Weekly Wrap-up

Each week I plan on posting a Weekly Wrap-up to share some brief thoughts on how I feel about the way the week has gone, as well as link to some of my favorite posts from around the blogosphere.

I started this blog because I needed an outlet for talking about personal finance, and my friends and family can only listen so much. It's been really interesting to write about my financial life over the past week, rather than just pondering it by myself or spewing to people who aren't as passionate. I've found that I'm much more prolific than I ever expected - as soon as I decided to start the blog, post ideas came by the dozens - and I'm really looking forward to whatever this journey may bring.

And now, a few of my favorite posts:

• Beginning Our Debt Free Journey @ Debt Free in the Ozarks - My good friend Carol begins her blog with a post about how she and her husband became debt free. They are great debt free role models!
  
• How eBay Sellers Can Save Money on Shipping Supplies @ Money Smart Life - I'm a small scale eBay seller, so this doesn't make sense for me personally, but I think it's interesting. I do tend to scavenge for packing supplies, especially those that are both protective and light, like the thin cardboard of cereal boxes.
• Automatic Bill Payments: Popular, Yet There Are Risks @ Boston Gal's Open Wallet - This actually made me feel better about the way I handle my finances. I've got pretty much everything on auto pilot, but I'm still anal about checking to make sure things are on track. Now I know it's for good reason; I'm not just paranoid.
• Curbed: Are Wealthy Neighbors Boring? @ My Open Wallet - This intrigued me because just the other day my roommate, who is a film student, said that there are vastly more tv shows and movies about poor people because rich people are boring. Even the few exceptions I could think of - The OC and Dirty Sexy Money - are really about poor or middle class people who deal with rich people, rather than actually being about the rich people.
• What Is Frugality and Are We Frugal? @ Gather Little By Little - GLBL Guy rounds up a few definitions of frugality and applies them to his situation. The comments are especially interesting as a few people - me included - interpret the definitions.
• Budgeting Is Like Baking Cookies @ Christian PF - First of all: Mmmmm, cooooookies. Second, this analogy works perfectly. Everything in moderation.
• Making It Up As I Go Along @ The Simple Dollar - Aren't we all just making it up as we go along? Lord knows I am. As Trent often does, he does an excellent job of spelling how and why he's doing what he's doing.

That's it for this week! See you on Monday!