Moments of Fame

Hallowe’en comes to the Festival of Frugality at Living Well on Less, where some very weird characters appear at the Monster Mash. Funny’s report on the fall garden (you have to live in Zones 9 or 10 to appreciate it) appears in this round-up. For those of you who live in more normal climates, check out Frugal Pursuit’s tips for how to prepare your garden for autumn and winter. Check out the amazing photo and Money Ning’s self-questioning about the wisdom of buying certain products in bulk. Saving Advice has an interesting post on the “freegan” lifestyle which has elicited some even more interesting comments.

Hot diggety! If you blog, check out Financial Wellness Project, where FWP uses a heuristic theme for the 82nd Carnival of Money Stories that generates about a jillion new ideas for posts: he asks a series of questions related to his plan to move to full-time freelancing. Along the way, he fills the carnival with a treasure chest of very interesting pieces, among which he has kindly included one of Funny’s several rants about the Qwest misadventure. In FWP’s editor’s pick, Mr. Credit Card’s Mrs. describes what happened in the couple’s lives after they declared bankruptcy. The story is at once inspiring and cautionary, and shows that the bankruptcy laws should never have been changed to cut off this avenue for ordinary people trapped in credit-card debt to turn their finances around. The Financial Blogger tells a funny job interview story, one that will especially entertain anyone who’s ever had to screen job candidates. For those of us who are blowing around on the winds of layoff rumors, Retired at 47 has some encouraging words…his story makes me think I may be able to pull off unemployment without too much agony.

The current Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Master Your Card.