His double star favorites (think double-plus-good!) are:

Pop Economics: The illusion of control — our compulsion to do something
Dough Roller: One Financial Goal to Rule Them All

His single star favorites are:

Four Pillars: Two Views on the Economics of Dating

Penny Farthing: Is debt okay if it leads to self-improvement?

Studenomics:How My Friend Made $2,100 From Tutoring

Think Your Way to Wealth: Is self-reliance a lost art in this day and age?

Financial Student: How I’m Receiving 30 Hours of College Credit For 15 Dollars

Personal Finance Ninja: 3 Reasons Why the Average Joe is a Bad Investor

Good Financial Cents: How to Choose The Best Financial Advisor/Planner for You

Foreigner’s Finances: Renting 101: What You Should Know Before You Sign

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured.

Your next host will be self-proclaimed worst everLen Penzo. Don’t believe him, and please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

His Editor’s Picks are:

Personal Finance By The Book: Unemployed? Are You Rocking or Are You Rolling?
Personal Finance Ninja: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Credit Score
The Everyday Minimalist: Confusing frugality with minimalism
Pop Economics: Paralysis and other effects of distrust

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured.

Your next host will be J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

His Editor’s Picks are:

Dividend Growth Investor: Buffett the dividend investor
A Gai Shan Life: I don’t want to retire
Financial Highway: MythBusters: Financial Advisors
Planting Dollars: Being Rich versus Being Wealthy
Len Penzo dot Com: When Pigs Fly: How I Fought My Parking Ticket and Beat City Hall
Pop Economics: What investment return should you plan for?

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured.

Your next host will be Patrick of Cash Money Life. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Here are his Editor’s Picks:

Squawkfox: 10 Frugal Ways to get Fit this Winter
Gen Y Wealth: The 7 Deadly Sins of Personal Finance
Balance Junkie: Your Financial Hierarchy of Needs
Pop Economics: Why crazy people rule the market, and how you can profit from it
Bible Money Matters: Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog: Income Generators, Optimizing Your Site And Helpful Site Tools

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured.

Your next host will be Evan of My Journey to Millions. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

In response, they’re offering me a year’s free membership in their Chase Identity Protection program.  I simply have to submit my Social Security number with signature and all the previously leaked personal information to them by mail or fax.  [Skeptical me says: really? so I can make sure that my personal information is disseminated again?]

The benefits of the program include:

• Continuous Credit Monitoring: Any changes in any of the three major reporting agencies will be monitored daily and I’ll be notified of any changes.

• Credit reports and scores: I’ll have access to my Experian credit report and score and the 3-in-1 credit report from all three agencies and their scores.

• Personal assistance: The program will take responsibility for disputing inaccuracies in my files, and they’ll also provide a Fraud Specialist in case my identity is stolen.

• Reimbursement Coverage: Subject to underwriting clauses, you may be reimbursed for up to $100,000 in eligible identity theft related expenses.

Nevertheless, continuous monitoring and protection in this instance will be helpful, in addition to placing a 90-day fraud alert on my files.

If you need to place a fraud alert on your credit files, you only need to contact one agency and they’ll forward your information to the other two agencies.  A fraud alert means that anyone trying to open credit in your name will have to verify their identity.

If things are more serious and you need to place a security freeze on your account, it’s free for any acknowledged identity theft victim in the state of California; there is a fee if you’re not considered a victim (by police report, usually).  Check here for all other states.

It may also be a good idea to opt-out of all information-sharing with affiliates that the major companies you do business with frequently participate in; it’s good for them but just another risk for you.

In the meantime, I’ll be checking my credit report for any new suspicious activity.  Be careful and be alert, folks, identity theft can be truly destructive if it’s not nipped in the bud.

[You can find my everyday writing over at A Gai Shan Life.]

Here are his Editor’s Picks:

Budgets are Sexy: The Move Your Money Movement
Doughroller: 11 Smart Money Moves to Supercharge Your Finances
Get Rich Slowly: 10 Steps to Financial Success in 2010
Bargaineering: How to Opt Out of Credit Card Internal Marketing
M is for Money: Money and Etiquette: Dining with a Terrible Tipper

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured.

Your next host will be Frugal Trader of Million Dollar Journey. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Even back then, before I was heavily into personal finance, I didn’t like that ROI. Education’s fine and dandy, but when you’re working 20 hours of overtime a week, it’s more than slightly galling to hand it all over to use a book for a season.

I adopted a rather convoluted and time-consuming approach to saving money on books, and reveled in every penny saved. It’s been years since I needed it, but a good old table comparing the prices of each book by venue reminded me how much money you can save when you bargain hunt for a textbook.

1. Library: I checked our school and local libraries for every textbook, many of which were literature books. If the books weren’t in high demand, I could either check out the book for the duration of the quarter (with renewals along the way) or tailor the checkout period to my syllabus. ie: if we were slated to read the book in Week 6, I’d make a note in my planner to start checking on the book’s status in Week 3. If it was checked out already, then I could enter a request for the book. This meant the previous reader had to return the book without renewing.

2. Paperback Swap: Once in a while, you’ll get lucky and get a shipping-only book from the Swap.

3. Amazon, Alibris, other internet book sellers: This is a dicier proposition as you have to factor in shipping time vs. cost. If you went with Super Saver Shipping, you ran the risk of receiving the books too late. If you ordered them really early to compensate, there was the risk of finding out that the professor had decided to skip that book and wasting your money on an unneeded book. But this is a great way to get a really cheap copy of an older edition literature classic that you could donate to your local library afterward or sell to a friend.

4. Which brings me to a great resource: friends and fellow students! If you network even a little, you can find out which classes your peers have taken and buy their old books for a fair selling/buying price, or even plan to pass along books to people who are taking the class after you. This is probably the best option: you pay much less without having to worry about shipping, they get real money instead of foreign pennies. Win-win!

5. Renting books from Chegg.com: the newest addition to the textbook game, Chegg offers you the chance to rent your textbook at a reasonable price for a specific time frame. Unless they’re offering a free shipping code or promo, you’ll usually be charged a shipping fee but they pay for the return of their books so you’re only paying on the front end. I’ve tried this service once before, and my experience was about a 3/5.

The lower score was partly my fault: I didn’t pay attention to shipping dates so I missed the optimal shipping dates, and got my books a week after I needed them. You do have to watch those ship dates very carefully because sometimes they don’t have the books you ordered – which I wish was something that was clearly stated on the site when you’re placing the order – and then you’re left scrambling when the “Sorry, it’s not in stock!” email arrives. Again, this is something easily remedied if you simply order your books two weeks in advance.

They also have a 30 day guarantee which allows you to return the book within 30 days and pay nothing, just in case you didn’t need the book after all.

I’m testing it again this semester, and have received one of the two ordered books so far. If I get both books in good order, I’ll have saved about $200 off the two books, bought new. (They’re not available used anywhere.) If you’d like to try it, you can use my affiliate code to get 5% off your order: CC107691. I think I get some sort of credit if you order using the code, but I’m not sure of the details, it’s still new to me.

6. Last resort, the student bookstore: If the book is specialized enough that no one carries it, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and buy it directly from the school. I hate that, but it happens. Again, timing is important here – go early enough to grab a used version because buying new from the bookstore is doubly painful. At least it is for me.

With a bit of searching, a combination of the above methods can help you save that hard-earned cash and keep you a little more debt free!

[You can find my everyday writing over at A Gai Shan Life.]

Articles should be submitted by 5 p.m. Sunday night before the Carnival.

The Financial Blogger ushers in the first Carnival of Personal Finance in 2010 with the  5 Tricks to Keep Your Resolutions For the Year Edition #238.

Here are his Editor’s Picks:
Intelligent Speculator: 2010 stock picks
Funny about Money : Happy New Year! What Are Your Goals?
Money Help For Christians: How To Get Motivated To Manage Your Money
The Digerati Life: Use A Debt Consolidation Calculator, See How To Erase Debt Faster

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured.

Your  next host will be Darwin’s Finance.  Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Here are his Editor’s Picks:
Budgets Are Sexy: 3 Simple Steps To Rock Your Finances
Get Rich Slowly: The Basic Law of Frugality
Bargaineering: Automating Your Finances is an Expensive Mistake
My Dollar Plan: Top 10 Financial Stories of the Decade

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We wish you all very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Gather Little by Little. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

These awards come in two flavors: Plutus and Plutus 2.0 awards.

The Plutus Awards feature the following categories:

* Best Savings/Money Market Account

• Best Checking/Transaction Account
• Best Banking Website
• Best Overall Bank
• Best Discount Brokerage
• Best Credit Card
• Best Personal Finance Management Software
• Best Budgeting Software
• Best Tax Filing Software
• Best Peer-to-Peer/Social/Micro Lending Service
• Best Mobile Personal Finance Application
• Best Personal Finance Book of 2009
• Have a suggestion? Contact Flexo.

The Plutus 2.0 Awards feature the following categories:

* Best New Personal Finance Blog

• Best New Personal Finance e-Book
• Best Economics Blog
• Best Investing Blog
• Best Real Estate Blog
• Best Debt Blog
• Best Tax Blog
• Best Frugality Blog
• Best Religious Finance Blog
• Best Non-Collaborative General Personal Finance Blog
• Best Collaborative Personal Finance Blog
• Best Canadian Personal Finance Blog
• Best International Personal Finance Blog
• Best Personal Finance Podcast
• Best Multi-Part Series
• Best Microblog
• BLOG OF THE YEAR 2009
• Have a suggestion? Contact Flexo.

The winner of each Plutus 2.0 Awards category will receive $20.09 to celebrate the year 2009 – but additional sponsors are welcome to come forward and provide an additional award in any category.

Your participation is eagerly anticipated!

Here are her Editor’s Picks:
If I Were A Wealthy Girl: Annual Financial Start-Up or Check-Up
Live Real Now: Babies Are Expensive
The Oblivious Investor: Finding Skilled Fund Managers
Steadfast Finances: Giving a Gift Someone Actually Likes or Wants Doubles the Value
Get Rich Slowly: You Can Negotiate Anything

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Mighty Bargain Hunter. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Having just ordered a box of business cards for myself, the logical thing to do would be to carry the cards with me. Most business cards in my wallet tend to shift around and rub against one another enough to leave that awful pencil or charcoal rubbed look on the face of the card, though, and that’s not something I want to hand out to a prospective client or employer.

In search of a business card carrying case, I want something that’s good quality. I’m looking for something that’s not flimsy or chintzy/faddish looking, but I’m not willing to pay the prices I’m seeing, for example, on Etsy. There are some excellent cases, sturdy looking and whatnot, but priced at $40 and $50 each. To my mind, that’s way too much. I would only be willing to pay around $10 or less for a card case because that’s the amount I personally value such an item.

That notion stopped me dead in my tracks for a minute, though. Is that the kind of mentality that gives rise to our disposable, consumerist society? We’re not actually willing to pay for quality so what we get are cheap, Made-in-probably-China items that will either fall apart in a year or less?

When are our pricing expectations artificially low? Or does that not matter so long as the market can provide the goods at a certain price? Or am I just making a mountain out of a molehill because people will buy what they want, eventually, so long as the price comes close to their expectations?

[You can find my everyday writing over at A Gai Shan Life.]

Here are his Editor’s Picks:
Foreigner’s Finance: Four gripes with Japanese personal finance
The Personal Financier: The dangers of excessive frugality and budgeting
Funny About Money: When Giving Goes Awry
Modern Gal: When Good Debt is Bad

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Well Heeled. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Here are my Editor’s Picks:

Small Steps for Big Change: You shouldn’t buy a house if…

Man Vs. Debt: There’s Always an Excuse Not to Give

The Digerati Life: Want To Day Trade? Try Paper Trading First

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Suburban Dollar. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

These are his Editor’s Picks:
Man Vs. Debt: The X-Men Guide to Unlocking Your Financial Mutant Powers
RabbitFunds: Does your investment strategy need to be on Ritalin?
Bible Money Matters: How Do You Plan To Manage Your Million Dollars?
Amateur Asset Allocator: How Many Hours Per Week Do You Work?

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by me, Revanche, at A Gai Shan Life. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Here are her Editor’s Picks:
Fiscal Geek: 10 Things Your Baby Doesn’t Need that Can Fund Their College Education
Sound Money Matters: An Emergency Fund Can Save you From Paycheck Errors
Good Financial Cents: What is a Penny Stock
Engaged Marriage: Marriage and Money: How to Improve Communication and Minimize Money Fights
Darwin’s Finance: Financial Literacy Survey Shows Abysmal Results for Americans

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Paul of Fiscal Geek. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Here are the Editor’s Picks:
Gather Little By Little: Best Investment for 2009: Use your Emergency Fund to pay off your debt
Bible Money Matters: The Great Big List Of 75 Budgeting Tools, Finance Softwares And Iphone Money Apps
Man Vs. Debt: Travel Hacking for Noobs: How We Save Hundreds on Airfare, Get Free Accommodation, & Make Money while Overseas
Own The Dollar: Why Dollar Cost Averaging Makes Sense and Works For Investors
Financial Highway: Best Credit Card

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Miss M of M is for Money. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Here are her Editor’s Picks:
Christian Finances: Is the 401k a bad idea?
Consumerism Commentary: Seven Zen Principles to Guide Your Money and Your Life
Len Penzo: My Store-Brand vs. Name-Brand Blind Taste-Test Experiment
Enemy of Debt: Enjoy Frugal Entertainment Without Breaking The Bank

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Tom of The Canadian Finance Blog. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

From a purely business perspective, my friend/mentor advised me not to quibble over who paid the bill when I dined out with an older, successful, networking acquaintance. “He can most certainly afford it, he invited you, and he can always write it off,” she asserts. These points were all true, at the time. The person in question is both gracious and helpful whenever possible leads come up, and has since taken the initiative to point me and my resume at highly placed persons who were interviewing for desirable positions. [At which point it’s up to me so that there isn’t impropriety or influence on my behalf which I would never ask for or expect.]

But what happens when the acquaintance morphs into a semi-friendship? When you’re meeting to catch up and tell stories, it’s no longer 100% business. I feel like that development then brings with it the obligation to offer to, and even insist on, paying sometimes. It’s only fair. I don’t want my acquaintance/now friend to think that I simply expect a great meal at his expense; that’s certainly not the case.

I’m aware that insisting on footing the bill when he has selected the restaurant, when he is more than financially comfortable [yes, finances have come up in the conversation in a career-related turn], and/or when I am unemployed seems to smack more of irrational pride than sense. But I’m unemployed, not destitute, and it hardly seems right to assume that I shouldn’t pay simply because I don’t have access to a corporate account. That seems like a recipe for brewing resentment; the line of reasoning that “you have more money than I, so let’s use your resources, thanks!” doesn’t sit well with me. Neither party’s resources should determine who pays. It can certainly influence the selection of the experience, but I think fair means that both parties take it in turn to pay.

How does the financial relationship change when your business relationship acquires shades of the personal? How should it?

[Disclosure: This post is also published at my blog, A Gai Shan Life.]

Here are Money Crasher’s Editor’s Picks:
My Life ROI: Gifts for Kids: Who Do They Belong To?
AllFinancialMatters: Bill Miller vs. the S&P 500 Index
Bargaineering : The Economics of Energy
Bargaineering: True Power of Compound Interest
Money Under 30: Seven Signs You’re At Risk for Identity Theft
Suburban Dollar: When Debtors Go AWOL
Mighty Bargain Hunter: Do this and you’ll manage your checking account successfully
Bible Money Matters: 10 Attributes Of The Perpetually Broke
Budgets Are Sexy: Does it matter who the “breadwinner” is anymore?
Man Vs. Debt: 92 Quotes About Debt That’ll Make You Think, Laugh, & Tweet!
Cash Money Life: The Early Adopters Tax

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Kelly of The Centsible Life. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

The sky-high unemployment rates, the unprecedented call for long-term unemployment benefits, the staggering number of people struggling to make it from one day to the next, all these indicators point to the wisdom of continued frugality.

Officials talk about a “jobless recovery” which can only mean that the depredations of this recession – homelessness due to foreclosure (NY Times), students carrying tens of thousands in debt with few job prospects (LA Times), people joining the Army as a last resort for family medical care (Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel) – continue to take a huge bite out of whatever remaining resources, and hope, people may have.  Rainy day accounts, emergency funds, family and friends are tapped out, public and private sources of assistance are equally drained as charitable donations disappear.

And with the constant political fights over every single solution, none of which seem terribly effective [not to get political here], these circumstances aren’t getting better in a hurry.

If you read the sometimes harsh, certainly intense comments over at Bargaineering about the proposed extension of unemployment benefits, you can see that there’s a dichotomy between those who are currently unemployed, and those who are not.  Many of those unemployed have been so for months, some for over a year, and I have to wonder how deeply this will affect our career paths.

Yet, for some of those who still bring home a paycheck, the deprivation of frugality palls and as this article in the Washington Post notes, “deep and lasting change might prove challenging in a country where the phrase “shop ‘til you drop” gets 1.7 million Google hits.”

I admit that I was fatigued by all the dire recession talk by mid-May, despite my own preparation for unemployment.   Who wouldn’t become sick of such constant negativity?  But my baseline has always been set on savings and frugality.  For many Americans, that’s still a concept with negative connotations: “I’m saving/spending less because the company’s going through layoffs,” “I’m cutting back because we have less money.”   There aren’t a lot of positives associated with the notion of New Economy frugality, just a lot of coping techniques.

Because of that, I have to wonder how this will all shake out.  Will we reach a median somewhere between the high-luxe spending of the boom years and the extreme belt-tightening of this past year?  Or are we looking at the beginnings of a fissure in American society where a greater gap opens between the haves and have-nots?  Or will we return to business as usual as the cycle turns again?

[You can find my everyday writing over at A Gai Shan Life.]

Len Penzo: 7 Deadly Sins of Personal Finance
Free Money Finance: 5 Stages of Investing Enlightenment
Bret Frohlich: The Economics of Energy
Bargaineering: Most Valuable Regular U.S. Coin
Money Help for Christians: The characteristics of the poor, middle-class & wealthy
M is for Money: Should colleges charge more for certain degrees?
Saving to Invest: Why even high-income earners are not far from the edge of poverty

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Money Crashers. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

I was just mulling over the struggle we experience when relationships with family and friends intersect with money. We see some of this all the time: the subtle dynamics of ” my sibling the rich one” vs. “my cousin the poor one,” the profligate vs. the saver, the haves vs. the have-nots. Generational money (or lack of it) adds another layer of complexity to the picture, as does the responsibility factor: who should or must step up when times get tough? And how?

Today, more than any other time in my almost four years of blogging, this question carries an urgency thanks to the economy we’re facing. With an all-time unemployment high, stringent credit throughout the market, and businesses still staggering under the pressure, it’s no wonder that people will need a helping hand from time to time. Things happen, life happens.

It’s critical that as a possible resource, you make sure that your finances are in order. It’s a mistake to lend money that you cannot afford to lose. In this case, learn to say no. It can be tough.

If you can afford to lose it, and decide that you are at ease with the idea of losing it, if you choose to give a family or friend a loan, seriously consider making it a gift. I’m not encouraging giving the recipient a free ride, whether or not you choose to tell the person in question that it’s a gift is up to you: every situation is different and perhaps the person is a younger sibling or a friend or a child who needs the opportunity to take responsibility. That’s fine, but for the sake of your sanity, make it a gift on your part.

Early on, that suggestion didn’t make sense to me, but it’s starting to now. After many years of quietly resenting that the sibling loans I made, and after giving myself countless nights of heartburn when the money never materialized, it dawned on me that I honestly couldn’t afford to give that money away in the first place. The loan wasn’t a permanent solution, and beyond that, it was causing me more harm than good.

Even when I could afford to let go of the money, the unfulfilled expectations were driving me Crazy. Thus, in our most recent debacle, the verbal message to my father was: pay me back. In my heart though, I just let it go, and on my desk, my budget was reworked. Adios, money!

It’s still irritating to be out that money, but it’s not keeping me up nights fussing about what else he spent the money on or why he failed to repay the loan. It’s less personal, in a way. And in the grand scheme of things, a good night’s sleep is more important than $500 that won’t put me in the poorhouse.

[Hi! My name is Revanche, and I normally write at my own PF blog: A Gai Shan Life.]