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

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

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.

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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

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

PF Bloggers Network

• I really enjoyed Ashley’s Living Like Kings at Wide Open Wallet. Nothing like a little perspective to keep our attitudes in check.
• JB from Get Rich or Die Trying shares their child’s allowance system
• Kristy from Master Your Card warns that Card Issuers May Know You Better than You Think
• Living Almost Large gives us 7 Ways to Stay Poor
• Kevin at No Debt Plan shares a great guide on Protecting Yourself: 5 Easy Steps to a Complete Home Inventory

Elsewhere in the Personal Finance Blogosphere

• Trent at The Simple Dollar offers a great guide on Dollars and Sense When Life Hits You Hard
• Money Ning gives us 7 Reasons Why We Need to Start Budget Tracking Now
• The Digirati Life can help Reduce Your Grocery Bill With These Practical Tips
• Bruce at LR Tax Prep shares a nice story: 87 years old

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’s been a somewhat hectic and busy month what with 100+ degree weather just about everyday since the beginning of June, car trouble and my messed up sleep schedule. I know my posting has been rather irregular, and I apologize to my regular readers. Our cousins’ 3-month visit is winding to an end – she’ll be leaving on Tuesday July 7th – so we’ll be trying to spend as much time together as possible in the next few days. After that I hope to be able to get back to posting a little more regularly.

That said, the past month has gone quite well for Our Fourpence Worth. Our Money Management Monopoly Game Expansion series has met with pretty good reception in the financial blogosphere, 2 of them having been chosen as Editor’s Picks in recent blog carnivals and quite a few mentions at other blogs. This also means we’ve had to do a lot of test-playing of our expansions, which hasn’t exactly been torturous labor.

I’m also really excited to be slated to host the Festival of Frugality on August 19, 2008 and the Money Hacks Carnival on August 20, 2008. We’ve also received the honor of being included in the Personal Finance category at alltop.com.

OK, now on to our round-up for this month.

PF Bloggers

First of all, I would like to announce that the PF Bloggers network is starting a monthly group writing project wherein each member of our network will be writing about a pre-selected topic on the 15th of each month. Our first topic will be our personal/family financial history and basically what influenced or inspired us to live frugally and/or aspire to financial freedom.

• No Debt Plan gives us 2 reasons we should care about his toothpaste savings.
• Master Your Card posted some amusing things children said about credit cards.
• Future Millionaire shares her reasons for tipping generously.
• Wide Open Wallet tells us why she likes high gas prices.
• Pinching Copper contemplates whether a Costco or Sam’s Club membership is worth the money.

Elsewhere in the Personal Finance Blogosphere

• Frugal Dad asks Who is Responsible for Your Misery Index? Hint: The answer is under, over and behind your nose.
  
• The Simple Dollar posted A By-The-Numbers Look at Why Saving Is More Important Than Perfect Investment Choices. This is a relief, because I’ve been worrying that we were missing out on a lot by not having invested already.
• The Digirati Life gives us 7 Ways To Handle Unexpected Expenses and Financial Emergencies.
• While this isn’t strictly a personal finance blog, Zen Habits shares a great guide on succeeding at what you do: 9 Steps to Achieving Flow (and Happiness) in Your Work.

That’s it for today. Have a good one!

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

Anyways, here are some great posts by fellow financial bloggers from recent weeks:

PF Bloggers

• Living Almost Large gives us an amusing list of ways in which people justify purchases.
• Seb at Pinching Copper gives his opinion that the penny is worthless. Would you pick up a penny from the sidewalk?
• Kevin from No Debt Plan achieved his goal of going the entire month of May without the air conditioner. Good for you guys!
• Jonathan at Master Your Card gives us 7 Zany Ways to Stop Overspending.
• Ginger from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds gave us Things That Piss Me Off: Food stamp recipients pinched by high food prices that has stirred up a bit of controversy.
• And for a bit of fun, check out Future Millionaire’s (Start of Work Week) Money Funny – Cost of Pop Culture Icons Today about the Brady Bunch, which I am only a little embarrassed to admit was one of my favorite shows at one time.

Elesewhere in the Financial Blogosphere

• I really appreciated Get Rich Slowly’s Closing the Gap Between Dreams and Reality. It has inspired me to get proactive about my financial goals.
• Find out how No Credit Needed will save/make $20,000 by giving up his soda habit!
• Something that goes nicely in hand with my recent Vacation Preparation Checklist is a post from Gather Little By Little about Low Cost Summer Family Vacation ideas with money saving tips.
• Frugal Dad gives a nice Used Car Buying Guide for Teenagers for parents, but it has some useful tips for us grown-ups too.
• We’ve recently begun thinking about starting some investments, so I was really glad to come across The Simple Dollar’s warning about how The Methods You Use to Deal with Ordinary Life Will Fail You As an Investor.
• I was amused by Spam Sales on the Rise, Common Sense at an All-Time Low. I thought it was funny because I recently bought a can of Spam, not as a substitute for real, nutritious food (well, OK it did end up substituting for real food for a couple of meals), but for my cousin to try because they don’t have Spam in Taiwan. It was probably the first can of Spam I have ever purchased. (I grew up in Hawaii where they have something called a “Spam Musubi” which is a slice of pan-fried spam layered over a block of rice and all wrapped in seaweed. YUMMY!)

New Carnival in Town

Oh, and one last bit of news. Jonathan from Master Your Card has started a new blog carnival called the Finance Fiesta which runs weekly on Thursday starting June 5, 2008. If you have a personal finance related blog, be sure to submit your best article!

Related posts:

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

Pet Love

First of all, I can’t pass up an opportunity to congratulate a couple of members on new additions to their households:

• Kevin at No Debt Plan introduces Maggie the [Incredibly Cute] Puppy and shares their reasons for getting her. Congrats to all of you!
• Ginger from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds takes in AJ the cat and doesn’t regret the $400 she spent on his vet care despite the tough weekend she had. Good for you Ginger (and hubby)!.

Frugality and Personal Finance

• I really enjoyed Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover by Kristy at Master Your Card. It addresses some very good points on making assumptions about people and their financial status based on outward appearances.
• With summer just around the corner, Melissa, also from Master Your Card, gives us some Frugal Family Vacation Tips.
• Mom at Wide Open Wallet shares a yummy recipe for Garlic Lime Chicken.
• Seb from Pinching Copper warns us about five items you don’t want to buy at the dollar store.
• Jonathan, again from Master Your Card, offers a few tips on protecting yourself from credit card fraud.
• And last but not least, Future Millionaire reminds us of the importance of taking the time to do things right the first time around in Quality and Personal Finance.

Blog Carnival

We are excited to announce that our Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gift Suggestions made Editor’s Choice at the 151st edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance Bloggers on Surviving the Squeeze hosted at Alpha Consumer by Kimberly Palmer, senior editor of U.S. News & World Report. Be sure to check out this carnival for more interesting personal finance and frugality related articles.

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
• Early to Bed and Early to Rise Makes a Man [or Woman] Healthy, Wealthy and Wise
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #10

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

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

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was so nice that I’m not ready for it to end – and in fact it hasn’t really because I’m still eating turkey twice a day – a 22 lb. turkey between 2 people and 2 medium sized dogs means we will probably all be eating turkey till almost Christmas at which time we’ll probably get another. But I blame the turkey for the laziness I’ve been feeling since Thankdsgiving day and as the reason my roundup is 2 days late and shorter than usual.

• Master Your Card reports that UK Credit Card Owners are to get an Extra 60 Days to Pay. The banks’ intent may be dubious, but I sure wouldn’t mind having an extra 30 days to earn some interest in my savings account.
• Wide Open Wallet offers an interesting Holiday gift suggestion: Put stocks in their stocking. While not as fun, this might prove a more useful gift in the long run than a Nintendo Wii.
• Living Well on Less reminds us: Christmas presents, not status symbols. Your friends and family wouldn’t want you to go into debt buying them big, expensive gifts. Remember, it’s the thought that counts.

Related posts:

• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers
• 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
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #10

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

Here are some great articles by some of my fellow PF Bloggers from this past month:

• Seb at Pinching Copper gives us Five things you should buy used
• Jonathan at Master Your Card offers a guide on How to Pick the Right Credit Card
• JB at Get Rich or Die Trying had a very close call and learned an important lesson about House Buying.
  
• Kevin at No Debt Plan reminds us that Superfrugality Can Hurt Your Relationship. This was inspired by a great post by Patrick at Cash Money Life titled Spend $10. It’s Worth it!
• Ginger at Girls Just Wanna Have Funds shares 8 Frugal and Cost Cutting Tips for the Newly Independent

Blog Carnivals

We’ve also had quite a few articles featured in various blog carnivals, a few of them were:

• Festival of Frugality #119: The Quitting My Day Job to Blog Full Time Edition
  Article: Thinking inside the box: Some Uses for Cardboard Cartons
• Carnival of Personal Finance #145 – Baby Education Edition
  Article: The No-Budget System
• Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance
  Article: Honestly Frugal: the Ethics of Saving Money

Check out our page for the complete list of carnivals we’ve been included in.

Related posts:

• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #12
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #3
• Early to Bed and Early to Rise Makes a Man [or Woman] Healthy, Wealthy and Wise
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #10

• If you are thinking of buying a house now or in the near future, I would recommend reading up on Lies Your Realtor Tells You by Seb at Pinching Copper.
• Living Almost Large warns readers about choosing mechanics wisely in Not Trusting Mechanics.
• Mom at Wide Open Wallet tells us how a WaMu credit card offers cardholders the great benefit of checking credit scores for free.
• Jonathan from Master Your Card gives a nice, concise overview of the credit score system in Everything you wanted to know about Fico Scores.
• Cinder at The Social Marginal gives some good advice about Lending Money to Friends and Family.

Related posts:

• 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
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #10

Roundup of Notable Reads

• Counting My Pennies talks about breaking things down into per unit costs, something I myself like to do. At my first job where I made $9 an hour, I used to sit at my desk and calculate how much I made per minute, per 5 minutes, per 15 … you get the picture. I’d be putting together a report or labeling office keys (I was a “secretary/receptionist” but basically I was assistant to 4 big bosses and an over-secretary) and think to myself, “Ooh, just made 15 cents!”

  Anyways, check out Megan’s post for a tip on a way to see how much you’re paying per movie through your Netflix plan at  How much does it really cost?

• Living Well On Less tells of her laptop’s near death experience, a good reminder to frequently backup important files. And don’t drink and type!
• Mrs. Micah says Doing What You Love Won’t Make You Rich, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
• Money Ning clears up some Misunderstanding of Frugal Living.
• Almost Frugal offers A Basic Guide to Smart Shopping and warns of seller tricks.

Blog Carnivals

Thanks to the following carnival hosts for including my posts in the following recent carnivals.

• Money Ning hosted the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights No. 5: A Little Definition Edition. If you’ve been wondering what “pecuniary” means, this is your chance to find out. And my post The Library Card: Your Other “Rewards Credit Card” was selected as Editor’s Pick – double thanks!
• Greener Pastures hosted The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights No. 6: Are You Cashing in on Going Green? which included my post Language Lesson ~ Frugality is a Virtue (if you’ve been dying to know the origins of the word “frugal,” check it out!).

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

Welcome to the 1st Edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights!

I am thrilled to have received such a response from the personal finance blogging community for this first edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights. Thank you to each of the 68 participants for your submissions; it has been a pleasure to read and include each of your articles.

A little about the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights

For those of you who are just hearing about this new carnival, the purpose of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights is to showcase content of lasting value from the personal finance and frugality blogosphere. There is no restriction as to the age of the posts submitted so bloggers are free to submit their best and favorites from any part of their archives.

As the priority is lasting value, you will not find items with an “expiration date.” This means, no temporary promotions for businesses, shopping deals or credit card offers. Even if you were to happen upon this carnival 6 months from now, the content would all still be relevant.

More information: About • Schedule • Hosting • Submissions

Giveaway Winners

For Article Submissions	For Hosting Applications
David from MoneyNing	Momma from Momma’s Blog

Pecuniary Art by Madoline Hatter

In our past year of financial blogging, my sister Madoline Hatter, our resident graphic designer and artist, has produced not a few financially-themed pieces for this blog and our CafePress shop. As we have just concluded 2 giveaways of piggy bank art magnets featuring Madoline’s work to kick-off the launch of this new carnival, I have decided to theme this first edition around more of her pecuniary art.

Shameless plug: All of the images you see below are available on numerous types of products at our shop. They make great gifts for those with an interest in finance or frugality, and most are available with and without captions. Click on an image to see more.

Now, without any further ado, allow me to present the first ever Carnival of Pecuniary Delights: The Madoline Hatter Pecuniary Art Edition.

Editor’s Picks

• FIRE Finance from FIRE Finance presents Early Retirement Case Study – Sandy Aldridge and Dale Lugenbehl.
• Kelly from Almost Frugal presents The ABCs of frugality.
• Frugal Dad from Frugal Dad presents Is Frugality The Anti-Stimulus Plan?.
• Linsey Knerl from Wise Bread presents Beware of pretty things: 4 reasons I’m keeping my old ugly stuff.

Feast On Your Savings

Frugality

• Miss Thrifty from Miss Thrifty presents Make Do And Mend: Vogue for the Credit Crunch Bunch.
• Abigail from I Pick Up Pennies presents Are Americans really learning?.
• Lulugal from How I Save Money presents Frugal Frauds Revealed.
• Mike from Four Pillars presents Changing your mind.

Frugal Home and Garden

• Momma from Momma’s Blog presents 9 No Spend Weekend Ideas.
• David from Personal Finance Blog by MoneyNing presents My Virgin DIY Haircut Experience.
• Kate Kashman from The Paycheck Chronicles presents Seven Reasons Why Clutter is Costing Me Money.
• Heather Levin from The Greenest Dollar presents How To Save Money On Laundry Day.
• Leslie from Spilling Buckets presents It’s that time of year again: Gardening Season.

Frugal Kitchen

• Green Panda from Green Panda Treehouse presents Brownbag Your Lunch and Save Money.
• Jenn from Frugal Upstate presents The Making of a Lunch for Princess-Lunchbox Philosophy and Execution.
• Jim L. from The Switch to Riches presents Saving Even MORE on Groceries.
• Smarty from Growing Money presents How I Cut Down On Food Expenses.

Incontinent spending?

Saving on Spending

• Kimberly Palmer from Alpha Consumer presents My Experiment: Asking for a Better Deal.
• RC from Think Your Way To Wealth presents Negotiating a Deal and Tips on Becoming a Better Negotiator.
• Christina from Northern Cheapskate presents Don’t Let Coupons Clip Into Your Free Time.
• J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents 3 Tips to Putting BLING on That Finger of Hers.
• Laura from No More Spending presents Cold Turkey on Magazines and Confessions.

Money Management

• Jim from Bargaineering presents Your Financial Network Map.
• PT Money from Prime Time Money presents Save More Money: Automate and Separate Your Savings.
• JT Locke from The Frugal Housewife presents How Much Is Too Much?.
• Cindy Morus, The Money Mender from Mend Your Money presents How to Have More Fun With Your Tax Refund in 2009.
• Karen from Living Well on Less presents Time for new tires — or why I’m glad we have an emergency fund.
• Kay Bell from Don’t Mess With Taxes presents When renting is the right choice.
• Money Progress from Money Progress presents How to Save Money and Feel Good About It.

A penny is the first part of a million.

Personal Finance

• Megan from Counting My Pennies presents Support Your Non-Profits.
• BSimple from Simplified Financial Lifestyle presents Financial Planning is EASY as Vacation Planning.
• Jason from My Money Minute presents What We Learn From Tragedy.
• Fred from Very Personal Finance presents Personal Finance Is Personal – Very Personal.
• Patrick from Cash Money Life presents Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.
• Dave from Do You Dave Ramsey? presents Do You Dave Ramsey?

Green Living

• Prune Danish from Frugal Luxury presents More Beauty Products You Could Probably Do Without.
• Alunachic from The Frugal Musician presents The Frugal Musician Makes a Cardboard Mailer.

Debt and Credit

• Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Get Rid Of Your Debt With These Debt Defying Strategies.
• Jeremy M. Simon from Taking Charge presents Phone line makes me popular with debt collectors.
• Greg Keene from Managing Money God’s Way presents Can you cosign this loan for me?.
• Trevor Shipp from Financial Nut presents You’ll Always Have a Car Payment.
• CPF from Christian Debt Help presents Negotiate with credit card companies and Win!
• Baker from Man Vs. Debt presents Declaring War: Cancelling Your Credit Cards.
• Marlon from Penny Scraper presents A fast way to improve the credit score of a family member.

Shining Credit vs. Infernal Credit

Taxes and Economic Stimulus

• Madison from My Dollar Plan presents $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.
• FFB from Free From Broke presents Paying Back The Economic Stimulus Payment – Lots of Tax Confusion!
• Miranda from Yielding Wealth presents Tax Time: Identity Thieves on the Prowl.
• Bruce from Taxguy presents A Little Straight Talk.
• Mr. ToughMoneyLove from Tough Money Love presents Consider this Likely Future Tax Benefit of Early Mortgage Payoff.

Economy

• Rocketc from Rocket Finance presents Financial Fairytale.
• Lisa Spinelli from Greener Pastures presents Is the Time Ripe for the Next Generation of Outliers?
• HIB from Happiness Is Better presents The TED Spread and What It Means to You .
• LAL from Living Almost Large presents Do I get paid too much?

Investing

• Zach Scheidt from Zach Stocks presents Double Your Investment Returns (Too Good to be True?).
• Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents 7 Things To Know About a Roth IRA For 2009.
• Clare Kierans from Money Energy presents Why You Should First Invest in Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPs).
• Mike from Richer by the Day presents Forever Stamps, A Losing Investment.
• MFD from My Findependence Day presents How Important are the CESG Grants to an RESP?.
• Sun from The Sun’s Financial Diary presents Are Vanguard Mutual Funds Getting Expensive? .
• Mr. GoTo from Go To Retirement presents Why I like I-Bonds in My Retirement Portfolio.

Career and Income

• WC from Wisebread presents On Salaries: Knowing What Your Coworkers Make.
• Viviana from The Lean Times presents When the work dries up.
• Peter from Bible Money Matters presents To Succeed Diversify And Create Multiple Streams Of Income.
• The David from Pimp Your Finances presents 20 Questions with J.D. Roth, author of Get Rich Slowly.
• The Smarter Wallet from The Smarter Wallet presents Job Hunting Tips: How To Deal With Losing Your Job.

Practice Maintains Perfect

Miscellany

• Kyle from Suburban Dollar presents Quit Paying for What You Can Get for Free (Open Source software).
• Ishan from Save Few Bucks presents Does it really makes sense to buy a Hybrid Car?.
• Papa Boomer from Consumer Boomer presents Not All Credit Cards Companies are the Same.
  Note: While I usually prefer “positive” stories, I thought this psot could serve as a consumer review of a bank on which I myself have less than stellar opinions through personal experience.

Enchanted Pumpkin Fairy Ship

* * *

This concludes the First Edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights. Next week’s edition will be hosted by Wise Bread, so be sure to get your submissions in by Wednesday April 8th, 6:00 PM PST.

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
• Pecuniary Links ~ August 2009 #1

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

The topic for this month’s PF Bloggers Group Writing Project is our Favorite Christmas Memories. My favorite memory is our first Christmas in our own house, which was 2006. We bought our house in November 2005, but we had to travel out of the country to attend a cousin’s wedding – actually we were bridesmaids for the wedding – so our first Christmas in our house was 2006.

On Black Friday 2006, we went to Walmart for some shopping, and because we take our dogs everywhere with us and they were in the car, Madoline and I took turns going in to shop. Madoline went second, and when she came out, she had an 8′ Douglas Fir in a shopping cart. Thus began our Christmas festivities. We moved the dogs to the front seat, put the backseat down and shoved the tree into the car and it fit just perfectly with the tip of the tree at the dashboard. We drove the 50-minute trip home with Madoline and the 2 dogs in the front passenger seat (one sitting on the floor and one in her lap), the tree at my elbow and the whole car smelling like Christmas.

Wrestling the tree out of the car, sawing off a bit of the bottom and putting it in the tree stand was a bit of an ordeal, but we finally got it standing almost completely straight in our music room (a dining room for most people). This was our dogs’ first Christmas (they would turn 1 on January 5) and while they had no idea what Christmas was, they could tell it was exciting and were all over the place as we got out the ornaments and decorated the tree.

Because this was their first Christmas, we made them Christmas clothes and dressed them up for pictures. After the hours we put into making the clothes, we had to make sure we got lots of good pictures because they would grow out of them in a matter of weeks. Here are some of our favorites.

 

Since this was our first official Christmas with the 2 of us and our new family, we decided to allow ourselves a budget of $100 to shop for each other. In previous years, since living on our own, we either skipped presents or had small budgets of $20 each. This year we went all out. We took a couple of shopping trips to the mall where we again took turns going into stores to buy each other presents, then had to make the other personal look the other way while we put them in and took the out of the trunk.

After we got home, we snuck our gifts to our rooms  and then rooted around the house for boxes to put them in, wrapped our presents and put them under the tree. (This is my favorite part.) We also did some shopping online and whenever the mail carrier rang the doorbell, we ran to the door to make sure the other person wouldn’t see anything. Madoline couldn’t decide what else to buy for me when she still had $40 left, so I ordered the Ticket to Ride German Map Ediition as a present for both of us.

On Christmas Eve, we each opened one present. I wanted to play the Ticket to Ride game so I chose that one as the one I wanted to open but made Madoline open it. We stayed up till 4 a.m. playing that game and whenever we play it now, I think about that Christmas. When we got up on Christmas Day, the first thing both of us wanted to do was to continue playing Ticket to Ride, which we call by it’s German name which is a lot more fun – Zug um Zug [tsoog-oom-tsoog]. So we played Zug um Zug and then each opened a present, then we’d play another game, open another present, one of which was Carcassonne (another of my favorite German strategy games), and so on.

Because our business is mostly seasonal and centered around major holidays, we decided to take a vacation after we shipped out our last Christmas orders (our Christmas rush started the beginning of November and ended around mid-December). We spent the couple of weeks after Christmas hanging out, watching movies, playing games, drinking Earl Grey tea and eating chocolate.

We had also gotten presents for our dogs – little stuffed animals toys that they could play with while we relaxed – and we got enough to give them each one for each of the 12 days of Christmas starting on Christmas Day and ending on Epiphany, their birthday. On their birthday, we baked them a carrot-oatmeal-peanut butter cake which they enjoyed and smeared all over my bed.

That was our first Christmas in our own house, and thus far, my favorite Christmas memory.

* * *

About the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project

The Personal Finance Bloggers Network is a group of personal finance and frugal living blogs. The Group Writing Project is a monthly project wherein each blog will write a post on a pre-determined topic and publish it on the same day of each month. Be sure to visit thePF Bloggers Group Writing Projectpage for the others!

Extended Group Writing Project Invitation

If you are a blogger, we would like to invite you to write your own post on this topic and submit it for listing with our entries on our Group Writing Project pages. Please visit the following page for details on how to participate in our Extended Group Writing Project

Related posts:

• Frugal Christmas: Skipping the Tree and Presents This Year
• Holiday Blog Carnivals
• Free Printable Templates: Christmas Candy Stripe and Plaid Carrier Gift Bags
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #12
• Free Printable Templates: Holiday Snowflake Gift Tags, Treat and Mini Carrier Bags

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