of major global stories, political events, medical breakthroughs and emerging technologies.
• Arts, food & wine, real estate, travel bargains, and weekend getaways.

Ways To Enter

Do each of the following once for 1 chance to win. (For every 1 you do, you earn 1 entry. The Email Subscription earns 2 entries.)

Please leave a comment to let me know which entry method(s) you used.

Please make sure you read the Contest Terms below.

• Leave a comment on this post stating your 2009 financial resolutions or goals.
• Subscribe to our RSS feed and leave a comment below to let you know you did so, or
• for 2 entries instead of 1, Subscribe to our email feed and leave a comment here using the same email address with which you subscribed. (All current email subscribers gain an automatic entry.)
• Blog about this contest and link to it from your blog. Leave me a comment here to let me know.
• Follow me on twitter – @PenelopePince. Leave a comment here with your twitter username.
  
• Tweet about this contest and leave a comment to let me know you did so.
• Vote for this post in Tip’d, PF Buzz or another medium and leave a comment here.
• Bonus Entries: Leave comments on other posts on our blog. If you’re new to our blog, visit our archives for our earlier posts, which are some of the best we have produced. The comment(s) must show some thought and not just “I agree” or “Great idea.” Come back to this post and let me know which post(s) you commented on. Each approved comment will gain you an additional entry.
• If you like contests, be sure to check out  Single Guy Money’s $100 Target or Walmart Gift Card Giveaway.

Contest Terms

• We’re sorry, but this particular reward from my survey company is only available to new subscribers to the Wall Street Journal in the contiguous U.S., so we apologize to any readers from Hawaii or Alaska and those who have already subscribed to the WSJ in the past. If you have been a subscriber in the past, you are not eligible to receive this free subscription. We will hold other contests soon.
• The contest begins now and ends at 11:59PM EST on January 24, 2009. Comments to this post will be closed at this time.
• 1 winner will be randomly selected using a random integer generator at random.org.
• We will contact the winner via the email address used to comment here.
• The winner will have 4 days to respond with necessary contact information for the subscription. We will send a 2nd notification email after 2 days if we have not heard back.
• If the winner does not respond after 4 days, a new winner will be selected from amongst the entrants.
• If this prize happens to go out of stock from our reward provider at the end of the contest period (though it shouldn’t), we will offer a replacement prize.

Prize Terms

• Again, this particular offer from my rewards program is only available to new subscribers to the WSJ. If you are already a subscriber or have subscribed in the past, you are not eligible to receive this prize. We are sorry, but we will run other contests soon.
• It may take 6-8 weeks for the first issue to arrive.
• Your WSJ will be delivered 6 days a week by postal mail or early morning carrier depending on your location.
• While we will do our best to ensure proper initiation of your subscription, we are not liable for non-delivery due to:
  • Incorrect mailing and contact information provided by the winner
  • Ineligibility of the winner to qualify for the subscription
  • Loss or error on the part of the postal service or delivery personnel
  • Any other matter beyond our control
• Any issues with the delivery of the subscription will have to be addressed to the Wall Street Journal.

Don’t be scared off by these terms. We didn’t have any problems with our subscription. In fact, we began receiving our issues within a week or two of starting our subscription and have learned a lot from it.

Good luck to all and happy new year!

Related posts:

• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #14
• Friday Fun: Calvin and Hobbes Lemonade Stand Economics Lesson & WSJ Giveaway Reminder
• How I Got a Free Subscription to the Wall Street Journal
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #15
• Wall Street Journal Giveaway Winner and Carnivals of the Week

Dear Readers,

First of all, we would like to thank you for reading our blog and our feed and email readers for subscribing. We have come a long ways since we started this blog in February, and look forward to bringing you more ideas to help you live frugally, while living healthily and happily too.

A New Name and a New Home

If you have visited our site lately, you may have noticed a re-design and name change. Our Fourpence Worth is now called “Pecuniarities,” a name we had been thinking of changing to for a while. (If you are a blogger and have linked to us from your site (thank you!), we would appreciate it if you would update our name and link when you have a moment.)

Last week, we received a notice from our old hosting company that our blog had been blocked due to server overload (probably thanks to MSN Smart Spending’s blog’s link to our 101 Ways to Save Money in Your Everyday Life, for which we are grateful.) We have now moved and settled nicely into a new server at Media Temple (mt), and hopefully you will see the improved performance as we have.

Feed Subscription Update

We would like to ask our subscribers at this time to please update your feed readers with our new feed address: http://feedproxy.google.com/Pecuniarities. Email subscribers, we need to contact FeedBurner to request that your email subscription be moved to our new feed account. We are not 100% sure if or when they will help us with this, so if you have a moment, we would appreciate it if you would kindly resubscribe using the link or form below.

If you are not currently subscribed to our feed, we would like to invite you to do so as you can automatically receive new posts in your feed reader or inbox without having to check back on our site.

Subscribe to Pecuniarities (formerly Our Fourpence Worth) by Email

October 2008 Posting Status

We know our posting these last few weeks have been very infrequent. We own a custom pet and horse costuming business and have been swamped with orders for Halloween events. The move to our new server has seen many issues, mostly because I am an amateur web designer and make a lot of mistakes and have to find all the answers to my problems by searching and scouring the internet, so what time I have had to work on the blog has mostly been troubleshooting and setting up.

Upcoming Contest

We are planning a contest in the near future with a free 26-week (1/2 year) subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Be sure to check back or subscribe to our feed to receive updates on this upcoming and future contests!

Thank you again for reading our blog and please feel free to contact us at any time with topic requests, suggestions and feedback.

Sincerely,
Penelope Pince and Madoline Hatter

Related posts:

• Announcement: Our Fourpence Worth Store
• Welcome MSN Money Central Smart Spending Readers!
• The Life Stages of a Dish Sponge
• Thank you!
• ‘Tis Not a Crime to Pinch a Penny

Please refer to the submission guidelines and submit your posts for consideration using this submission form.

Submission deadline is Wednesday September 17, 2008 5:00PM EST/EDT.

Blog readers, be sure to check back on Thursday for recommended finance related reading!

Related posts:

• Hosting the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Pecuniarities is Hosting the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights This Week!
• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• July 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals

I can’t believe it’s September already. I woke up today with that feeling of fall in the air, which is really nice. While I learned long ago to never wish life away by wanting a future day hurry up and come, I can’t say that I don’t look forward to the cooler weather and lower electric bills (till winter comes when we have to decide whether we should get our heater fixed or try to go without and save about $1,000 dollars in propane gas bills over the winter.)

Fall also means that Halloween is just around the corner and we’re [hopefully] going to get super busy in our pet clothing and costuming business. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I still haven’t been able to start posting more frequently and we’re still averaging 3 times a week. This is because I am working hard to get our new Franga Designs store up and running as soon as possible for the Halloween sales season. But enough about me and our other sites, lets get on with news about Our Fourpence Worth.

Our Fourpence Worth News

6-Month Anniversary!

First of all, Our Fourpence Worth passed our 6-month anniversary at the end of August. We’ve had 26,879 unique visitors in these 6 months and received a Google page rank of 4, which I am quite happy about. Thank you to all our readers who have been with us since the beginning and joined us along the way. We appreciate each of you and your comments and feedback.

9rules

Next, I am pleased to announce that Our Fourpence Worth has just been accepted today to the 9rules community. For those of you who don’t know what 9rules is, here is an excerpt from their about page:

9rules is a place where members and readers can connect, build relationships, and learn new things. 9rules started in 2003 with a set of 9 rules:

1. Love what you do.
2. Never stop learning.
3. Form works with function.
4. Simple is beautiful.
5. Work hard, play hard.
6. You get what you pay for.
7. When you talk, we listen.
8. Must constantly improve.
9. Respect your inspiration.

This is very exciting for us and we would like to thank Scrivs, Tyme and Mike (The Triad) at 9rules for accepting us. We hope to be able to both contribute and learn from being a part of the 9rules community.

Now on with our roundup for this month.

Personal Finance Roundup and Blog Carnivals

PF Bloggers

• Get Rich or Die Trying opines that Parents Who Don’t Fund The Kids’ College Are Selfish.
• No Debt Plan shares A Six Step Guide to Asking for Fee Forgiveness from his recent experience in making and correcting a simple error in his credit card payment.
• Living Almost Large asks Why Aren’t We Honest when it comes to talking about our finances?
• Wide Open Wallet shares an interesting way of life in A New Car Every Year.
• Master Your Card tells How to use the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to Your Advantage.

Elsewhere in the Personal Finance Blogosphere

• My Dollar Plan gives students (and parents) a heads up on 10 College Money Myths.
• Saving Advice gives us 10 Things Money Can’t Buy.
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity warns of The 7 Deadly Sins of Personal Finance.

Festival of Frugality

The 141st Festival of Frugality was hosted by Kelly at Almost Frugal. We would like to thank her for including our Fast and Frugal Recipe: Mediterranean Pizza Toast in this week’s edition. Kelly is an American living in France, so she chose to share some fun frugal French vocabulary in this edition. Ever wondered how to say “miser” in French? Well, head on over to Festival of Frugality No. 141 and find out! Allons-y!

Well, this wraps this month’s very long roundup. I hadn’t planned on it being this long, but I hope you enjoy the links.

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Related posts:

• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #12
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #2
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #3
• Early to Bed and Early to Rise Makes a Man [or Woman] Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

If you’re a blogger, be sure and submit your personal finance and frugal living articles. If you’re a blog reader, be sure and stop by for recommendations for great reads.

• Festival of Frugality 139th Edition
  

  Tuesday, August 19, 2008

  • Submission Guidelines
  • Submission Form
  • Submission Deadline: Aug 18, 2008 9:00 PM EST/EDT

• Money Hacks Carnival 26th Edition
  

  Wednesday, August 20, 2008

  • Submission Guidelines
  • Categories: Insurance, Frugality & Saving Money, Investing, Income, Career, Debt & Credit, Taxes, Economy, Other
  • Submission Form
  • Submission Deadline: Aug 19, 2008 2:00 PM EST/EDT

Bloggers, this is a great opportunity for doubled carnival traffic and exposure, so get your submissions in! If you have 2 articles, be sure to submit one to each of the carnivals.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Related posts:

• Holiday Blog Carnivals
• Festival of Frugality #152: Affected by Recession Edition
• July 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Recent Blog Carnivals (February 2009)
• Festival of Frugality #140: The Frugal Quotes Edition

Yes, I know I’m a little late in the game. Having seen references to Twitter all over the web in recent months, I finally decided to check it out and signed up this past Sunday. Twitter is a great, easy and fun way to interact with people – specifically for me, personal finance bloggers and blog readers.

What is Twitter

Basically, Twitter is a social networking website, but much simpler than Facebook or MySpace. You simply log-in to your account and type in your 140 character (or less) update to tell your friends and family what you are up to, what’s going on in your life, what you are thinking/doing/reading/watching/etc.

You begin by “following” other people – friends, family, classmates, etc. – subscribing to their updates. You interact by typing updates of yourself, and reading and replying to your friends’ updates. Eventually people will start following you. (Read to the end for a list of useful Twitter Tools and Tips.)

How Twitter Relates to Our Fourpence Worth

There is a great network of personal finance bloggers on Twitter. By following them, I can:

• Get to know my fellow personal finance and frugal living bloggers
• Know when new blog posts are published
• Discover new blogs
• Keep up with what other personal finance bloggers are writing about
• Keep abreast of personal finance blogosphere happenings – blog carnivals, group writing projects, blog networks, etc.
• Find interesting things to share with my readers [you]

Follow Me on Twitter!

I’d like to invite you to follow me on Twitter. It’s an easy way for me to get to know you, my readers, find out what’s on your mind, and hopefully be able to make this blog more useful to you by writing about topics that interest you.

My Twitter Page:
http://twitter.com/PenelopePince

Twitter Tools and Tips

Since I”m new at Twittering and these following resources have been useful to me, if you’re new – or even if you’re not new – maybe they’ll be useful to you too.

For Personal Finance Bloggers and Blog Readers

• A list of 118 Twitter Users Who Blog About Money (plus more under Comments)

Graphics

• Cute “Follow me on Twitter” graphics for your site, email signature, online profiles, etc.
• More cute Twitter Graphics and Icons (like the one above)

• Follow me on Twitter badges / logos / buttons (very artsy graphics)

For Bloggers

• Twitterfeed tells your followers about new blog posts using your RSS feed (requires OpenID)
• How to Use Twitter – Tips for Bloggers
• 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers
• 7 Ways to Use Twitter to Promote Your Blog and Build Traffic
  
• The networking benefits of using Twitter
• 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
• 7 Ways to Use Microblogging Services for Traffic and Brand Exposure

URL Shorteners

Because each Twitter update is limited to 140 characters, you’ll want to use an URL shortener to save space.

• Tweeter Burner ties into your account and allows you to track how the links you share are doing (how many clicks)
• TinyURL seems to be the most commonly used URL shortener

More Twitter Tools & Apps

• Official Twitter Application Downloads Site
  
• Twitter Apps (Official Twitter Blog)
• Twitter Forge – Twittown
• Twitter Tool Box: 60+ Twitter Tools
• Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools!

• Top 21 Twitter Tools and Help Websites

• Twitter Tools 2nd Edition

• Twitter Fan Wiki Apps
• Firefox add-ons for Twitter

Cool Stuff

• Twittervision – Shows you tweets being sent all over the world in real-time (ok, with a slight delay – less than a minute). I like the 3-D globe one that spins. It’s really fun to read all these tweets being sent all over the world in various languages.

Interesting Stuff

• Twitter as News-Wire

Related posts:

• Go on, cut that cable! Websites for Watching Free TV Full Episodes, Movies and News Online
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights Giveaways: Cute Piggy Bank Magnet Prizes for Hosting and Submissions
• Money Hacks Carnival No. 26: Old Money Edition
• Favorite Christmas Memory
• Home is Where the Money Is

A few months ago, we put a link on our blog for Dogs in Danger, a website featuring shelter dogs who are due to be euthanized if they do not find a home very soon. We had hoped placing the link would result in some adoptions of needy dogs. Well . . . . good news! It worked! Although we didn’t end up with one of the dogs on this website (the suitable ones being too far away), looking at all the pictures and descriptions of poor homeless dogs made us finally decide to adopt. After all, an adoption would benefit all parties. It would provide a home and family for the dog while making our business more efficient and hopefully more lucrative.

Another reason for adopting at this time is that foreclosures are causing many owners to give up their pets. By taking a dog out of a shelter, we could make room for another, reducing the euthanasia statistics by one. When the digit 1 represents a life, it’s not such a small number after all.

We began searching online for dogs at local shelters who might be a clothes model, pet, and little sibling for Luwie and Wolfie. There were so many cute ones that we were actually tempted to take two . . . or even three. But finances being a consideration, we had to be practical and choose only one.

There was a dog at the Lancaster Animal Shelter who instantly caught our eye. She was listed as a chihuahua, though we think she is half Italian greyhound or whippet. The poor little dog had actually been recently adopted and returned with the complaint that she was too big for a chihuahua and was very nervous and unhappy to be back at the shelter. Not only was she physically perfect for the job, having a neutral color and clean outline, but she was (and is) incredibly sweet and submissive, and went limp like a ragdoll when picked up.

With a payment of just $38.00, this little girl became our Sophia (pronounced “so-FYE-uh” in the 18th century way), Sophie for short. And we are glad to announce that everything worked out happily. We are fond of Sophia, who is our first toy dog, and she seems quite satisfied with us. Wolfgang is delighted to have a new friend and Ludwig is beginning to get curious about her after raising his eyebrows (he really does) and saying “What’s this?” for 24 hours.

Sophia has started a new life as a little princess with a big wardrobe and has reached the happy ending of the doggy fairy tale which is a “forever home.” Of course, we couldn’t wait to dress her up and already made her two new outfits. Isn’t she lovely?

* * * * * * * * *

Related posts:

• Yes, Dogs Can Catch Colds … and it’s Messy
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #3
• “Shopaholic” Books: Entertaining Lessons on Financial “Don’ts”
• Introducing Frugaltroph
• More About Us

‘Tis Not a Crime to Pinch a Penny by Madoline Hatter ‘Tis not a crime to pinch a penny A single cent’s as good as any Of the hundred that’s a dollar A hundred being only taller A cent to none is surely better For you are that much less a debtor.

For anyone who is curious, the images in our new theme were also designed by Madoline. The Money Tree graphics in varying stages of leaf and bloom, are available on a variety of merchandise such as mugs, cards, t-shirts and more in Our Fourpence Worth Store.

Related posts:

• From Pennies One Million Dollars Grow
• Basics for the Young, Single and Frugal
• Who’s to Blame for Your Spending? You or You?
• Pecuniary Art & Gifts
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #4

If this is your first time here, please have a look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed, which can be delivered in various forms of web based readers as well as email.

Our Fourpence Worth is all about frugal living and making smart choices in personal finance. We write about things we have learned and are learning as we strive for financial freedom and we offer tips for saving money in various aspects of life: personal, home improvement and decoration, family, money management, pet care, frugal recipes and more, as well as our opinions on current affairs related to our subject.

To give you an idea of the kind of topics we write about, here are a few of our posts that have done quite well in the blogosphere:

• My Favorite Money and Time Saving Websites
• Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt
• Resisting the Urge to Splurge
• Monopoly Game Expansions for Learning Money Management and Investment Principles
• Frugal Travel Begins Before the Trip: Vacation Preparation Checklist
• Guide to Safe and Smart Traveling with Pets
• Fast & Frugal Recipe: Yakisoba (Japanese Chow Mein)

Check out the “Most Popular Posts” section on the sidebar to the right (below “Categories”) for more popular posts. To learn more about us and this blog, please visit About this Blog and More About Us.

Thanks for stopping by!

Penelope and Madoline

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Our Fourpence Worth Store

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