Coffee heat rising

Moments of Fame

At the74th Carnival of Money Stories, Not the Jet Set has placed Funny’s“lemonade from lemons”saga among the Editor’s Picks! Thanks very much for that, NTJS. At this carnival, Budgets Are Sexy tells the tale of the timehe had to pay for his own Starbucks(can you imagine? his employer hands out gift cards to Starbucks!). Trees Full of Money describesthe unfortunate decision to lease a Toyota 4-Runner; the first installment appears here. And No More Spending rejectsthe temptation posed by glossy magazines.

Broke Grad Student has posted the 167th Carnival of Personal Finance, with a Beijing Olympics theme. Funny’s squib about the national debt and its likely baleful effect on the US and world economy over the next decade or two appears here. Once again, many great stories here. At Alpha Consumer, Kimberly reminds me why I used to love being a journalist (because you can ask as many nosy questions as you like!) with an interesting report on how much bloggers earn, a story that incidentally reveals the traffic some blogs generate. The Financial Blogger has a hilarious piece on how some songs you’ll recognize relate to personal finance…along the way he confirms this old bat’s suspicions about what students are actually thinking about in class. 😀 In the suspicions confirmed department, Brip Blap reveals the truth about passive income, or so he says. The Wisdom Journal, on a more serious note, advises common sense when it comes to frugality. And Not the Jet Set describes an error on the bank’s part and the nuisance it led to.

The Make It from Scratch Carnival is up at Learning the Ropes, where Funny’s beauty tip for olive-oil hair conditioning appears above the fold. TM were pleased to see our recipe for fried green tomatoes also made the cut. Speaking of tomatoes — and frugality — My Daily Dollars has a tasty-sounding plan for a $3.00 family meal made with home-grown tomatoes.

Fire Finance hosts the 140th Festival of Frugality. As an employee of the Great Desert University, a decidedly public school given to larding FTE with (largely fraudulent) online courses and concocting graduate programs that do not require annoying details like the GRE or the GMAT, Funny is thrilled to see Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity hold forth on reasons not to go to a private college…but wait! snap out of that! It’s a Devil’s Advocate post. Speaking of the outcome of fraudulent practices, Care One Credit offers some strategies to avoid foreclosure. Back on campus, Frugal in the Fruitlands points out some of the many benefits colleges and universities offer alumni. Funny’s post on falling off the frugality wagon appears in this week’s Festival.

PF Buzz hosts the 27th Money Hacks Carnival, where Funny’s rave about the glories of doing business with credit unions appears. Here, Fiscal Liberty offers ten things to know before refinancing; No Debt Plan suggests some ways to save money on watering the lawn; and Realm of Prosperity tries to save on college textbooks.