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

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

Posts That Caught My Eye This Week

From Get Rich Slowly — 25 Useful Financial Rules of Thumb
Lots of goodies here for all aspects of personal finance

From Mrs. Micah — How Has the Recession Changed Your Saving Habits
A Twitter poll with answers from 12 different people in 140 characters or fewer. It includes one from yours truly! There are lots of comments from readers, too (most over 140 characters.)

From My Money Blog — Summary of California’s Upcoming New Tax Hikes
Increasing sales tax by a whole percent, income tax, vehicle licensing fees, and decreasing dependent credit. Needless to say, being a California resident, this makes me very, very unhappy. So much for economic stimulus blah blah blah.

From The Passive Dad — Money Saving Tip: Have Kids Help With Grocery Coupons
Even though I don’t have kids with opposable thumbs with which to clip coupons, I really like the idea of “no coupon, no purchase,” which can apply to everyone.

Recent Blog Carnivals

Broke Grad Student hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #193: YouTube Edition
Included my post: Free e-Book, Audiobook, Video & Music Download and Online Resources From Your Local Library

Free Money Finance hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #194
Included my post: Consumer Safety Resources from the Government on SPAM, Scams, Fraud, Phishing and Identity Theft

Green Panda Treehouse hosted Festival of Frugality #167: Dr. House Edition
Included my post: Beware of Fake IRS (Internal Revenue Service) Phishing Email Scams

Have a nice week!

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

Welcome to the 188th Carnival of Personal Finance! Our theme for this week’s edition is Jane Austen, as I am a admirer of both her novels and the films based on her novels, which are graced throughout with witty commentary on society — and in particular, money and marriage.

If this is your first time here, please take a look around and consider subscribing to our feed to have new money saving tips delivered to your feed reader of choice or your email inbox. We are also currently holding our first ever giveaway for a free 6-month print subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Please be sure to stop by the contest page and see how you can enter to win.

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor – which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony.

Jane Austen, Letter to Fanny Knight, 13 March 1817 Photo: Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen, Becoming Jane (2007), Miramax

~ Editor’s Picks ~

• Coffee For One presents Paying the Bills
• FruGal presents Joining the gym? Read this first
• Sound Money Matters presents That Makes Me Stabby: Do We Have an Obligation to Spend?
• Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck presents Lessons from Flight 1549
• Free From Broke presents Just Enough Is Not Good Enough
• Pimp Your Finances presents 10 Financial Commandments for Your 20s
• Money Ning presents 50 Ways to Budget Travel and Save Money on Vacations

If the loss of what is most valued is so easily to be made up by something else, your resolution, your self-command, are, perhaps, a little less to be wondered at.

Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility Photo: Kate Winslet & Emma Thompson, Sense & Sensibility, Sony Pictures

~ New Year’s Resolutions ~

• The Passive Dad presents My Latte Factor In 2008. Automatic Millionaire Goals for 2009
• Destroy Debt presents Did You Give Up On Your New Year’s Resolution Already?
• My Money and My Life presents New year, new goals
• Think Your Way To Wealth presents Tips for Making Your Personal Finance Resolutions Stick- Turn Your Resolutions into Habits

Imprudence or thoughtlessness in money matters would be unpardonable in me.

Jane Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Photo: Rosamund Pike as Jane, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Working Title

~ Frugality ~

• Passive Family Income presents Live Frugal – But in moderation
• Living The Frugal Life presents What Would You Do If You Lost Your Job Today?
• The Paycheck Chronicles presents Space Heaters or Turn Up the Thermostat?
• Getting Rich in Grad School presents 5 reasons why the best financial advice is always free
• The Smarter Wallet presents Buying A Computer? Check Our Computer Shopping Tips First

People always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them…. An annuity is a very serious business; it comes over and over every year, and there is no getting rid of it.

Fanny Dashwood (in regards to Mrs Dashwood), Sense and Sensibility Photo: Janet McTeer as Mrs. Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility (2008), BBC Warner

~ Budgeting ~

• Monogamoney presents What’s in my pantry
• Yielding Wealth presents Do You Need a Gatekeeper for Your Personal Finances?
• InsureBlog presents Wallet Biopsy
• About Financial Software Blog presents 8 Tips for Choosing Budgeting Software

And we mean to treat you all, but you must lend us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there.

Lydia Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Photo: Brenda Blethyn, Jena Malone & Carey Mulligan, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Working Title

~ Consumerism & Spending ~

• Not Made of Money presents How Has the Current Economy Changed Your Wants and Needs?
• Budgets are Sexy presents My tipping rule: Everyone gets 20%! Nice and easy…
• Second Child, Last Born presents What Type of Saver/Spender Am I?
• Making My Own Payday presents The Not So Perfect Gift (Card)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Pride and Prejudice Photo: Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice (1996), BBC/A&E

~ Money Management ~

• FIRE Finance presents Advantages of Online Banking
• Dawn’s Evolution presents 6 lessons in personal finance from my mother
• Prime Time Money presents How to Care {Not Worry} About Your Finances
• The Strump – Financial Blog presents How Detailed Should Your Financial Plan Be
• The Sun’s Financial Diary presents Where Did Our Money Go?
• Your Money Relationship presents Do You Still Balance Your Checkbook? I Sure Don’t!

A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable, old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls; but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensbile and pleasant as anybody else….for a very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper.

Emma, Emma Photo: Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, Emma (1996), Miramax

~ Debt ~

• Managing Money God’s Way presents Debt? What debt?
• Shrinkage is Good presents 5 Steps to Combat Holiday Debts and Ward Off Future Relapses
• Personal Finance Ology presents Understanding Good Debt Vs. Bad Debt
• American Consumer News presents Playing the Credit Card Balance Transfer Game
• Done To Zen presents Credit Cards Suck
• Secrets For Money presents How To Shop For A Legitimate Non Profit Credit Counseling Service

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it.

Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park Photo: Alessandro Nivola & Embeth Davidtz, Mansfield Park (1999), Miramax

~ Career ~

• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents Success Finds Hard Work, Talent & Passion
• Greener Pastures presents The Power of Positive Psychology
• Happiness Is Better presents 6 Reasons Why I Joined Toastmasters
• PennyJobs.com presents 6 Options for Students To Consider with Respect to the Economy

Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.

John Knightley, Emma Photo: Jeremy Northem as George Knightley, Emma (1996), Miramax

~ Saving & Investing ~

• My Wealth Builder presents Get Higher Interest for Saving – Up to 6%
• Generation X Finance presents How to Roll Over Your 401(k) When You Leave or Lose Your Job
• Four Pillars presents Can You Invest Your House Down Payment In The Stock Market?
• Lazy Man and Money presents Greed or No Greed
• Cash Money Life presents Increased 401k Contribution Limits in 2009
• Dividends4Life presents Dividend Stocks Role In The Future Recovery
• Military Finance Network presents 2009 Thrift Savings Plan Contribution Limits
• The Personal Financier presents Is the Stock Market a Big Ponzi (Madoff) Scheme?
• Stock Trading To Go presents Beginner’s Guide to Currency ETFs

But there are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.

Mansfield Park Photo: Bennet family, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Working Title

~ Economy ~

• The Digerati Life presents Studying Business Cycles: Economic Graphs of The Current Economic Cycle
• Amateur Asset Allocator presents Unemployment At Highest Level In 15 years: Or Is It Even Worse?
• The Happy Rock presents [Video]The Government’s Money Hole – Recession, Taxes, and Bailout Commentary
• Personal Finance Analyst presents Can You Really Opt Out of a Recession?
• BankAround presents List of Banks that Took TARP Money

Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does discretion end, and avarice begin?

Eizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Photo: Jennifer Ehle as Lizzy, Pride and Prejudice (1996), BBC/A&E

~ Taxes ~

• The Financial Blogger presents How To Withdraw Money From Your Holding Without Paying Taxes – The Split Dollar Strategy
• Personal Finance Reviews presents 2009 Income Tax Brackets
• My Journey to Millions presents Did you Forget your RMD this Year? All may not be lost

After all that romancers may say, there is no doing without money.

Isabella Thorpe, Northanger Abbey Photo: Carey Mulligan as Isabella, Northanger Abbey (2007), WGBH Boston

~ Real Estate & Mortgages ~

• Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Running through payback time on a mortgage refinance
• Stumble Forward presents Mortgage Refinance Tips That Could Save You Thousands
• The Credit Toolbox presents Why Would You Choose A Variable Mortgage Rate?
• Funny About Money presents Can’t Sell the House? Try Swapping
• Debt Free Destiny presents How to Get Ready for Your First Home
• Growing Money presents Rental Property Update December 2008

Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it.

Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility Photo: Kate Winslet as Marianne, Sense & Sensibility (1995), Sony Pictures

~ Reviews ~

• My Dollar Plan presents Have You Checked out Lending Club?
• The Dough Roller presents How to Buy and Sell Loans on Lending Club’s New Trading Platform
• Christian Debt Help presents Sharebuilder promotion and review

And to marry for money I think the wickedest thing in existence.

Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey Photo: Felicty Jones as Catherine, Northanger Abbey (2007), WGBH Boston

~ Other ~

• Money Beagle presents Wasting Money on Poorly Timed Traffic Lights
• LivingAlmostLarge presents A difference between rich and poor
• Centsability to Wealth presents Insurance- The Fortress the Protects Your Financial Army
• Steadfast Finances presents When the Expense of Plastic Surgery is Justifiable
• Free Money Finance presents Four More Uses for Gold Dollar Coins

He is rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine carriages than Jane. But will they make you happy?

Mr. Bennet to Lizzy, Pride and Prejudice Photo: Keira Knightley as Lizzy, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Working Title

* * *

This wraps up the Jane Austen Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and quotes as much as I did putting them together. Again, be sure to enter our giveaway for a free 6-month print subscription to the Wall Street Journal which ends this Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 11:59PM EST! Thanks for stopping by!

A Parting Shot

Photo: Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, Emma (1996), Miramax

Related posts:

• Friday Fun: Calvin and Hobbes Lemonade Stand Economics Lesson & WSJ Giveaway Reminder
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #15
• Hosting the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Recent Blog Carnivals (February 2009)
• Finance Blog Carnivals of Late

Welcome to the 3rd edition of the Finance Fiesta. I’ve always enjoyed proverbs, and since Spanish is one of my favorite languages, our theme for this week’s fiesta is Spanish Money Proverbs. The following proverbs all come from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs for anyone who wants to know. Hope you enjoy them.

Related posts:

• Hosting the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Hosting the 16th Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals: Week of Unexpected Delays

For example, Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary provides the following definitions:

1. (plural) money or other liquid resources of a government, business, group, or individual
2. the system that includes the circulation of money, the granting of credit, the making of investments, and the provision of banking facilities
3. the science or study of the management of funds
4. the obtaining of funds or capital

To the layperson, these definitions may seem rather daunting, especially #2. However, a closer examination of the origins of the word “finance” reveals quite something else and suggests that perhaps the earlier users of the word may have had quite the more optimistic outlook in dealing with their finances.

The word finance first appeared in Middle French around the year 1400, and it simply meant “ending, settlement of a debt.” This usage was derived from the Middle English finis, “a payment in settlement, fine or tax,” which in turn came from the Latin finis, meaning “end,” the origin of the present word “fine.”

If we travel back to c. 1200-1300, however, we see that that the word “fine” also had positive definitions as it still does today. In Latin, French and English, it meant things like “perfected, of highest quality,” “acme, peak, height,” “the highest good,” and “delicate, intricately skillful.”

Hence, the use of the word “fine” as relates to monetary matters, was to “make fine,” “make one’s peace,” or “settle a matter,” which is a much more positive way of looking at one’s financial affairs.

It wasn’t until 1527 that the word fine began taking on the modern and more negative definition of “sum of money imposed as penalty for some offense,” and 1559 when assigned the verb meaning “to punish by a fine.”

So, for those of us who tend to regard our financial matters as drudgery or a form of punishment, perhaps it would behoove us all to adopt the view of our predecessors and look at it as “making [things] fine.” So, go and make peace with yourself (or your bank account, or creditors, if applicable.)

Sources: Online Etymology Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

Related posts:

• Language Lesson ~ Frugality is a Virtue (Re-Post)
• Language Lesson ~ Frugality is a Virtue
• Pecuniarities (Our Fourpence Worth) 1 Year Anniversary
• March 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Basics for the Young, Single and Frugal

From Pecuniary Associates

• Living Well On Less gives us:  Frugality is good for the Earth
• Financial Nut offers A Comprehensive Guide To Understanding The Pros & Cons Of Investing Into A Roth IRA, one of the many things I’ve been meaning to look into.
• Greener Pastures asks Should I Refinance? Obama Says Yes.
• Counting My Pennies talks about Keeping Money Matters Quiet, to which I completely agree.

Blog Carnivals

• At Money Ning: Carnival of Personal Finance #200 – Edition of Mini Accomplishments
  Post included: Slowing Down Makes Sense: Drive Safely, Save More Than Money

• At Mighty Bargain Hunter: Welcome to the Carnival of Personal Finance
  Post included: Falling Off Your Financial Horse: If  you’ve never fallen off a horse, you just haven’t ridden enough.

• At Wise Bread: Carnival of Pecuniary Delights No. 2: Saving Money Edition
  Post included: Honestly Frugal: the Ethics of Saving Money.

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

• 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

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)

Now for the roundup.

• Fire Finance shares 12 Tips To Lower Your Heating Bill
• Mrs. Micah tells Why She’s Glad They Didn’t Pay Off the Car Last Year
• Free From Broke shares his opinon on Why Economic Stimulus Handouts Are Bad – It Kills Innovation
• The Digirati Life commented on How Obama’s Stimulus Plan Affects The Middle Class
• Prime Time Money tells us It’s Time to Get Hardcore Frugal!
• Remodeling This Life shares Love Where You Live
• Bible Money Matters tells how The Best Decision Doesn’t Always Make The Most Financial Sense
• Money Ning published a review on E-Trade Bank Savings Account

Oh, and thanks to Credit Withdrawal who hosted the Jan 12th edition of the Festival of Frugality, which included my post Save Money and Get More Exercise With a Mini Home Gym. Apologies for the delay; I got so wrapped up in my own carnival that I forgot to link back last week.

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

Now the holidays are over, the days are getting longer, and we must go back to the hustle and bustle of daily life, which I’m not quite ready to do just yet. But I’ll start with a couple of news items for Pecunarities.

Pecuniary News

• Our First Blog Contest

  I just announced our first ever blog contest here at Pecuniarities, in which we are giving away a free 6-month print subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Those residing within the contiguous U.S. (48 states) and who have not subscribed to the Wall Street Journal are eligible to enter. So pop over and see how you can win!
  2009 Financial Resolutions Blog Contest: Win a Free 6-Month Subscription to the Wall Street Journal

• Hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance

  We have the privilege of hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance next week, January 19th, 2009. This is our first time hosting the CoPF about which I am very excited. If you are a blogger, make sure to get your submission in before 6pm EST Sunday, January 18th.

Giveaways

• Single Guy Money is also a giveaway for a $100 Target or Walmart Gift Card (winner’s choice). Head on over and see how you can win!
• Your Money Relationship is also holding a giveaway for a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate.

Roundup

• Living Well on Less risked injury by making the mistake of being too frugal with her exercise budget.
• Wide Open Wallet breaks down her budget to see where all the money is going.
• Master Your Card gives us Top 10 Resolution Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
• Moolanomy  gives 7 Tips to Stick to New Year’s Resolutions.
• Almost Frugal shares Turning Resolutions into Reality in 5 Steps.
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already says Resolutions Are Just Goals With A Fancy Name.

Blog Carnival Partipation

• This past week’s Carnival of Personal Finance, Fairy Tale Edition, was hosted at Clever Dude, who demonstrated his cleverness by formatting the carnival in prose. This is no ordinary litany of links to articles around the financial blogoshere, but rather each entry has a part in the story.

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

Christmas is in the air and I am bundled up to resemble a fat penguin, wearing 4-5 layers, and huddled in front of a space heater as I type. The weather also forecasts snow for us tomorrow, which is somewhat rare as we live in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. Having grown up in Hawaii, I can’t say I’m not a little excited about the snow but don’t really look forward to the accompanying cold.

But anyways, on to our roundup for this holiday season.

• Wide Open Wallet offers 10 Holiday Budget Busters.
• Frugal Dad offers Holiday Saftey Tips.
• My Dollar Plan shares 37 Homemade Gifts Under $20.
• Master Your Card shares 42 ways he’s going to make 2009 awesome.

We participated in 2 blog carnivals last week and would like to thank the hosts for including our posts.

• Carnival of Personal Finance #182 – Don’t Go Broke Over The Holidays Edition was hosted by Free From Broke and included Madoline’s post on Two Natural and Economical Ways to Shed Dry Winter Skin.
• Festival of Frugality #155: The Chic-Tacky Christmas Edition was hosted by Greener Pastures and included Madoline’s post on Beautiful Homemade Christmas Ornaments from Eggshells.

Well, this wraps it up for today. Happy Holidays!

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

It feels good to get back in the groove of posting regularly again. My cousin lent me an older laptop of his last week so that I can work (on the blog and our other business sites) while Madoline works on her paintings on our PC, and it has made all the difference.

As for life in general, things have quieted down since Halloween. Madoline had a birthday last week, and we celebrated by watching a couple of new movies – Cranford (starring Judi Dench) and Wives and Daughters, both wonderfully filmed and which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys classic British literature and period films.

OK, on to our roundup for today.

From the PF Bloggers Network

• Girls Just Wanna Have Funds shares 4 ways she hacked $1,300 from her budget.
• Master Your Card compiled a list of 101 Ways to Go Green and Save Money. Add that to our 101 Ways to Save Money in Everyday Life – there are a few similarities – and that’s almost 200 different ways to save!
• Living Almost Large weighs in on how it can be frugal to live alone.
• Wide Open Wallet shares a great story on how not being true to yourself can lead to financial disaster.

Elsewhere in the Frugal and Finance Blogosphere

• Mrs. Micah at Finance for a Freelance Life warns how minimum payments slow down debt repayment. I fully agree; when I got my first credit card, I was surprised at how low the minimum payment was and realized just how tricky these banks and credit card companies can be.
• Almost Frugal presents How to Look Fabulous, Frugally. This is the first of a 3-part series, all of which have been published on her beautiful blog.
• The Taxguy informs us of our rights as taxpayers which include challenging penalties, saying “no” to auditors, the right to a correspondence audit and more.
• Living Well on Less asks “Would you buy it if it wasn’t on sale?” Note and beware the difference between shopping for a bargain and shopping for something you need!
• Frugal Dad asks “Is Frugal Movement Just a Fad?” I think it’s a temporary fad borne out of fear and necessity. Some may learn from this current economic situation and permanently alter their spending habits, but I think many will return to their usual spending as soon as the coast is clear.
• Moolanomy offers a Frugalist Expense Reduction Guide, which is very worth the read. He makes a good point that our ultimate goal should be to build financial health by developing extra income rather than deprivation.

Blog Contest

• Bargain Briana is holding a $25 Amazon gift certificate giveaway, which ends 11PM tonight (11/17/08), so get over there now for a chance to win!

Blog Carnivals

• Last week’s Carnival of Personal Finance, Fierce Financial Tips: The Carnival of Personal Finance #178, Struwwelpeter Edition, was Hosted by The Digirati Life and included my post, Feeling Sorry for the Little Guy in the Losing Battle Between Brick-and-Mortar and Online Shopping.
• This week’s edition is Carnival of Personal Finance #179 – Smile Edition, a reminder to us all to smile because there is no such thing as too much happiness. This edition included my post Life Is Too Short To Sleep On Low Thread-Count Sheets.

Well, this wraps up our roundup for today. I hope you enjoy my recommendations.

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

I know we have been terribly remiss in posting lately; again, apologies. The Halloween rush is over and we can breathe again (until the Christmas rush starts). To be honest, we were more than a little surprised at the amount of business we received for Halloween considering the current state of the economy. Our sales are nothing compared to other bigger businesses, but still enough to keep the two of us jumping for a few weeks. So, we found it very interesting that there are still people out there who could afford to spend a bit on costumes for their dogs and horses. We’re certainily not complaining, though, and happy for the business.

Recommended Reading

• Almost Frugal has a great post on making your own gift bags which can save you a bundle this Holiday Season.
• The Simple Dollar gives a great guide to winterizing your house.
• Wide Open Wallet reminds us to get our Christmas budgets in place.
• Master Your Card debates the age-old question of Qality vs. Price and shares an example for when the savings definitely aren’t worth the aggravation.
• Girls Just Wanna Have Funds wonders if lower gas prices are somehow tied to the elections.
• Living Almost Large advises to tread carefully when investing in the current economy.
• No Debt Plan suggests patience in your Holiday shopping.

Blog Carnivals

We participated in 2 carnivals within the past week, or would it be more accurate to say we participated in the same carnival two weeks in a row? Either way, we’d like to thank the hosts for including our posts.

• Last week’s Carnival of Personal Finance – Financial Armageddon Edition! was hosted at Master Your Card and included our Tricky Treats for Trick-or-Treaters: Healthy and Useful Alternatives to Halloween Candy.
• This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance No. 177 was hosted by The Sun’s Financial Diary and included our post It Saves to Be Nice Part 1: It’s Business but it’s Also Personal.

That wraps up today’s roundup. Happy reading!

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

Well, the hot weather I’ve been complaining about suddenly took leave a couple of days ago. We skipped the t-shirt stage entirely and have gone straight from tank top to sweatshirt in just 2 days. This is certainly a welcome relief, but I hope it doesn’t signify an especially cold winter.  And we’d better start thinking about getting our heater repaired.

The Halloween costuming season has begun and we are starting to get really busy with custom orders for dog and horse costumes and expect to be even more so until the end of this month. (Come by Franga Designs if your pet needs an original costume for trick-or-treating, costume contests or parties!)  This is good because it’ll make paying for our heater repair a little less painful, but could mean falling a little behind on posting here. While I hope this will not be the case, don’t get anxious if we disappear for a few days. We’ve got numerous post ideas that are just waiting to be written.

PF Bloggers

• Master Your Card shares insider tips on how to receive competitive CD and Savings rates from your bank in Your Bank’s Superpowers.
• No Debt Plan is doing a series on his home buying process from last year. Ignoring the Issues: The Second House We Looked At talks about the importance of not rushing and keeping a cool head when looking at a house.
• Living Almost Large talks about appreciating what we have. I just have to say that I think KFC is good food. They have the best potato wedges and cole slaw … and mashed potatoes and gravy … and the fried chicken is pretty good. And it’s not that cheap either.
• Wide Open Wallet talks about why she likes small banks. I have to agree. We get much better service from our local credit union than we did with Bank of America.
• Girls Just Wanna Have Funds talks about female professionals losing their identities after having a baby.

Blog Carnivals

We participated in 3 blog carnivals this week and would like to thank each of the following hosts for including our posts.

• Carnival of Personal Finance #172 – Meltdown Edition
  Hosted by Debt Kid and included our 101 Ways to Save Money in Your Everyday Life.
• Festival of Frugality #145-The Gratitude Edition
  Hosted by Value For Your Life and included my post The Benefits of Deprivation: 10 Days Without Air Conditioning and Counting! Plus Tips for Staying Cool.
• Money Hacks Carnival #32 – Have You Ever Edition
  Hosted by the Financial Blogger and included Learning From Our Mistakes: Our First (Auto) Loan.

Some good posts from these carnivals:

• 20 Ways to Increase Your Net Worth
• The Twelve Biggest Personal Finance Mistakes People Make Over and Over Again
• Using Coupons Can Cost You Money!

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

Blame it on the stars or mere coincidence, but interestingly, both of the blog carnivals I participated in this past week met with delays and issues. The resulting time constraints left the hosts no time to come up special themes, layouts or editor’s picks. And because, as always, I just managed to get my submissions in at the last minute, my entries can be found at the very bottom of each carnival. I like to think of it as saving the best for last.

Festival Of Frugality #144 – The Host Bailed Out Edition

As the name of the edition suggests, the original host bailed out at the last minute and David at My Two Dollars stepped in and got the carnival up and running only a few hours after the scheduled time. Madoline’s article on How to save on paint for home and craft projects can be found at the 2nd to last position.

A post from this carnival that I found helpful is the reminder that Now is the Time to Winterize Your Home by the Happy Rock, because our heater decided to go on vacation last winter and we are now trying to decide whether or not to have it revived for the coming winter. We did survive last winter without it, but it wasn’t much fun. In any case, winterizing the house would save us money if we do fix the heater and save our skins if we don’t.

Finance Fiesta #17 – Buzzer-Beater Edition

Due to communication issues, the host of this edition, Mighty Bargain Hunter, wasn’t able to access the submissions until the late in the evening of the scheduled publication date. Impressively, he still managed to come up with a theme of sorts, a countdown toward the deadline with a personal comment for every entry, and the carnival was up 9 minutes before the end of the day EST.

My entry, Monopoly Game Expansion #5: Income Tax Edition, can be found at the very bottom. But I have to disagree with mbhunter on his comment here – I like the Free-Parking bonanza. It’s my favorite part of the whole game! :p

One post of note from this carnival was Six Money Lessons from Entourage by Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. I don’t have cable so I’ve never seen this show, but hopefully Hulu will have the full episodes someday soon so I can see for myself.

[ad#banner468x60]

Related posts:

• Recent Blog Carnivals (February 2009)
• Hosting Festival of Frugality and Money Hacks Carnival Next Week
• Holiday Blog Carnivals
• Wall Street Journal Giveaway Winner and Carnivals of the Week
• May 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals

It has been a busy week for us here at Our Fourpence Worth. We partipated in another PF Bloggers Network Group Writing Project, the topic of which was our Personal Experiences with Loans. We wrote about the first time we purchased a car on our own and got in a little trouble by being clueless as to how the credit, loan and auto sales industries work. It was a once in a lifetime mistake that you can be sure we won’t ever be making again – Learning From Our Mistakes: Our First (Auto) Loan.

Check out the PF Bloggers Group Writing Projects page for more, and if you are a personal finance or frugal living blogger, you are invited to join in our Extended Group Writing Project. We also hosted the 16th Edition of the Finance Fiesta, the theme of which was “Devote Your Life to Money!” a cynical poem by David Kessel about the virtues of money.

A quick note before we begin with today’s roundup, we have been doing roundups once a month for the past few months, but plan to begin doing them twice a month. The reason we don’t do weekly roundups as many other bloggers do is simply because of our personal, work and blogging schedule. As you’ve probably noticed, we only manage to publish about 3 original posts a week so weekly roundups would not be a good balance of original and linking posts. OK, now on with the roundup.

PF Bloggers Network Members

• Wide Open Wallet shares her reasons for eating out. $400 a month is quite a lot, but if you enjoy it and can afford it, bon appetit!
• No Debt Plan talks about his “Thing”: Keeping a Bunch of Old Magazines. We have a similar “thing”. My Wall Street Journal pile, for instance, will soon be a WSJ mountain.
• Living Almost Large asks: is spending wrong? As with eating out, it really is all about what you can afford.
  
• Master Your Card gives a guide on How to Balance your Checkbook. In this electronic age, it probably is the norm to not know how to do this. Might I also suggest our Monopoly Game Expansion #2: Personal Checking Account for a fun way to practice this important skill.
• Girls Just Wanna Have Funds offers some car buying advice (something I was planning to do as well to follow up our experience with our car loan): Put On Your Lace Gloves: Get The Car You Want At A Price You Can Afford.

Elsewhere in the Personal Finance Blogosphere

• The Simple Dollar gives us Why Many “Alternative Income” Ideas Aren’t Worth Your Time – And What You Might Do With It Instead.
• I enjoyed Money Ning’s What Motivates You to Make Money? It is important to know and not lose sight of your true motives.
• Living Well on Less explains the beneifts of Life without a microwave. We did this for a while when our 12+ year old microwave died. It was a little inconvenient sometimes, but not at all impossible.
• Saving Advice gives us Ten Money-Saving Reasons to Get Out of Bed Early.
• Taxguy instructs on Items to Bring to Your Individual Tax Preparation Appointment.

Carnival Participation

Lately I’ve been really disorganized and have consistently forgotten to submit to blog carnivals, but I did manage to remember one. We’d like to thank The Personal Financier for including my post on Switching to Paperless Statements in the Carnival of Personal Finance #170 – Famous Last Sentences Edition. This edition features many [entertaining] statements, hopefully fictitious, that have not always resulted in a good end for the money manager or investor who said it. One of my favorites is #20: “It just can’t get any lower than this…”

Head on over for more personal finance reading recommendations.

[ad#banner468x60]

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

This week’s edition was particularly challenging for me to put together, because to tell the truth, of all the submissions received only 60% made the final cut. Decisions to include and exclude were based on many factors: readability, presentation, relevance, value of information and more. So, a job well done to those who made this week’s edition.

Today’s theme is the poem “Devote Your Life to Money!” by David Kessel. I hope you find it amusing as I did.

Devote Your Life to Money!

Editor’s Picks

• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents How To Include A Baby In Your Financial Plans.
• Brunette on a Budget presents Don’t fall for rebate bait.
• Broke Grad Student presents 10 Stupid Ways College Students Waste Money.
• Master Your Card presents Mega Guide: How to Get Out (and stay out) of Credit Card Debt

Oh, money, the life-giving juice of society!
It brings us its blessings of every variety,
It softens the blows that lifetime delivers,
It favors the brave and it crowns achievers.

Saving Methods

• No Debt Plan presents Sticking Our Toes into the CD Laddering Pool.
• The Smarter Wallet presents Ways To Save on Seasonal Purchases: Time To Shop For Halloween!
• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Upromise Survey: Saving For College, Getting Tougher?

It renders us free from oppression by jerks,
From mockings, and putdowns, and scoldings, and smirks.
It lets us buy tickets and travel away
From where we’re not welcome but are forced to just stay.

Debt and Credit

• Money Blue Book presents What Is My Credit Score and How Is My FICO Calculated?
• LAL presents After Debt?
• Ask Mr. Credit Card presents Will Creating A Repayment Plan With Your Credit Card Company Hurt Your Credit Score?

From creditors’ letters and big ugly urbs,
From all that don’t matter, from stuff that disturbs,
To wide sandy beaches and azure blue waters,
Away from the smoke of ten million motors.

Careers

• The Shark Investor presents The Alternatives Of 9 To 5.
• Your Finish Rich Plan presents What To Do If You Think You Can Lose Your Job.

With money it all starts to fall into place-
No longer respect is what you have to chase.
It follows you like an afternoon shadow
Thank money, it makes you a prince from a padow.

Consumerism

• Can I Get Rich on a Salary presents Man Bites Dog — Beats Airline in Dispute Over Canceled Flight!
• Personal Finance Analyst presents Expedia Coupons & Travel Deals.

With money, all people will treat you much better,
As you are no longer society’s debtor.
Sweet smiles on you they will now bestow,
Obsequious looks in their eyes then will glow.

Economics

• The Sun’s Financial Diary presents A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words.
• The Iconoclast Investor presents Fannie, Freddie and America’s Debt.
• Mr. Tough Money Love presents Spenders Get the Gold Mine, Savers Got the Shaft.

And women forgetting your age and your weight,
Your looks and your height and your bald, shining pate,
Will wink and remark how handsome you are
For, in their minds, you are now a star.

Investing

• Sam presents Choosing a Stockbroker.
• Small Business Blog presents Real Estate Investing Startpoints: Negotiation, Legality, and Referrals.
• Green Technology Investor presents Hot Rock – Steady Progress Towards a New Source of Renewable Energy.

Oh, how pathetic society is!
A “Miss” is now where there used to be “Ms.”
For quickly they learned that you’ve got all this dough,
And then they appear from above and below.

Other

• Budgets are Sexy presents Is it bad that i haven’t donated any money in like 5 months?
• The Part-Time Life presents Financial Fitness Group.
• Geezeo presents Money Matters Key to Wedded Bliss? 5 Tips for Happily Ever After.

As long as you’re here on our green Earth,
And want to be living in freedom and mirth,
Devote your existence to dollar and pound
For cash makes the world go smoothly around.

This concludes the 16th Edition of the Finance Fiesta. Next week’s edition will be hosted by Mighty Bargain Hunter. Visit the Finance Fiesta website for submission guidelines.

Technorati tags: finance fiesta, blog carnival

Related posts:

• Hosting the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Hosting the 16th Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #8
• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals

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.

[ad#banner468x60]

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