Sometimes a blog is just abandoned with no new posts. Sometimes a blog is taken offline. Sometimes there is an explanation. Sometimes there is none.

In any case, it’s hard to see them go.

Family Man at Another Day of Life recently decided to stop blogging. His blog is still online, but he wrote a post about what happened…

I am not walking away, just stepping away. Not saying good bye, but also not promising a daily post, or X number of posts each week. For now I need to lay the groundwork for Another Day of Life, my life, my family’s life and build tomorrow for all of us.

I think Family Man is right on the button with thinking that time is a big factor as to why some bloggers have stopped blogging. Then there are bloggers that are forced to shut their blog down (like what happened to JW at Need to Be Debt Free). Whatever the reason, it is sad to see them go and you wonder how they are doing.

The great thing about the blogosphere is that there are so many views…so many people writing about their thoughts and life. I have found so many useful tidbits of information from other bloggers. I have also found inspiration or was led to an “ah-ha!” moment, like this one from Basil Bizarro the day he and Bianca signed off from their blog…

The one thing from this amazing experience that resonated with me deepest is this: gratitude. Look within your lives, because everything you need is right there. And for the most part, free.

I love finance books and I have read some great ones about debt reduction. But bloggers have that personal connection that isn’t normally found in books. I think that’s why I’ve found it so hard when the blogs I used to follow shut down or go on hiatus. At the same time, I understand.

Thanks to the reader who sent me an email about Family Man’s post!

It feels very weird having someone else blog on here. At the same time, it’s very exciting! My dream for this blog was to have it do exactly what is happening – it will always have someone blogging away their debt – someone starting and then finishing their debt reduction journey.

I think all of you will love Beks and I know she will love all of you. You have been amazing, and even intuitive at times. When I happened to be down, I’d get an email that would help lift me up. Words cannot express how very thankful I am. I have been very, very fortunate with all of you.

Welcome aboard, Beks!!!

Arduous asks WWMD? (What Would MacGyver Do?) MacGyver was one of my favorite shows while growing up.

MBH wrote about forever stamps and how you are paying for choice. I also found out that the price of stamps is going up May 12.

Lastly, Prime Time Money talks about tax rebate scams. It’s a shame that things like that happen.

This week, be prepared to hear a little more from me. I’m probably going to take a little break tomorrow and then starting on Monday I am going to catch up on a lot of things on here and answer some questions from comments that have been left. So if you have something on your mind that you would like to ask, feel free to do so in the comments.

The project is still in the works. As I started working on it, I realized that it is going to be a bigger project than I thought. So, I’ll work on it a little bit here and a little bit there until it is completed.

I’m glad to be back. There are a lot of things to give an update on. The biggest of which is that we found ourselves with a little windfall (yay!). Expect more on that shortly, although you can see what the windfall did to our debt total at the right.

Again, thank you to my guest bloggers!

The Bank of Universal Goodwill
When You Run Out of Money
Are You In Line With Your Priorities – 4 Questions to Help You Find Out
How to Create an Emergency Kit to Complement Your Debt Reduction Journey
Three B.A.D. Ways to Reduce Debt
Protect Your Family From Credit Card Debt
Where’s Horatio Alger When We Need Him?

The rules?

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The book closest to me right now is It’s Called Work for a Reason (aff. link) by Larry Winget. This is one that I won from All Financial Matters. I’ll be reviewing this book shortly, but if you are interested in hearing more about Larry, I reviewed his book, You’re Broke Because You Want to Be last month.

Ok, now back to the meme. Here’s what we find on page 123:

Do they promise faster service or better pricing? No, they just promise better service. I like it.

For context, Larry is talking about DHL and their new ad campaign. Larry is a bit no-holds barred when it comes to talking about companies and how they run their businesses.

Now it’s my turn to tag a few people:

JW at Need to Be Debt Free
Jesse at The Penny Saved
DebtKid at DebtKid.com
Grace at GRACEful Retirement
Boomie at The Wastrel Show

DebtKid shares how he deals with the debt blues.

We’re In Debt is wondering what you were in a tough time financially. Would you use your credit card as an emergency fund?

CleverDude had an interesting article on writing your autobiography through spending. One of my goals in the next few months is to dig up some old credit card receipts and take a look at how we spent money.

If you have bought a diamond in the last 12 years, you may want to check out MyMoneyBlog’s post on diamond class action lawsuit. We only have a small diamond in my engagement ring, and I’m pretty sure I threw out the receipt already.

Lastly, David gives some personal finance advice for your 30s. It’s part of a project for a network that he belongs to, so make sure you scroll to the bottom of the article to read the other entries.

That’s it for this week.  I’m looking forward to sticking my nose into our finances this weekend to pay some debt or beef up our savings account. So expect some updated numbers shortly

In the meantime, here are some articles that caught my eye this week:

Louise has an informative post on How to Survive Debt Collector Harrassment.

Matt discusses Giving Up Time For Money. That’s an issue I’ve been dealing with lately.

JW has had some excellent news lately, and his debt load has been reduced dramatically. That can be a big motivator, and it has been for his whole family (even his teenage kids!). That has lead to some Changes In Their Plan.

Oh yeah…and I think I have to get something ready for a book giveaway, too

Mighty Bargain Hunter found a very interesting article about predictions about the upcoming yard sale economy.

There were goals all over the personal finance blog-o-sphere, and Flexo rounded up quite a few of them. It’s always interesting to see what others are shooting to accomplish.

Lastly, I played guest blogger over at No Credit Needed. NCN wanted me to about 50% of our credit card debt. Thanks for the opportunity, NCN

I hope you have a great weekend!

Paidtwice submitted How I’m Staying Motivated Through a Setback.

Rob in Madrid submitted Dealing With Setbacks, My Two Cents Worth.

Lynnae submitted The Generosity of a Stranger.

Ryan submitted The Road to Becoming Debt Free.

Molly’s Brother submitted Steps to Achieving Your Goals.

Thanks again everyone!

Now here’s some articles that caught my eye this week:

Bob at Christain PF has a giveaway for an iPod Nano. Hurry! The deadline is 11:59 CST on Dec. 24. (He’s also giving away YNAB Budgeting Software too!)

Mapgirl discusses internal networking and how it might lead to new opportunities. Very interesting – I’ve never thought of it like that.

Plonkee has some tips on how to celebrate a frugal Christmas. Something we do yearly is drive around and look at Christmas lights.

Enjoy!

Shana (a newer blogger), shares some of her debt reduction strategies that work.

JW asks if he is abnormal. If you guys are abnormal, we are too!

Cleverdue just paid off their mini cooper car loan. Congrats!

Next up on here? A new debt total

JW discusses contingencies. JW and his wife are striving to become debt-free, but they keep coming across hurdles.

“For us the fact remains that for every triumph we have in reducing our debt we will inevitably have some set backs.”

With our recent triumphs of paying off half of our debt and fully funding our emergency fund…I can’t help but wonder what’s around the corner and if it is going to cost a lot of money. Two steps forward…one step back. I try not to think that way, but it’s hard not to.

Arduous has almost wrapped up her November shoe challenge (thinning out the collection) and December is going to be a month of no pre-packaged dinners and no eating out. Wow. That’s a tough one and I will enjoy reading about the challenge and hopefully picking up a few pointers.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Jim’s at it again with his juicy devil’s advocate posts. This time, he’s saying that you should ignore personal finance experts.

Ricemutt wrote a great tutorial on how to use the VLOOKUP function in Excel. If you use Excel, this is a super-handy tool!

Glblguy is wondering if debt is a disease. I don’t think it’s necessarily a disease, but rather a symptom of something else going on.

Cleverdude has the stance that you shouldn’t be afraid of the big bad debt. He shares his financial situation with everyone.

Enjoy!

Louise discusses money and relationships. What are some big obstacles in a marriage? Time, sex and money.

Not Made of Money discusses black friday and gives some thoughts and strategies. I’m not big on black friday sales (not one for crowds), but if you like shopping the black friday deals, this article may interest you.

AKB reported some good news. She got an internship. Congrats!

Lastly, Golbguru has an illustrated cash flow for dummies. Yup, I’m shooting for #7

I’ve also been working to catch up on all of my emails. There are a few of you still waiting for a reply, and I’ve been going through them the past few days. My goal is to clear out my inbox by the end of the day today. What that also means is that I will be writing quite a few articles today pointing to some articles of interest that readers have sent me.

Since I’ve been pretty occupied, I haven’t had much time to cruise the blog-o-sphere. So this week I will let you know about two carnivals. There is plenty of reading there if you are interested:

The Carnival of Debt Reduction is over at The Amatureist Financial Journey this week. I submitted What Happens When the Tooth Fairy is in Debt.

The Carnival of Personal Finance is at Dough Roller. I submitted Five Words That Sum Up Our Debt Payoff Success.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

We only have the very basic cable at $16/month so we don’t get channels like A&E. There’s a show on there called Big Spender. Larry Winget is the star and he helps people to quit spending their life away. I haven’t been able to watch the show, but Beachgirl has been recapping the shows. As a sidenote, I decided to check out some of the video clips of the show and from what I saw…I’m pretty impressed with Larry. Too bad we don’t have A&E

Nickel is now a deadbeat according to a collection agency. If you remember, I had problems actually getting a bill for my miscarriage. If they pulled what was pulled on Nickel…I would have been livid. Luckily, I paid my bill and all was well.

Here are a few articles that caught my eye this week.

First up is Stephanie at Poorer than You. She entered a scholarship competition for bloggers and was selected as a finalist (and she’s the only personal finance blogger in the group). The final winner of the $10,000 scholarship is being determined by popular vote and here’s where Stephanie could use your help. She’s asking others to check out the finalists and cast a vote. You can read about the finalists here and can vote here. If you vote for Stephanie, her full name is Stephanie Collins and her name is near the end of the list. You do not need to register to vote and the actual voting takes less than two seconds.

Peete caught CNBC’s program, a Millionaire Inside, and was able to tape it and then outline what was in the program. It’s a very nice recap of the show.

Lastly, the Digerati Life gives ideas for cheap ways to exercise. I love the second pic in her post. It cracks me up.

NCN took on the Festival of Frugality this week and organized ideas for saving money and increasing your income.

Fellowes at Dollar Buy Dollar is back to blogging and shares his debt reduction playbook. Instead of dealing with a debt consolidation company, he took things into his own hands.

In other news, I am finally feeling better. The virus that took hold of me really took me for a spin. I was absolutely miserable the past week, and yesterday I started feeling somewhat like myself again. Today I am feeling even better. I’m still not 100%, but at least I am not getting worse *knock on wood*.

Reggie asks, “What is Wealth to You?” Pretty interesting how he compares values between his culture and his girlfriend’s.

Jim spills the beans and shares with everyone 7 unwritten, often forgotten credit card secrets.

I hope you enjoy these articles and have a great weekend. Me? I think I’m going to be in bed for a very large part of it. I’m still pretty sick

First, I have some sad news to report. Sometimes it is so hard when bloggers close up shop. One of my favorite debt blogs bid the blogosphere adieu and I’m getting all teary-eyed. Their debt isn’t paid off, but it’s time to devote their time to other things. Basal and Biance I will miss you!

Starving Artist received some news that the company he works for is going to have a head count reduction. The possibility of losing your job is very scary and he gives some tips on what you can do to help it not be so bad.

Lastly, Lynnae has an article on What Little House on the Prairie Taught Me About Debt. I love Little House on the Prairie and I actually think about that show a lot when I think about what is really important in life.

Family Man discusses growing up now and then. He’s only a few years older than me, so his whole post hits close to home. Oh, and if you watch the last video he posted…you might want to grab some tissue. Good stuff.

Lastly, a fellow shout-out to a fellow personal finance blogger who is the new person behind About.com’s Financial Planning subject. Congrats to Jeremy from Generation X Finance!

I don’t know about all of you, but this weekend we are using the extra day off to do quite a few things around the house (shhh…don’t tell my husband, he doesn’t know yet LOL). Don’t worry, we’ll have some fun too

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Debtspiration shares a quote from Phil McGraw about luck.

Becoming & Staying Debt-Free discusses the Top 24 Ways to Destroy Your Credit Cards. Once we pay off our credit card debt, I’ll be cancelling and destroying some cards. I’d like to do the #1, but with a reel mower, it wouldn’t quite work.

Zen Habits has an article on Living a Life Without Credit or Debt. If this is a route you would like to take with your debt reduction plan, you should give this article a read.

Lastly, I would like to say thank you for the very kind words and the Blogger Reflection Award I received from My Domestic Church.

We are definitely more prepared this time and we have more tables lined up. I’m excited to get rid of more stuff and make some money! We could use it after some home repairs we’ve had to pay for lately.

Now, onto some articles I enjoyed this week:

Golbguru has an interesting post about An Elephant For A Dollar Down And Easy Weekly Payments.

Dedicated shares 9 Words Women Use. Not exactly personal finance related, but spot-on and funny!

Flexo explains how the fan who caught Barry Bond’s 756th home run ball may owe $210,000. Ouch.

Enjoy!

Oh, the neatest find so far? I had purchased some rolled paper from a garage sale years ago. I thought my son would love drawing on it and I could set it up so he could roll it out, draw on it and tear off his creation. Again, he was a little young at the time so it sat in a cabinet. I uncovered it, and when I opened it I found a few surprises that the previous owners must have forgotten about as well. I now have a calculator that will work great for my garage sale and I have a hockey puck with a Red Wings player on it. I’m not sure if it’s worth money (it’s from Burger King), but it was pretty neat.

I hope to have my finances updated shortly. I really have to keep the motivation going for my garage sale or it will never get done so I’m giving that priority status right now.

Anyways, here’s a few articles that caught my eye that I hope you enjoy.

JLP pointed out an article that points out a lie often portrayed in the media about credit cards. Very interesting.

Cleverdude shares how they paid off $58,000 of their debt. That’s pretty awesome!

Miel discusses needs versus wants. Besides being a good article, I love the picture of the glass they have for that post!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Now for some posts I enjoyed this week.

Don’t feel like merely cutting up your credit cards? Make toy boomerangs out of them. I’m tempted to give it a whirl. My luck, though…it would come back and hit my right knee (inside joke for those following Blogging Away Fat).

Mighty Bargain Hunter points to a thread where a man who makes over $100,000/year is in debt over his head. It goes to show that debt troubles are not just for low wage earners.

Lazy Man’s new wife spends $200 for a cut and color every 6 weeks. So he asking women: what is your hair budget? I looked back in my Quicken history and my hair spending worked out to $3.00/year (that doesn’t include shampoo or conditioner). Yikes!

What’s coming up? This weekend I will be posting my long overdue income and expense report for June. Next week I will be posting a book review and will have a special giveaway. Stay tuned!

The Carnival of Personal Finance is up at the Mint Blog (I submitted I Know Why I’m Fat! It’s Because of My Credit Cards!!).

The Festival of Frugality is up over at Money Walks (I submitted Free or Low Cost Entertainment Ideas for Families).

NCN shared some awesome news that fellow NCN Network member, Debt Monster, has paid off over $70k in 19 months. All I can say is WOW and CONGRATS to Debt Monster!

Single Ma has a very informative post (with examples) on How to Close Credit Cards Without Affecting Your Credit Scores

Jennifer at Finding Financial Peace nominated me for a Rocking Girl Blogger Award. Thank you for thinking of me!

Free DVD – Planet Heroes (kids DVD) from Mattel. I signed up, and it is completely free although you start to wonder because you are checking out from the Mattel store. Don’t worry, you don’t have to enter any payment information. It says it will take 12-14 weeks for delivery and it is while supplies last.

Enjoy!

This week, the Carnival of Debt Reduction is over at Picture of Wealth. Check it out for some juicy debt reduction related articles.

Jim took a closer look at how my son priced some of his toys and wrote an entire article about understanding price, instrinsic value and emotional value. Pretty interesting when you look at it that way.

Starving Artist shares why you should at least try to budget, even if you fail.

Lazy Man got married (congrats!) and came clean about the cost of his wedding.

Enjoy!

Basil popped the question to Bianca. Next up for them is a nice frugal wedding! Congrats to you both

[as a sidenote, here's a link to some tips from my own frugal wedding that cost less than $2,000.]

Matt got married. Congrats!

DebtKid is looking for the good in himself. I deal with that all the time too. That’s probably why this quote made such an impact on me.

Debt in Seattle is sick and tired of being in debt. I think many of us can relate. Hang in there!

Lastly, the King and Queen of Debt reveal how they paid of $35,000 of credit card debt in one year. Yeah…my jaw is still open. That’s awesome guys!

Enjoy!

Boomie from The Wastrel Show (Confessions of a Middle Aged Spendthrift) shares how she makes pizza for $1.25!

Michael’s wife found a cute pair of earrings (not what you’d expect!).

Nickel shares some moving sale tips.

Lastly, if you own an ugly couch you may be interested in a contest that Club Furtniture is putting on: World’s Ugliest Couch Contest. You can win a free couch. Do you think I should enter with the couch we found on the side of the road? It is ugly, but I’m not so sure it’s the ugliest. Maybe I’ll give it a shot anyways.

Enjoy!

I was starting to think that I was going to have to buy a new car this week, and Jeremy’s article about 10 Tips for Dealing with Car Salesman To Make Sure You Don’t Get Hosed was very timely. Luckily, I only needed some repair, not a new car. There’s some great tips there, though.

J.D. discusses piggies. Well, actually the Money Savvy Pig because he likes it. I like it too, and I was so happy when I was able to get my son one. When I happen to get a new camera, I’ll have to take a picture to show you how he split up his money.

Enjoy!

Meet Bryan Gaynor

For some inspiration that is debt reduction related, here’s a blogger who paid off a $20,000 student loan in 2 years

I hope you enjoy!

NCN hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction over at No Credit Needed.

Jags Mollu shares about her notepad. This is something that I have been trying to get myself to do but so far have been unsuccessful in sticking with it. I think it would help me greatly.

MBH discusses how a gas pump closure in Wisconsin makes national news. With gas for us around $3.50/gallon, we aren’t feeling it too much. Our fuel efficient car was one of the best purchases we ever made. Looking at our past monthly spending report, we only spent $55 in gas last month.

Now, next week, the Festival of Frugality will be here! So, if you are a blogger and have a frugal article, please submit it via the Blog Carnival Form.

Enjoy, and I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!

Mr. Credit Card hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction.

INDEBTED 2 YOU had some difficulties with Wells Fargo and shares a letter he wrote to deal with Really Bad Customer Service:

“I was appalled that Wells Fargo’s solution was for me to go out and get my Wells Fargo card declined again at another retailer, and then have the retailer call Wells Fargo so they could trouble-shoot the problem.”

Not Made of Money shares How I Save Money on My Favorite Hobby – Frugal Scrapbooking:

“Over the years, I’ve found several frugal methods for purchasing scrapbooking supplies so I can still enjoy my hobby and not pay a fortune for it!”

Binary Dollar has an open mic where he opens the floor to commenters: What’s the Best Credit Card

Money Musings has a neat post on 1973 vs 2007 – What Minimum Wage Would Buy

“…I thought it might be interesting to look at prices of some common items back in 1973, and then compare those prices to similar items (well, as similar as one could get) in 2007.”

Enjoy!

Anyways, now it’s a relaxing time and I spent some time cruising the blog-o-sphere and thought I would share some interesting articles.

Re-focusing on Debt/Life Balance – At We’re in Debt, they discuss that sometimes you do need to spend a little bit of money even though you are paying off debt. I agree and discussed this with answering, How Far Will I Go to Pay off Our Debt?.

The Top 5 Ways to Become a Millionaire – Jeremy at GenXFinance gives some solid information. No get rich quick schemes here.

Money Question: How Do You Handle Financial Disagreements? – Golbguru asks this important question among a few personal finance bloggers and opens the floor to comments from his readers.

I hope you enjoy these articles as much as I did

Here’s the link to the interview:

WSB-TV 2 Atlanta Clark Howard Segment – Climbing Out of Debt

Congrats NCN (a.k.a. Jason ) on the interview. You did a great job!!

Also, thanks to the show for giving a glimpse of Blogging Away Debt. It was one of those…”Hey, that’s me!” moments. It still is sometimes surreal that anyone with an internet connection can stumble across my blog and read about our financial life. The internet really is an amazing thing.

I haven’t really kept track with the blog-o-sphere this week. But, at any time you want to cruise around, check out pfblogs.org or check out the links in my blogroll (on the right hand side).

I did participate in a few carnivals this week. Thank you to the hosts!

Dawn at Frugal for Life was the host for this week’s Festival of Frugality.

Golbguru at Money, Matter and More Musings hosted this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction.

Slowly, I’m getting back into the Carnival Life. Which reminds me…a little early to mention but I should note it so I don’t forget…I’ll be hosting the Festival of Frugality on May 29.

Anyways, here’s a few freebies from Walmart this week:

Ultra Downy

Superstay Silky Foundation by Mabelline

Enjoy!

NCN, from over at the No Credit Needed Blog (and the No Credit Needed Network), is going to be seen on TV in the Atlanta, GA area. They came to his house a few months ago to interview him and the airdate is tomorrow.

For the complete details, head on over to NCN’s site.

Congrats, NCN…you rock!

To see the video, go to this link at cnn.com. A special thanks to K and Andrew for providing the direct link (for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out LOL). The video is titled “Spouse hid $70K in debt, 3 signs yours is too.”

Congrats to Fellowes from Dollar Buy Dollar for being brave and discussing your debt. I’m sure your story will help a lot of people!

No Credit Needed Network

You can sign up and get a cool chart that shows your progress with paying off your debt.

In other news, I’ve been absent from the finance carnivals lately because I couldn’t seem to remember to submit articles before the deadline! But, I’m back and participating and here are the carnivals this week:

Getting Green hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction and included my article on Who’s To Blame for Your Money Troubles?

Golbguru hosted the Festival of Frugality and included my article on How I Decorated My Son’s Room for Under $60.

Now, for the freebies:

John Frieda Frizz-Ease

Tylenol Rapid Release Gels

Enjoy!

Checking my Site Stats – I like checking my Sitemeter stats, not necessarily to see how many visitors I’ve had, but to see where everyone is clicking to leave my site. I like seeing that the things I’ve posted here are useful and interesting.

Reading Other Blogs – I spend way too much time reading other blogs and keeping up with things. I’m getting better at remembering to note articles I liked to then highlight on here but often times I still forget to do that.

Working With Quicken – My Quicken file is pretty darn detailed and I like to keep track of all money to the penny. If I was the only one making purchases and keeping receipts, I would probably even track soda pop can deposits as a separate account. But, I’m holding myself back from trying to do that.

Big Trucks – Here’s where the tomboy in me surfaces. Some people’s heads turn on a dime when an attractive person walks by. My head turns when a truck with a four-inch lift drives by. I’ve never had a big truck, but someday I hope to.

Some Old Obsessions – Trying to come up with this list was pretty difficult. A lot of things I would consider being obsessed over are no longer obsesssions. So, I thought I would mention a couple of my old ones: collecting bald eagle figures and items with bald eagles on them, playing Tetris and collecting McDonald’s Happy Meal toys.

Now it’s my turn to tag a few bloggers:

Basil and Bianca Bizzaro at The Bizzaro World Debt Elimination Freak Show

Jeremy at Generation X Finance

Henry at Binary Dollar

Lazy Man at Lazy Man and Money

JW at Need to Be Debt Free

JLP found an interesting slideshow about Living on $46,000 a Year – Where it Goes

Henry gives some solid advice about Not Canceling Credit Cards Before You Apply for Any Loan

Flexo asks, Should High Schools Require Money Management Classes

FREE STUFF

Ban Invisible Solid Deodorant

Dial Antibacterial Deodorant Soap

Crest Nature’s Expressions Toothpaste

Enjoy!

Without further ado, here are the top commenters so far this year to date:

Jen (38)

Matt from To One Million and Beyond (28)

Mapgirl from Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge (18)

Tim (18)

D from Divorce to Financial Freedom (17)

Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity (16)

Donna from Crazy Crafting Momma (16)

GInger (15)

Kellie from Debt Regret (12)

Amanda (12)

Congrats to the top commenters and thank you to everyone for your comments. I really appreciate everyone sharing your experiences and giving your words of support. During my happy times and my sad times you have been there.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Five Cent Nickel shares how he had success with reversing his credit card late fees. It doesn’t hurt to at least try.

J.D. asked his readers how much should you have in an emergency fund. J.D. is a lot like me because we share the same philosophy that you have to do what works for you. For us, we decided $2,500 would be a good emergency fund to start with.

Jeremy discusses bad credit habits. I’m guilty as charged for the first two (pushing the grace period and pushing your credit limit). In fact, before I started this blog we were dangerously close to having used all of our available credit.

FREEBIES

Huggies Diapers

Secret Clinical Strength Deodorant

Enjoy

Wisebread thought it would be neat if the US Mint gave everyone 2 $1.00 coins for a $1.00 bill. If they did that, I’d be first in line!!

Golbguru proclaimed that Warren Buffett is Buying His Blog. Why he didn’t pick the person in debt is beyond me. Hey, Mr. Buffett…I’m over here!! LOL.

As for me, I didn’t play any pranks on anyone and by my late posting today I wasn’t pulling a prank. Today was rather uneventful except for the fact that I have been working hard to bring my idea to light. I was hoping to not have to spend any money to get things up and running but it looks like I may need to spend about $650. We technically have the money in our savings account to cover this expense but it’s not easy parting with that money when I know things are going to be rough financially shortly.

Decisions…decisions…life is full of them. You can think through them till you are blue in the face but in the end you just have to hope you make the right one!

Debt Blitzkrieg shares her dream. Those dreams can help keep the debt reduction going strong.

Terri is wondering if there’s anyone else out there 45+ who’s just beginning their journey to financial responsibility?. If that describes you, stop on over there and introduce yourself.

Sparing Change, a NCN Network Member, has a completed chart! As NCN would say…Sparing Change…you rock!

This one isn’t a blog, but it’s a cartoon inspired by a political cartoonist that reads this blog.

FREE STUFF

Walmart has some new goodies!

Pledge Wipes

Naturals Cat Food

Enjoy!

Stephanie hosted the Carnival of Family Life.

Henry shares a website where people ask for wishes to be granted. Interesting concept.

JW shares their zero based budget for March. It’s always interesting to see other budgets.

Mighty Bargain Hunter gives some advice on planning for receiving an inheritance. Receiving an inheritance and blowing a chunk of it was my very first “confession” I ever did on this blog.

Michael shares what he would tell his 16 year-old self if he could. Man, I could write a book with what I’d tell myself!

FREEBIES

Sorry, none for this week. I ran out of time and my good ole standby Walmart didn’t have any new ones

The Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge.

JD at Get Rich Slowly shares 25 of the Best Books About Money.

Free Money Finance would like to know if Money Makes You Happy

FREEBIES

Walmart has some new freebies. I love Walmart’s samples because I’ve never had a problem receiving them and they usually ship them fast.

Almay Hydracolor Lipstick

Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Care

Head and Shoulders Shampoo

Enjoy!

I’ve listened to their interviews, and they both did an awesome job. They did the personal finance blogging community proud.

To find out how you can listen to the interviews, check out NCN’s post here.

JLP was contacted by a writer and she is looking for someone who would like to participate on a debt panel. Wow. Sounds like a great opportunity, so if you are in Northern California, check this out.

Golbguru shares how he paid off his debt.

Lisa at Digging out of Debt talks about immediate gratification and how it contributed to her debt problem.

Matt from To One Million and Beyond took a good luck at his finances and figured out his gameplan (deconstruction and rebuild).

Ispf at Grad Money Matters interviewed me and SVB from The Digerati Life about Ethics, Personal Finance and Women.

As for freebies, I haven’t caught any this week that I feel comfortable filling out the form for. I think I need to search for more sites that list freebies. If you know of any, please share in the comments section.