Hello! In case you missed it I hosted the Finance Fiesta this week. Lots of great articles in there. I also participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance over at No Debt Plan. Make sure you head over there and check it out. And I have a guest post today up over at We Like Money.

PF Bloggers:

Living Almost Large is giving away the book “Net Worth Workout”. Leave a comment for a chance to win.

Our Fourpence Worth asks “Does money make you mean?“. Apparently it makes you indifferent, according to a study.

No Debt Plan gives us a new rule of thumb for asset allocation.

Around the Blogsphere:

My Two Dollars give an age by age list of what to teach your child about finances. Good to know.

Think and Grow Rich listed the ABC’s of personal finance. Yup, a link for every letter of the alphabet. While I was bummed I didn’t make it under “W” I was still impressed.

No Credit Needed talked about how free spirits and money nerds can work together.

Happy weekend! The past week my article, 5 easy ways to increase your savings, was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance over at Squawkfox. Also, if you missed it I had a guest post from Living Almost Large that got interesting in the comments. Make sure you head over and add your 2 cents. And double thanks to everyone who left a comment.

I have an interesting week coming up on Wide Open Wallet! I’m really looking forward to it.

Tuesday I’m posting the second to last Green Living post. It will be about how to have green baby.

On Wednesday, the PF Bloggers will be posting our second monthly Group Writing Project. We will be posting about rich people gone broke. If you want to join in please do so. Leave a track back link on this page here (or you can email me) and I will collect all the submissions and create a post with everyone’s links.

Thursday I’m hosting the Finance Fiesta. So make sure you submit an article! I can’t wait to read everyone’s submissions.

Ok, phew… on with the show.

PF Bloggers:

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds gave 4 reasons why women should take control of their finances.

Living Almost Large debates the Roth 410(k). A must read if you have this decision to make.

Our Fourpence Worth gave a huge list of free or frugal things to do in Los Angeles.

Around the Blogshpere:

Being Frugal asked which high dollar items are worth it. Lately, I’ve been realizing that you generally get what you pay for and it’s worth it to spend the extra. The hard part is knowing when you need high quality and when you don’t.

No Credit Needed talks about the things you need to get out of debt. He also gives a resource list at the end. A must read if you are climbing out of debt.

Not the Jet Set hosted the Green it! carnival. How have I not submitted to this? I didn’t know it existed. Very neat! It has 15 articles geared towards saving money and the planet.

Blunt Money gave 16 ways your iPhone can save you money.

Brip Blap gave us 5 sign that your job sucks.

Hello! I signed up on Twitter this week. You can follow me by clicking on the Twitter icon! I also participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance over at You Need a Budget. I’m looking forward to the upcoming week because my daughter is starting first grade! She is very excited about it. I’m looking forward to having one less kid in the house, but I’m sure I’ll miss her too.

Anyways… here are some good reads to get you though the weekend.

PF Bloggers:

Living Almost Large asks if not having kids makes you rich. The comments get pretty interesting so don’t miss those.

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds takes a look at what happens when you fire your Realtor. Good to know if you are selling, buying, or about to do either.

Master Your Card debunks 5 more credit card myths.

No Debt Plan is thinking about stopping his 410(k) contributions. He is also holding a $50 giveaway. So make sure you get in on that!

Around the Blogsphere

Blunt Money tells a short story about a woman with a great attitude.

Blip Blap explains why voting is the most important financial issue there is.

Mrs. Micah goes over payment allocation. You must know this if you are paying down debt.

My Two Dollars talks about saving 10% of your income.

Remodeling This Life made a quilt for a wedding gift. This is such a good idea. So frugal and I’m sure the couple will have it forever.

Another week just flew by.  There’s only one more full week of summer vacation left.  I can’t believe it.  I still have lots to do to get ready to send my baby to first grade!  wow.  Anyways, I participated in 3 carnivals this week.  On Monday the Carnival of Personal Finance included my review of My Gallons.   On Tuesday the post about my financial history was editor’s pick on the Carnival of Money Stories.  Also on Tuesday the Carnival of Frugality included my post A Trip to Costco.

PF Bloggers:

Master Your Card takes a look at the rich to see what we can all learn.  #5 is the one I have the hardest time dealing with.

Get Rich or Die Trying tells us about how they do allowance in their house.  This post inspired my recent post about allowance.

No Debt Plan advised us to document our stuff, and gives a plan to help do it.  A really good idea, and it seems easy enough.

Around the Blogshpere:

Budgets are Sexy gave us her personal favorite pieces of financial advice.  What are yours?

Frugal Dad discusses the benefits of paying off the mortgage early.  As someone who is paying extra every month to the mortgage, I couldn’t agree more.

My Two Dollars gave a list of frugal advice from his his friends.  This should keep you reading for awhile!

I participated in a few carnivals this week. On Monday, the Carnival of Personal of Finance was hosted at Budgeting Babe included my article Green Living: Bottled Water. On Thursday the Finance Fiesta was hosted at Living Almost Large and included my article Green Living: Drive Smarter. And on Friday Kids and Money was hosted at MoneyHack and included my article Christmas in July.

PF Bloggers:

In case you missed it; the PF Bloggers did our first monthly Group Writing Project. It was fun. You can see my entry right here, and it also has a link to all the others.

Master Your Card gives the low down on the difference between FDIC and NCUA. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never realized a credit union isn’t FDIC insured. But now that Kristy mentions it I have seen the signs that they are NCUA insured. I just never thought about what that meant.

Our Fourpence Worth got a letter saying their property tax went down. Unfortunately that means the value of their house went down too.

No Debt Plan dives into the depths of smoking. Smoking is something I just don’t get.

Around the Blogsphere:

Being Frugal gave some tips for surviving a struggling economy. Worth the read. I know it’s on everyone’s mind right now.

Blunt Money put up some crazy pictures of flooding here in Phoenix and talks about flood insurance. The scary part is that all that rain falls in a matter of minutes here. That isn’t days of rain, it’s one passing storm.

Budgets are Sexy put a car on a credit card. Go find out why this wasn’t a terrible idea.

Mrs. Micah challenged her readers to take a single step to improve their financial situations. She has the results up of what everyone did. Pretty interesting… what can you do?

Save and Conquer talked about the things the sun can ruin and how to prevent it. Again, something close to my heart here. Everything in the back yard that is cloth must be replaced every year. Like the grill cover, the gazebo top, the furniture. The sun is a relentless force.

The Happy Rock is having a daycare dilemma. The cost of daycare is just outrageous. I feel his pain.

Think Your Way to Wealth looks at his Medical Savings Account. I’m a fan of the MSA, but I’ve never had one so I’m always interested in how it works in real life.

Trees Full of Money gave us his secrets to getting the best price when booking travel. Hotels are way too expensive in my opinion, you have to put the time and effort into getting a good deal.

This roundup is late and short because my son woke up sick this morning. He never wants to cuddle so I sure as heck wasn’t missing my chance this morning. All he wanted to do was be held and I was happy to do it.

There were lots of great articles this week… here are a few that I was able to round up between cuddles.

Master Your Card posted one of my articles from my Green Living series about Green Credit Cards. You can enter to win David Bach’s latest book by leaving a comment!

Living Almost Large gave us some shopping tips from a pro.

No Debt Plan hosted the Finance Fiesta this week. Even though your favorite blogger (me!) forgot to submit an article, it’s still worth checking out.

Trees Full of Money wrote a great post about Geothermal Energy. You can save 70% on your home heating costs and it’s good for the environment. win win.

Hello! I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Ours was very low key. We went bowling, then cooked out on the grill. We didn’t even see fireworks, but we listened to them from our hot tub and wondered if we could see them from the front yard.

I’ve also been thinking of making a change to the blog. I am planning on stopping the Frugal Eats series and replacing it with a Green Living series. I’m getting kinda bored with the Frugal Eats series. So I think this will freshen things up a bit. Along with the Green Living series I will be doing a book give away. So make sure you check back this Tuesday for the first post and details on the give away!

Ok, now on with the show…

I participated in two carnivals… On Monday, my post The Gift of Coupons was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance over at Greener Pastures. Then on Thursday, my post Why I Like High Gas Prices was an editors pick in the Finance Fiesta over at Rocket Finance.

PF Bloggers:

Living Almost Large has a fear of cash. While I don’t have a fear of cash, I do have a great dislike for it.

Master Your Card discussed what happens to your debt after you die. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about this. A must read if you have any debt.

Our Fourpence Worth gave some tips on how to resist the urge to splurge. Resisting the urge to splurge is key to getting out of debt and building wealth.

Around the blogsphere:

Being Frugal gave some tips for keeping cool this summer. Always good things to keep in mind.

Blunt Money opened her mind to money and listed where she would spend ever increasing amounts of money. This is an exercise I would like to do… as soon as I have time to, you know… think.

Frugal Dad asks “Who is responsible for your Misery Index.” The news, that’s who!

Mrs. Micah discusses what happens to your (or your spouses) debt when you get married. A must read if you are getting married or were recently married, to someone who has debt.

My Two Dollars discovers the benefits of rice. This post actually made me want to eat more rice. We totally should, I don’t know why we don’t. It’s easy, cheap, and I like it. I should make a point to make it more often.

No Credit Needed sets up his plan for buying a house. It’s a great plan and should be followed by everyone who is planning on buying.

Welcome to this week’s roundup. It was the easiest roundup I’ve done in a while. The internet was full of great articles. I hope you enjoy the ones I’ve picked out for you. But before we get started I need to let you know that my article Why Wait? was chosen as editor’s pick on the Finance Fiesta over at Pinching Copper. Thanks Seb!

Ok, here we go…

PF Bloggers:

J.B. over at Get Rich or Die Trying found new motivation to pay down his debt. He has a baby on the way!! Yay! Head over to his site and say congrats!

Master Your Card had a really cute post about what 5th graders said about credit cards. It made me laugh. They also had a great post about how to handle credit card debt during a divorce. I wish no one ever had to think about this for two reasons (you hopefully don’t have credit card debt, or a divorce) but unfortunately this article could help a lot of people.

Our Fourpence Worth gave us some tips on how to resist the urge to splurge.

Around the Blogsphere:

My Two Dollars listed a whole bunch of ways to watch TV for free. You do need the internet for majority of them, but if you’re reading this, you already have that. So if your thinking about canceling your cable this is a must read.

Remodeling This Life demonstrated how to make a pretty message board. I’m totally doing this!

Think Your Way to Wealth gave great explanations about Roth IRAs. If you don’t “get it” when it comes to this stuff it’s a great place to start.

Frugal Dad talked about the physical side effects of debt. All stress causes some physical side effects, and debt is no different. Unfortunately, you don’t think about the possible body aches when deciding to finance something.

Happy Saturday.  It’s the first day of summer!  Which also means it’s the longest day of the year.  I’m actually looking forward to some shorter days since my son wakes at dawn, which means today he was up at about 4:50.  (I just went to check to see what the official dawn was today, and it was 4:49.  See… I’m not lying)

Anyways, here are some articles that caught my eye this week.  I hope you have a great weekend!

PF Bloggers:

Living Almost Large reminded us how important it is to have a will. Everyone knows how important it is, and yet we all keep putting it off. I know I do anyways.

Master Your Card discussed what it takes to have perfect credit. While I suppose that would be a great thing to have, once you have it you won’t be able to use it. If you do then you won’t have perfect credit anymore. I mean, even an inquiry can ruin it. That’s the trouble with anything being perfect.

No Debt Plan gave us the 4th step of, well… the no debt plan. The fourth step is to pay off all consumer debt. Ahh… So paying off debt is part of the no debt plan, I think I see where he is going with this.

Our Fourpence Worth held the 3rd edition of the Finance Fiesta. Time totally got away from me this week and I forgot to submit an article. oops. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check it out.

From Around the Blogsphere:

Being Frugal talked about financial advice she should have listened to. I’m sure we can all look back and see road signs we missed. That’s just life.

Mrs. Micah posted about their cushion fund. A cushion fund is totally necessary when you have an irregular income.

Remodeling This Life reminded us to declutter. I found the beauty of decluttering about two years ago. You will be shocked how much space you have once you give your space a good decluttering.

Not the Jet Set advised us there is a class action law suit against TransUnion.  I guess they sold our info.  Nice.  Well, if you sign up you can get some free credit monitoring or a shot a some cash.  I took the promise of cash, Not the Jet Set took the credit monitoring.  I figure the possibility at some cash is better than what I have now.

This was a fantastic week for Wide Open Wallet! It was the best week ever as far as traffic is concerned. Last weekend my post 10 tips to get your house sold made the rounds on Stumble Upon and brought the most traffic this blog has ever received. On Monday my post Saying no to your kids was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance. On Tuesday that same post was featured on MSN money. Which was awesome! Besides the extra traffic, it was just great to be recognized by such a major site. Then on Thursday I got to host the Finance Fiesta. Which was actually a lot of fun. I really enjoyed reading all the submissions.

Ok, now that I’m done bragging about how awesome this site is… let’s move on to how amazing some of my friends are.

PF Bloggers:

Our Fourpence Worth listed some great summer projects.

Master Your Card asks “Are your friends putting you in debt?” It can be such a tough situation when your friends have more money than you.

Saving Savy gave her thoughts on my financial situation. Looks like unless I make some changes I probably won’t ever be a millionaire. She figured out it will take me 43 years at the rate I’m currently going. I’ll be 74 and my husband will be 85. Looks like I better step it up if I ever want to see 7 figures.

Living Almost Large gives her opinion on Yahoo’s list of the new necessities. I think the word necessity can be taken different ways. While my life my not depend on my cell phone, my life style certainly does.

Around the Blogsphere:

Frugal Dad discusses the Spousal IRA. This was an issue I had to deal with in 2007 since it was the first year I didn’t have any earned income since I was about 17.

Being Frugal gave us 7 surprising ways to save money. She says specifically “It’s hard to feel deprived if you are practicing gratitude!” Ain’t it the truth.

No Credit Needed asked for feedback about your emergency fund. Go have your say.

Mrs. Micah talks about how her mom organizes her charitable donations. If you’ve ever donated money you know that the next day your mailbox is stuffed with requests from every charity this side of the equator. You need to have a system if your going to give regularly.

Squawkfox has a 4 part series on job hunting. Here is the last part, but it has links to the other 3. Check it out!

Pic by: Nikki McLeod