Whoo Hoo For Me! I got a mention at On Line MBA blog for this blog!
Check out the others here.
Congrats to all who made the list!
Showing posts with label personal finance blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal finance blogs. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Welcome to the MSN Readers!
My thanks to Karen Datko over at MSN money for the mention of my blog and my post on the late George Carlin and welcome to all the MSN readers who have dropped on by. Of course, my thanks to all my current readers as well.
This was the shot in the arm my depressive mood needed this week. :)
This was the shot in the arm my depressive mood needed this week. :)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
We Can't Do This Alone
No we can't and that is one reason why we blog about this. What is this, this is debt reduction, increasing savings, or bouncing back from bankruptcy.
It's hard to do this. It's easy to stray back to bad or old habits. It's hard to do this alone, it's hard (and in some cases) even harder to do this when your partner is not on the same page as you.
Why do we blog about personal finance? We blog because we need someone (or many someones) to hear us, help us, commiserate with us, congratulate us on our successes. We blog because many of us are so afraid to discuss this with family and friends. I know I blog because I really don't have anyone to discuss my bankruptcy with. I blog because I need to hold myself responsible for my new actions and to help me avoid my past mistakes. I currently don't have anyone in my life that I am 100% comfortable discussing my finances with. That is OK, as we all know, finances are a taboo subject and not many people are comfortable having frank open discussions about personal finance, discussing bankruptcy really makes folks uncomfortable. I can tell you that from personal experience.
I did spend part of today catching up on a bunch of blogs. I can see the frustration in some folks blogs when only one in the relationship is committed to the debt reduction plan. You can read the tiredness and frustration they must have being the one who is trying to shoulder the debt reduction load and you can sense the bitterness/apathy/ emotional distance of the other partner.
I also want to reach through the Internet and give some of these bloggers a good shake. I read one blog where the blogger wants to reduce a $5,000 debt. Yet all I read about in the blog is their E-bay sales stink (they stink for many of us), and this blogger just HAD to go out four times in the past two weeks for drinks, dinner, take out,.. just HAD too. You get the picture. In just over one year of blogging, they have paid off $3,000 of their debt. By my calculations and reading their archives, if they cut their supposed mandatory social obligations in half, they would be debt free by now. Debt free, but I guess eating take out with the roommates three times a week is more important than paying off the debt. I also read a blog where the blogger paid off his credit card debt but pretty much exists on frozen burritos and ramen noodles because it's cheap (and loaded with sodium), gives in to food cravings for things like McDonalds or KFC, and then wonders why he has health issues and complains how much a three piece chicken meal costs. Two ends of the spectrum. What ever happened to moderation? There are some blogs that have not been updated in weeks, or months, and some blogs that have totally gone away. I wonder about some of those folks, especially the ones who were obviously in a bad place, we want to try and be there for them and they have gone to blog heaven so to speak. They have taken themselves off line to deal with their issues.
Yes, it is not my place to dictate how and when folks pay off their debt, but to whine on about having no money, no e-bay sales and all these mandatory social obligations is tiring to read. But it is inspiring and enlightening to read about folks struggling with the real issues we all face, funding emergency funds, adjusting budgets to take into account the every growing price increases we have no control over (gas, food, utilities). I like hearing that folks still get promotions, are able to meet savings goals, and yes there are folks who do really pay down their debt without surviving on sodium loaded junk food.
Pretty much most of us blog for the additional support we get from the blogsphere, we like being a part of the Snowflake Revolution, Blogher, Frugal Hackers, you name it. We like hearing what worked and did not work from Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, the Broke Because You Want to Be Guy, we like the links we find in carnivals, we like the spreadsheets people come up with, we like the referrals to all sorts of things that make our lives easier and hopefully bring us back some much needed cash. We like the unexpected comments of support we get when we write those gut wrenching posts because we feel like our world is falling apart.
For me, finding Ladies in the Red came at a time when I was just beside myself with the Bankruptcy filing. I was having hot flashes, eating tons of food, obsessing over everything and spent far too much time in bed with the covers pulled over my head bitching to myself about getting grey hair and zits at the same time. Katie's honesty about her bankruptcy and money issues made me laugh at me-someone else had my exact same problems and they managed to survive. Katie even got a featured magazine article about her site and her bankruptcy. I still find her site and her forum inspiring.
And yes, we can't do this alone. Keep writing, blogging and supporting each other. We can't do this alone, but we can do this with help and support.
It's hard to do this. It's easy to stray back to bad or old habits. It's hard to do this alone, it's hard (and in some cases) even harder to do this when your partner is not on the same page as you.
Why do we blog about personal finance? We blog because we need someone (or many someones) to hear us, help us, commiserate with us, congratulate us on our successes. We blog because many of us are so afraid to discuss this with family and friends. I know I blog because I really don't have anyone to discuss my bankruptcy with. I blog because I need to hold myself responsible for my new actions and to help me avoid my past mistakes. I currently don't have anyone in my life that I am 100% comfortable discussing my finances with. That is OK, as we all know, finances are a taboo subject and not many people are comfortable having frank open discussions about personal finance, discussing bankruptcy really makes folks uncomfortable. I can tell you that from personal experience.
I did spend part of today catching up on a bunch of blogs. I can see the frustration in some folks blogs when only one in the relationship is committed to the debt reduction plan. You can read the tiredness and frustration they must have being the one who is trying to shoulder the debt reduction load and you can sense the bitterness/apathy/ emotional distance of the other partner.
I also want to reach through the Internet and give some of these bloggers a good shake. I read one blog where the blogger wants to reduce a $5,000 debt. Yet all I read about in the blog is their E-bay sales stink (they stink for many of us), and this blogger just HAD to go out four times in the past two weeks for drinks, dinner, take out,.. just HAD too. You get the picture. In just over one year of blogging, they have paid off $3,000 of their debt. By my calculations and reading their archives, if they cut their supposed mandatory social obligations in half, they would be debt free by now. Debt free, but I guess eating take out with the roommates three times a week is more important than paying off the debt. I also read a blog where the blogger paid off his credit card debt but pretty much exists on frozen burritos and ramen noodles because it's cheap (and loaded with sodium), gives in to food cravings for things like McDonalds or KFC, and then wonders why he has health issues and complains how much a three piece chicken meal costs. Two ends of the spectrum. What ever happened to moderation? There are some blogs that have not been updated in weeks, or months, and some blogs that have totally gone away. I wonder about some of those folks, especially the ones who were obviously in a bad place, we want to try and be there for them and they have gone to blog heaven so to speak. They have taken themselves off line to deal with their issues.
Yes, it is not my place to dictate how and when folks pay off their debt, but to whine on about having no money, no e-bay sales and all these mandatory social obligations is tiring to read. But it is inspiring and enlightening to read about folks struggling with the real issues we all face, funding emergency funds, adjusting budgets to take into account the every growing price increases we have no control over (gas, food, utilities). I like hearing that folks still get promotions, are able to meet savings goals, and yes there are folks who do really pay down their debt without surviving on sodium loaded junk food.
Pretty much most of us blog for the additional support we get from the blogsphere, we like being a part of the Snowflake Revolution, Blogher, Frugal Hackers, you name it. We like hearing what worked and did not work from Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, the Broke Because You Want to Be Guy, we like the links we find in carnivals, we like the spreadsheets people come up with, we like the referrals to all sorts of things that make our lives easier and hopefully bring us back some much needed cash. We like the unexpected comments of support we get when we write those gut wrenching posts because we feel like our world is falling apart.
For me, finding Ladies in the Red came at a time when I was just beside myself with the Bankruptcy filing. I was having hot flashes, eating tons of food, obsessing over everything and spent far too much time in bed with the covers pulled over my head bitching to myself about getting grey hair and zits at the same time. Katie's honesty about her bankruptcy and money issues made me laugh at me-someone else had my exact same problems and they managed to survive. Katie even got a featured magazine article about her site and her bankruptcy. I still find her site and her forum inspiring.
And yes, we can't do this alone. Keep writing, blogging and supporting each other. We can't do this alone, but we can do this with help and support.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Eye Twitch and What It Has Done To Me.
I've been a bit absent from blogging dealing with some family issues. The issues are probably no more or no less than what anybody else faces, but since they are my issues, they are my big deal. And when I get family stress I do a couple things. Over shop for food, cook way too much food, eat too much food and get an eye twitch. I'm resisting most of the former, but do have the eye twitch I'll get back into the swing of things later this week. I'm sooo far behind on updating my blog roll and links. Not having reliable internet access at home is one issue, but I could do a lot more to get on track and time to do it.
Just a couple things. My thanks to Oh My Aching Debts for the kind words in her blog about me. One thing we do in the blog sphere is to be here for each other! But THANK YOU anyway.
I also got tagged by Saving Diva and have to follow up and that as well, I'm just behind the curve right now.
For March I'm planning a small series of posts about me and about my debt and what makes my eye twitch. I looked into my achieves and I have to laugh at the frazzled posts I wrote explaining me and my history. Now that I'm a little more sane, I will try to write in some sort of coherent manner, my story. And explain about the eye twitch :)
Just a couple things. My thanks to Oh My Aching Debts for the kind words in her blog about me. One thing we do in the blog sphere is to be here for each other! But THANK YOU anyway.
I also got tagged by Saving Diva and have to follow up and that as well, I'm just behind the curve right now.
For March I'm planning a small series of posts about me and about my debt and what makes my eye twitch. I looked into my achieves and I have to laugh at the frazzled posts I wrote explaining me and my history. Now that I'm a little more sane, I will try to write in some sort of coherent manner, my story. And explain about the eye twitch :)
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Givng Away The Cash and getting married!
Moneyning is giving way a wad of cash in honor of getting married this weekend.
It is a personal finance blog that talks about managing your money to make the best of what you have. I just stumbled upon it from the WPF Network, but like the fact that it speaks to the average PF blogger because it instead of just being full of unreasonable tips that only people who make over $75K a year can really do.
It's laid out well, easy to read, has some neat links to things like mortgage calcualtors, credit cards, and they periodically run contests! Check it out and join the contest. I'll be adding it to my blog roll on the next update.
It is a personal finance blog that talks about managing your money to make the best of what you have. I just stumbled upon it from the WPF Network, but like the fact that it speaks to the average PF blogger because it instead of just being full of unreasonable tips that only people who make over $75K a year can really do.
It's laid out well, easy to read, has some neat links to things like mortgage calcualtors, credit cards, and they periodically run contests! Check it out and join the contest. I'll be adding it to my blog roll on the next update.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Finding Blogs and Websites That Are In Line With My Goals
On the Bright Side of Debt, Ms. Bright has a post (click here for it) where she discusses looking for blogs to read that resonate with her goals at this time in her life. There are a lot of blogs out there on Personal Finance and Frugal Living. I'm not finding a lot of blogs for women (or men) of my age in my position. Katie at Ladies in the Red is one of the few that I've found and she is based in the United Kingdom.
I see lots of blogs of twentysomethings, thirtysomethings, families, Christian based blogs, etc, but I have yet to find any that are written by anyone with a situation similar to mine (Ladies in the Red aside). The Debt forums I've found all deal with the pre-Bankruptcy process and folks struggling with Chapter 13's now having to do Chapter 7's.
Don't get me wrong, I love reading the blogs I've put on my blog roll and others that are in my Google reader. I'm amazed at what some of these folks are doing at such a young age. I wish I had access to this material 20 years ago, perhaps I would not be in the place I am now.
I'm always looking for good sites and blogs to link to. Contact me here or by e-mail if you want to do a link exchange.
I see lots of blogs of twentysomethings, thirtysomethings, families, Christian based blogs, etc, but I have yet to find any that are written by anyone with a situation similar to mine (Ladies in the Red aside). The Debt forums I've found all deal with the pre-Bankruptcy process and folks struggling with Chapter 13's now having to do Chapter 7's.
Don't get me wrong, I love reading the blogs I've put on my blog roll and others that are in my Google reader. I'm amazed at what some of these folks are doing at such a young age. I wish I had access to this material 20 years ago, perhaps I would not be in the place I am now.
I'm always looking for good sites and blogs to link to. Contact me here or by e-mail if you want to do a link exchange.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Enjoying Your Money
Sort of a part two to Friday's blog post. I spent part of the weekend talking to friends about saving money and enjoying money. Sometimes the two seem to be worlds apart. My guess from reading these blogs is most folks are hard workers and are dedicated to improving their quality of life. Those of us who do PF blogs are, almost without exception, trying to save money to get out of debt, save for a home, save for a better life. AND almost without exception, very few PF bloggers do post pictures, or describe with happiness and joy a purchase they made when they hit a particular milestone in savings.
I commend everyone who is diligently saving money and striving for a goal, but the more I think about it, the more I feel it is important to:
1) give yourself a treat for reaching a certain milestone-buy that TV, get that new dress, enjoy the fact you saved and earned this particular item if this is what you were saving for. If you reach another money milestone, take yourself out for a Starbucks (if you have given up the $4 latte habit), buy lunch from your favorite deli instead of brown bagging it. For many of us, this is one reason we have new budgets and saving goals. It does not mean to go out and spend all the available credit on the huge 52 plasma flat screen.
and
2) It's OK to NOT meet a milestone in a particular month for what ever reason, don't kick yourself when you are down. For what ever reason, we sometimes don't reach our goals, we just have to objectively look at why we did not and see if we can correct that for the next month. Could be an extenuating circumstance, could be we just could not stick to our budget, could be we need to re-evaluate our budget, it could be any number of things.
I guess we just need to appreciate what we have and pat ourselves on the back when we reach our goals. And continue to strive for better personal finance habits!
I commend everyone who is diligently saving money and striving for a goal, but the more I think about it, the more I feel it is important to:
1) give yourself a treat for reaching a certain milestone-buy that TV, get that new dress, enjoy the fact you saved and earned this particular item if this is what you were saving for. If you reach another money milestone, take yourself out for a Starbucks (if you have given up the $4 latte habit), buy lunch from your favorite deli instead of brown bagging it. For many of us, this is one reason we have new budgets and saving goals. It does not mean to go out and spend all the available credit on the huge 52 plasma flat screen.
and
2) It's OK to NOT meet a milestone in a particular month for what ever reason, don't kick yourself when you are down. For what ever reason, we sometimes don't reach our goals, we just have to objectively look at why we did not and see if we can correct that for the next month. Could be an extenuating circumstance, could be we just could not stick to our budget, could be we need to re-evaluate our budget, it could be any number of things.
I guess we just need to appreciate what we have and pat ourselves on the back when we reach our goals. And continue to strive for better personal finance habits!
Friday, October 19, 2007
An Interesting Perspective
I spent my lunch hour today trolling a few blogs. I read Gates on Stuff and am finding it an interesting read.
If you get a chance, go to the blog and read his post of September 28th, which deals with PF blogs. I think the post makes some very valid points. Lots of blogs discuss how we are saving money, what we saved and very few tell us what was bought.
The typical PF blogger makes almost zero posts about the things they do buy, they just keep throwing out money savings tips and net worth updates, but they don't give us pics of the new rental property or the x-mas toys they bought the kids or the new car they bought in cash(!).
Heck, even with the bankruptcy, I still need items and I still want items. I'm totally admitting that part of what I am saving for is a new flat screen TV. Why do I want a TV when I'm climbing out of bankruptcy? I don't have cable, I watch a lot of DVD's, I get Coronation Street on Video from friends in the UK, My current TV is almost 10 years old and small, the picture quality has dimished and to watch DVD's I have to have it hooked up to something called an RF modulator. Between my TV, DVD player, VCR player and the modulator, I need a full power strip-four plugs so I can watch DVD's or old Video tapes.
When I manage to meet my TV goal, I'll happily post a picture of the new TV. I don't know what I'll post when I meet my Emergency Fund goal. A picture of a dollar?
If you get a chance, go to the blog and read his post of September 28th, which deals with PF blogs. I think the post makes some very valid points. Lots of blogs discuss how we are saving money, what we saved and very few tell us what was bought.
The typical PF blogger makes almost zero posts about the things they do buy, they just keep throwing out money savings tips and net worth updates, but they don't give us pics of the new rental property or the x-mas toys they bought the kids or the new car they bought in cash(!).
Heck, even with the bankruptcy, I still need items and I still want items. I'm totally admitting that part of what I am saving for is a new flat screen TV. Why do I want a TV when I'm climbing out of bankruptcy? I don't have cable, I watch a lot of DVD's, I get Coronation Street on Video from friends in the UK, My current TV is almost 10 years old and small, the picture quality has dimished and to watch DVD's I have to have it hooked up to something called an RF modulator. Between my TV, DVD player, VCR player and the modulator, I need a full power strip-four plugs so I can watch DVD's or old Video tapes.
When I manage to meet my TV goal, I'll happily post a picture of the new TV. I don't know what I'll post when I meet my Emergency Fund goal. A picture of a dollar?
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I got a Featured Blog brag!
Oh Last Week I forgot to mention I got a mention in the Hu$tler Money Blog Personal Finance Class of 2007. I got a C as a newly minted blogger and that is OK by me!
Check out the site, it's pretty cool
Check out the site, it's pretty cool
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Some Random Thoughts
I read something interesting on the Ugly Debty blog yesterday. Ugly Debty said that blogging was a good way to help with the debt process. And ya know what? She's right.
Part of my frustration is not being able to "share" this process, part of it shame, part of it I just want to move on with my life. But the process needs to be processed. I find the blogging to be very helpful. I can pour out my concerns, vent, rant, rave in cyberspace. Is anyone actually reading this stuff? I don't know. What I do know is I do feel better when I can take five minutes and post a blog.
I'm hoping to eventually get more interesting and useful items up here for folks, but I'm on dial up at home and only have my lunch hour to really surf the net at work and find cool stuff to post .
And if anyone is reading this stuff and can give me some direction on the blog template (adding adsense, pay per post, counters, RSS feed) that would be really helpful. I have an adsense account for my more public blog, I think I can also use it here. I'm trying to make the sidebars a bit more interesting as well. Some peoples blogs are amazing.
Oh well, on with work!
Part of my frustration is not being able to "share" this process, part of it shame, part of it I just want to move on with my life. But the process needs to be processed. I find the blogging to be very helpful. I can pour out my concerns, vent, rant, rave in cyberspace. Is anyone actually reading this stuff? I don't know. What I do know is I do feel better when I can take five minutes and post a blog.
I'm hoping to eventually get more interesting and useful items up here for folks, but I'm on dial up at home and only have my lunch hour to really surf the net at work and find cool stuff to post .
And if anyone is reading this stuff and can give me some direction on the blog template (adding adsense, pay per post, counters, RSS feed) that would be really helpful. I have an adsense account for my more public blog, I think I can also use it here. I'm trying to make the sidebars a bit more interesting as well. Some peoples blogs are amazing.
Oh well, on with work!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Blogs Of Note
I'll be adding blogs of note as I find them-
The first two:
Save Karyn www.savekaryn.com-Karyn Bosnak's original site with a link to her blog, pretty in the city. God I wish I thought of asking total strangers for money before she did on a web site. Gotta love the boldness, and the posts. And she is a dog lover.
Jennsylvania: Just read her book, Bright Lights, Big Ass. Someone else who loves the Holy Trinity (Ikea, Target and Trader Joes) almost as much as I do. Spending $20 at Target it better than two therapy sessions and cheaper to boot.
Check them out. These ladies have given me inspiration to go forth with this
The first two:
Save Karyn www.savekaryn.com-Karyn Bosnak's original site with a link to her blog, pretty in the city. God I wish I thought of asking total strangers for money before she did on a web site. Gotta love the boldness, and the posts. And she is a dog lover.
Jennsylvania: Just read her book, Bright Lights, Big Ass. Someone else who loves the Holy Trinity (Ikea, Target and Trader Joes) almost as much as I do. Spending $20 at Target it better than two therapy sessions and cheaper to boot.
Check them out. These ladies have given me inspiration to go forth with this
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