Weekly Round Up
Hello all…sorry for my tardiness on the round up this week, but I hope you’ll still find some time to read the great links out there! I’ve got a million things to do today, so I’ll just go ahead and jump in with the round up!
- 444 had post this week that will make your cringe. A teenager who came into a sudden windfall is expecting to spend $1000 on video games. Not only that, but she wants to most violent games available on the market and is asking her social media friends for ideas and preferences. I was truly disturbed to read such as story because at least one person expressed that she might do something else with the money, to which she had a flippant remark and has assured one and all that this money is strictly for games. WTF?
- Kelly @ Almost Frugal talked about how she’s not always frugal. A similar story to mine on why I spent $750 – though her expenditure wasn’t nearly as much. It’s a good reminder that sometimes we’re not always the most frugal with our money, but that doesn’t mean we should beat ourselves up.
- Patrick @ Cash Money Life reminds us that money is like running a marathon. Good money management doesn’t happen overnight, just like you can’t wake up one morning and decided you’re going to go run that day’s marathon. It takes practice, patience, and most definitely perserverance. Some really good thoughts within this article, especially if you’ve been feeling down and out financially!
- Clever Dude discussed his “zero-debt goal.” You see, when he started blogging, he wanted to be non-mortgage debt free by May 15, 2009. He missed his goal, but the important thing to take away from the post is that just because he missed his overall goal doesn’t mean he failed. It’s a great, positive message for everyone that’s working to pay off their debt.
- SVB @ The Digerati Life offered up 10 tips, facts, and traps of balance transfers. Not much else needs to be said….check it out if you’re into balance transfers.
- J. Money @ Budgets are $exy teaches you the…um, sexy…way to pay bills. I’m pretty much of the same mind set. The only time I hang on to a bill is if I can write it off at tax time, but otherwise, I don’t keep the clutter. And even if I do keep the bill, I don’t keep the paper. I’ve set up a scan file where I stuff all that so I don’t have to keep paper. I hate paper. It’s a waste of perfectly good trees. :)
- five cent nickel has an interesting post about setting a savings “ceiling.” I say interesting because there’s been a few personal finance bloggers around the blogosphere – including myself – who’ve considered this as a next step, though we’ve not actually called it this. The idea is that nickel is considering how much money he needs to live a happy and full life, and then he wants to give the rest away. Check it out and chime in with you’re thoughts. Personally, I like this proposal.
- Frugal Dad has a post I’ll be sending to my parents on how to tell your kids no. It’s a collection of five tips to help parents overcome the anxiety and guilt of telling kids no. My parents are pretty bad about FD’s number one tip – MEAN it when you say no. They’ll say no, then cave…*sigh* Come to think of it, I may send this to my sister, too! If you’re a parent, be sure to check this out!
- Broke Grad Student offers six tips on how students can have a productive summer vacation. What I love about this list is that he doesn’t just focus on money – though it’s number one on the list! – he focuses on life as well. It’s about balance. Check it out and offer your tips on being productive.
- DivorcedDadFrugalDad asks how far you would go to be frugal. In reading this post, I discovered there are folks out there giving up toilet paper to be more frugal. Instead of paper, they’re using towels. Whatever floats their boat, I guess. But, that to me seems like it would work out to cost more, unless they’re just gross. I mean, once used the towel must be washed immediately – and I should hope they’re not reusing without washing. So consider the number of loads of laundry they’re now doing – with towels to boot – and I wonder if they’re really saving any money at all. But, whatever. I’m with DDFD…that’s just too far, in my opinion.
Kevin @ No Debt Plan has a wonderful post on finding the life you want to live. Very well-timed article to me personally as I’d been mulling some things over and I absolutely recommend it!
Trent @ The Simple Dollar gave us a list of 7 hidden lessons from “Getting Things Done.” If you haven’t read the book, I suggest doing so – particularly if time management is a challenge for you. But, Trent’s insights are quite helpful without having read the book. I really liked the active “someday” list idea. I think it’s a great way to be creative and stay productive. What’s you’re favorite tip?
And with that dear readers, I shall leave you to it. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Happy Reading!
Related posts:
Thanks for the mention, Kristy! The more I think about that windfall, if I had to guess, I imagine it might be an early graduation present from some relative, maybe Grandpa or Grandma. This pretty much coincided with the last day of school for high school seniors, with graduation coming up very soon. I can just picture some grandmom, maybe across the country, sending the money carefully scrimped and saved in a jelly jar for years. Steam is coming out of my ears on the behalf of whatever relative might have sent that present and has no idea what it is being used for.
Excellent collection of links. I’m behind in my reader so I clicked through a couple this evening. Thanks for including my article as well. :)
Thanks for including me!
Thanks for the shout out!
@ 444 – I’m not sure I think it was someone who saved up per se, but I’d still be pissed regardless if I gave someone money as a graduation gift and they squandered it on something useless like that. I mean, to be fair, as a gift she has the right to do with it as she pleases, but $1000 in games seems a bit excessive. Get yourself one or two and then do something productive with the money. She’ll be one of those that leaves school with massive amounts of student loan debt.
@ Patrick – You’re welcome…always something interesting to read over at CML!
@ Kelly – You’re welcome! How’s the new job going?
@ J – Fo’ sho’!