Moments of Fame

We have a new PF carnival out there and its very first edition is online: the DIY Jubilee at Financial Wellness Project. The carnival is still quite small, but I’m sure it will grow. Funny’s discovery that ashes will polish silver appears among the 10 selections. If you’re craving a big weekend job that will save you some bucks, check out Condo Blues’s elaborate how-to on sealing leaks in your ductwork. On a related topic, Heather at the Greenest Dollar discusses insulating your home. And if all that work leaves you craving some play, check out the kid-friendly DIY Christmas presents at More4Kids Family.

Back in the land of vast carnivals, Andy hosts the 184th Carnival of Personal Financeat Saving to Invest. He’s in Australia just now and kicks off the round-up with a photo of the Sydney Opera House. More pix of that amazing country follow. Here’s a useful reference for those who tweet:at Bible Money Matters, Peter lists 125 PF bloggers who haunt Twitter. Four Pillars has a lively discussion going about a pet peeve of mine, business owners who advertise their Christianity. BripBlap wonders if saving might be stupid…and after losing a fair amount of my shirt (and bra) in the market, I’m beginning to wonder, too. The real stupidity, IMHO, was in not seeing where the Bush Administration’s voodoo economics were taking us and so failing to prepare for recession as soon as Dubya and his puppetmasters took office. Speaking of planned obsolescence (which I suppose is what the two-term limit amounts to), Funny’s less political comment on the same appears in this carnival.

Dorian Wales has posted the 90th Carnival of Money Stories at The Personal Financier, where Funny’s rant about privacy-invading call center employees appears. SVB makes editor’s pick here, with a savvy list of ten things to do when you get laid off. StumbleForward.com writes on a subject that I haven’t seen discussed in any other PF blog: the timeshare scam. Author Christopher Holdheide describes several ways to get out of a timeshare…it ain’t easy! No Debt Plan discusses the comparative advantages of 30-year and 15-year mortgagesand comes up in favor of the 30-year plan.

The Festival of Frugality has jumped the pond for its 157th edition and landed at Miss Thrifty’s site. The highlight here is a gracious and beautiful video message from the Queen of England. After that we turn to the posts, headed up by an extremely interesting list of clues about cell phone usage from MobileMaven. At Budgets are Sexy, they’re figuring how to send the Mrs. through graduate school. Frugal Homemaker Plus is startled to learn that she’s single-handedly bringing down the world economy with her miserly frugal habits…she and all the rest of us cheapskates, eh? Speaking of miserly curmudgeons, Funny’s rant about clutter appears in this carnival.

This week’s Make It from Scratch Carnival appears at Adventures in the 100-Acre Woods. As usual, a lot of dangerously delicious recipes appear in this round-up. Uh oh…check (heh) out this close-to-authentic Czech potato salad. Believe I’ll make some of that today. Mary at Simply Forties suggests trying a duck for your holiday dinner—M’jihito and I did it for Thanksgiving, and I can testify that the results were well worth the effort. Almost Frugal Food posts five wonderful ideas for using leftover cranberry sauce…some of which look better than the original use. Funny’s series of recipes for Christmas dinner appears in this carnival.

The 44th Money Hacks Carnival is up Where Are You Now. Funny’s justification for hiring a couple of cleaning persons surfaces in this round-up. Scott Crawford at DebtGoal has an extremely interesting article about the possible unintended consequences of the pending credit-card reform regulations. Hm. We may all soon be paying for purchases with cash, check, or debit card. Dividends for Life discusses investment in long-term bonds and considers whether this is a good time to buy. Mr. Tough Money Love looks askance (far askance!) at Our Beloved Leaders’ strategy to combat the recession. And at a second site, Go to Retirement, the same author ruminates on the advisability of waiting till age 70 to collect retirement.