Save and Conquer

Our article, Be Careful Taking Out Student Loans, was listed in the Carnival of Personal Finance: Fairy Tale Edition. Clever Dude had a pretty clever theme where he told the tale of a make-believe royal family journeying through a fairy tale life using personal finance. I enjoyed reading

Year-End Home Checklist at Growing Money is a great post that outlines many things that should be done to bring a household up to tip-top shape. My wife and I usually wait until Spring to do these things, though.

What to Do If You Get Laid Off at Destroy Debt is a 16-point checklist of things to do and be aware of if you are laid off. A person was laid off at our work last Friday. I did not see that coming and I don’t think he did, either. I am definitely more aware now of the tenuous nature of my own job, and am glad to have checklists such as this.

Not All ETFs are Good Investments at Investing School points out that you have to perform due diligence for all investments, including ETFs. Don’t invest in an ETF just because its name sounds like something you want. Make sure you want to buy what the ETF invests in.

Our article, Homemade Christmas Presents, was listed in the weekly Festival of Frugality. There were some pretty pictures in the festival as well as some interesting posts. Some I liked were

Decluttered and recluttered at Funny about Money is a fun post about replacing a large part of her wardrobe. Note that I said replace, rather than add. The moral is that once you have enough stuff in your life, you should get rid of stuff as you get new. And in this case, Funny donated her used clothes, which is great!

Inexpensive Ways To Stay Warm This Winter at My Two Dollars gives some good common sense ways to keep the heat in. I agree with one of the commenters that PJs with feet are out for all but little kids.

How to Paint a Room for Less at Prime Time Money gives some good tips that can save money when painting a room.

Modern Gal talks about some of the changes she made to live with a career change that entailed a (gulp) 80% pay cut in When Frugal Means Forever.

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