Carnival of Pecuniary Delights #10 – Summer Storm Edition

Welcome to the 10th Editon of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights!  I was a little worried about getting this up in time, as our power went out and I was type-type-typing away on my battery powered laptop.  Of course, that meant no internet access.  Thankfully, I already had all the posts picked out and lined up.  Unfortunately, that means no fancy pictures to go along with my theme.  In fact, it led to a theme change.  That’s right, this is now the Summer Storm Edition, complete with fun things to do when there is a storm and the power is out.

To start, we have the Editor’s Choice Category.  This Editor’s Choice of summer storm activities is cuddling.  That’s right, cuddling.  Maybe with someone special, maybe with a furry friend, maybe just with a stuffed animal or a favorite blanket.  Sometimes it’s nice to just enjoy the peace and listen to the storms outside.  In terms of submissions, this was a tough one, but here are the highlights.

• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Dumbest Online Business Ideas That Made Millions… Or Not! Some of these online business ideas made me laugh and laugh.  And they make money!  Amazing.
• Passive Family Income brings us 3 Keys to Creating Passive Income.    I think we all love the idea of passive income, and here are some important keys to get you started.  It’s not easy, but I think we all agree it’s a worthwhile task.
• Kelly from Almost Frugal writes on Drastic Frugality: When There’s More Month than Money.  It’s a scary thought, but it happens to the best of us.  Rather than delve into your savings to make ends meet, try following Kelly’s suggestions.
• Jason from Improve the Quality presents If I had known then what I know now… This is always important information, but I think it’s especially timely right now, with all the recent graduates.  I definitely wish I had started saving earlier.

Next up, we have Personal Finance.  Conveniently, when the power is out during a storm, it’s hard to spend money.  Another easy (and frugal) thing I like to do during a summer storm is play games (by candlelight if necessary).  Board games don’t need a whole lot of light, and card games are definitely easy enough by candlelight.  It’s more fun if you have someone to play with, but you can always play a game or two of solitaire.

• Jeff from Good Financial Cents asks How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
• Jim from Bargaineering.com suggests you Check Your Specialty Reports.
• Peter from Bible Money Matters recommends A Way To Control Spending: The Envelope System.
• Brad Chaffee from Enemy of Debt points out that Personal Responsibility Starts With You.
• Jeff Nickles from My Super-Charged Life offers up 50 Bad Money Habits That Will Leave You Eating ALPO For Dinner. I recommend against ALPO for dinner. In case you were wondering

One of my favorite categories is Personal Finance Journeys.  I love reading about how people have gotten to where they are in their financial lives.  It’s always fun to learn from others and daydream about where you want to end up.  And that’s my next summer storm activity.  Daydream.  It can be combined with the cuddling, but I wouldn’t recommend combining it with game playing.  You might get distracted and lose!

• The Happy Rock presents A New Stage In My Financial Journey.

Next we have Investing.  Investing is scary for some people.  Storms are also scary for some people, and I’m sure not everyone enjoys storms as much as I do.  So to get your mind off of the summer storms, one fun activity is to have a dance party.  This can be especially fun for kids and was a tactic I used when babysitting as a teenager.  But what, you mean you have no music because the power is out?  Make your own music!  Bang on pots and pans for drums, sing along.  Maybe you have a piano or some musical instruments.  Make musical instruments from bottles filled with water.  So many options, and all great ways to get your mind off your fear.

• My good buddy J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents Time to start buying stocks again!.
• The Smarter Wallet from The Smarter Wallet discusses Investing In Stocks and Bonds: Some Investment Basics.

You know what else is scary?  The Economy.  Maybe you’re not scared of storms, but you really like to be scared.  Use the summer storm and the power outage to tell scary stories!  I don’t know about you, but I have fond memories of telling stories around a dark room, using a flashlight shining on my face to create all sorts of ridiculous looks.  This is something kids can definitely get into.

• The Weakonomist from Weakonomics suggests Top 10 Ways the Government Can Help Our Economy. I’m interested to see the debates that follow this one!
• Wojciech Kulicki from Fiscal Fizzle discusses Modeling Government After Business.

And then there’s Money Management.  I don’t know about you, but I always have stacks of reading to get through.  Books, professional journals, magazines, all sorts of things I need to manage.  When the power goes out and I can’t be distracted by the internet, it’s a great time to catch up on my reading.  Again, the dark is an issue, but I’m a huge fan of candles, and when all else fails, I also have a few battery powered lanterns from my camping days.

• FMF from Free Money Finance discusses Achieving Family Harmony in Estate Planning Part 2: Make Sure Your Plan Fits Your Unique Needs. Be sure to check out the rest of this series!
• Matt B from Financial Methods puts some thought into Passive Income Streams.

Finally, there’s your favorite and mine, Frugality.  Is your summer storm the sort of storm where the rain is falling but the sun is out and the skies are clear?  Those are my favorite sorts of storms.  And my favorite activity?  Being out in the rain, of course.  I love to go running in the rain, but going outside and splashing and laughing with your friends or family is also a lot of fun.

• Charlie from PayLessForFood.com is also frustrated by How Your Local Friendly Supermarket Profits From Your Inconvenience.
• JT Locke from The Frugal Housewife explains how you can Save Time and Money by Crockpot Cooking.
• MoneyEnergy asks “No-Spend Days:” How Many Can You Fit In In A Month?

There were a lot of great submissions this week and I just wasn’t able to get everyone in.  Thanks to everyone who submitted and don’t forget to get your entries in for next week!   Next week’s edition is hosted by My Journey to Millions.  Go!  Submit!

Megan Smith

Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:

In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance.  It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information.  It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck.  While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.

While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.

Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.

So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan.  I needed to budget.  I needed to know what I was spending my money on.  I needed to prepare for the future.

I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way.  I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.