Here and There around the Blogosphere

Well, let’s start the week with a look around to see what’s going on.

• Biggest news in the PF blogosphere is J. Money got canned! He’s not crying, though. He had himself prepared and even is set up so he can regard it not as a disaster but as an opportunity. Go for it, J.!

• At The Digerati Life, Silicon Valley Blogger offers five ways to beat holiday stress. All the fake (and expensive) “cheer” really can be depressing. These are smart ways to help stay on an even keel.

• Mrs. Accountability tells an amazing story about a family who fostered her for a while when she was young—and the effect their financial habits had on her thinking.

• Over at the Ultimate Money Blog, Mrs. Money faces a family crisis and considers what money is really worth.

• At Money Crush, Jackie describes a cool blogospheric giving campaign that netted a nice chunk of dough for charity.

• Bargain Babe provides a lead to Swagbucks and a handy link to sign up. Swagbucks is a rewards site that pays you in virtual currency just for searching the Web. LOL! If I’d signed up for this a few years ago, by now I’d be a virtual zillionaire!

• At 23toLife.com, Lesley tells an amazing story that rings a bell loudly in my ear. She managed to cull her home library from 1,200 dustcatchers to just 33 books! Wow…I’ve never counted my books—too scary—but of late have been thinking it’s past time to get rid of all five ceiling-to-floor shelving units filled with tomes I no longer use, thanks to the Internet. The wallsful of books could be replaced with a Kindle. Maybe.

• Eemusings has a very interesting and thoughtful post on a similar topic at Musings of an Abstract Aucklander, also spinning off the issue of paring down the book collection: finding a balance between hoarding and minimalism. A nice read at an elegant and well written site.

• At Ginger Won’t Snap, Ginger Corsair describes a bizarre incident that happened when she and her roommate rented a room through Airbnb.com. This is an interesting new-to-me site—check out Ginger’s extremely cool “About” page.

• Check  out this easy and tasty lemon cake Revanche came up with at Gai Shan Life, from which follows a reflection on her relocation.

• At Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, Crystal elicited a slew of comments with a rumination over how much she loves her husband and her life with him and what would ensue if anything happened to him.

• Frugal Scholar has a nice post on the art of making do. We know she’s an artist at finding miraculous things at the thrift store. Here she marvels at the American obsession for the perfect object.

• I love Donna Freedman’s graceful idea for “stealth giving.” We should all make a pact to do this all year round in 2011.

• Now that he’s a dad, Evan at My Journey to Millions is doing his own en famille giving with a 529 plan, saving toward the kid’s future college expenses. He describes 529 plans and how to set one up for your kids.

• At Simply Forties, Mary demonstrates a really neat way to wrap gifts inexpensively. Almost makes me feel sorry I have plenty of Christmas wrap left over from last year!

• And at I Pick Up Pennies, Abigail has about had it with the Christmas marketing frenzy, especially the “sales” that come with catches and deceptive practices. Maybe, as some of her readers suggest, it’s time to opt out of the gigantic Xmas Potlatch.

Want to tell your money story? Got a money question? J.D. Roth is looking for readers to contribute to Get Rich Slowly’s “Reader Stories” and “Ask the Readers” departments. He’s also soliciting guest posts. Check out the details here.

Free Money Finance is seeking submissions for this year’s March Madness. Last year FaM won a few dollars for the All Saint’s choir. His announcement went up on the 14th—hope it’s not too late to submit something for this year’s contest. Got any nominations?