Carnival of Pecuniary Delights Edition #20!

Welcome one and all to the 20th Edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights.  First off, let me apologize for the lack of a Carnival last week.  It was totally planned so we could publish the 20th on the 20th!

Okay, not really. Apparently my calendar skills need work.  Unfortunately, this meant that lots of you had submissions in for both weeks and I had to choose one or the other.  So please, re-submit your un-selected article for an upcoming edition!

So here we go.  The theme for this week is “Gilmore Girls Quotes.”  Why?  Because I like the Gilmore Girls and am still sad the show got canceled.

Editor’s Choice

Rory: When’s soon?
Lorelai: When the big hand hits the “S” and the little hand hits the “OON.”

Always a tough category here, as there were some real charmers in the bunch.

• Baker from Man Vs. Debt wows us with  The Power of Resourcefulness: A Guide To Peeing In The Shower.  Come on, with a title like that, how could it not be awesome?
• FMF from Free Money Finance decides to scare us a bit with  A College Debt Nightmare.  This is a terrifying story.

Personal Finance

“Be good. Make sure you look in somebody’s sock drawers. Rich people have hilarious sock drawers.”

• Craig Ford from Money Help For Christians asks Should you Inconvenience A Friend To Save Yourself Money?.
• Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents suggests How To Save On Your Property Tax.
• J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents Tip #217 – Photo/Videograph all of your personal property!
• CPF from Christian Finances offers Christian Health Insurance Alternatives.
• Wojciech Kulicki from Fiscal Fizzle discusses How The Internet Changed Personal Finance.
• Kyle from Suburban Dollar brings a touchy issue: Hiding Debt from Your Spouse.
• Peter from Bible Money Matters reminds us to Stop Worrying About The Things You Can’t Affect, And Work On Those You Can.

Money Management

Jess: Why are you running so fast?
Rory: Well our president says to exercise and I’m very patriotic.

• Madison from My Dollar Plan presents Manage Your Budget by Tracking Your Spending.
• Four Pillars from Four Pillars proposes Spending Cash is the same as borrowing if you have debts.
• My Journey from My Journey to Millions asks  Are CDs Worth It?

Frugal Living

“Okay. I actually snagged us some caviar. They were all out of toast points, but I think we can use Doritos and achieve a very similar result.”

• RC from Think Your Way To Wealth presents 25 Smart Budget and Money Saving Tips for College Students.
• Kate Kashman from The Paycheck Chronicles explains 5 Reasons Not Saving Money is Saving Me Money.
• Aaron Delong from Improve the Quality discusses Simply Enjoying the Simple.
• Shawanda from You Have More Than You Think offers A Negative Side Effect of Frugality.
• MattB from Financial Methods ponders The Power (and Possible Drawbacks) of Coupons.

Frugal Home

Lorelai: Hey, you didn’t wake me up.
Rory: I set the clock.
Lorelai: Yes, but see, the clock stops ringing once I throw it against the wall giving me ample time to fall back to sleep. You, however, never stop yapping no matter how hard I throw you, thus insuring the wake up process.

• Kristia from FamilyBalanceSheet suggests Perform your own home energy audit to help trim your utility expenses..

Frugal Kitchen

“I’m gonna have pancakes with a side of pancakes.”

• Matt Jabs from Debt Free Adventure presents Grocery Hacks – How To Save Money on Groceries.

Personal Financial Journey

“You don’t need shoes. In my day, we walked twenty miles in the snow just to get to our shoes.”

• Mr. D from I Want to Teach Forever asks Are You a Teacherpreneur?.

Debt & Credit

Lorelai: I ate the fuzzy Certs.
Rory: Gross.
Lorelai: They tasted like keys.

• The Smarter Wallet from The Smarter Wallet suggests Credit Monitoring Services To Check Your Credit Report.
• Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life offers How To Get A Personal Loan.
• DR from DoughRoller asks Freecreditreport.com vesus myFICO.com: Do you know the difference?
• Adam Williams from Rabbit Funds asks Identity Theft – Should you or LifeLock guard against it?.

Investing

It’s just a contest, Paris. It’s not like you get a car or a lifetime supply of Rice-a-Roni.

• Investing Toolkit from Investing Toolkit ponders Why Should I Start Investing?.

Economy

Lorelai: So, let me get this straight. Uh, you and some guys who actually know what they’re doing are gonna come over and fix my house, and I can pay them back whenever I want?
Luke: That’s right.
Lorelai: ‘Cause I’m Tony Soprano?
Luke: Only scarier.

• Darwin from Darwin’s Finance looks at Top 10 College Degrees in 2009 with Massive Demand.

So there you have it and there you are.  Thanks to everyone for participating, and get your submissions in for the 21st Edition, hosted next week by The Paycheck Chronicles.

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.