The Best of: Carnivals and Festivals January 27 – February 02, 2007

This week, work was very hectic. It seemed as though, it was raining deadlines in my part of the world. Good thing about deadlines though, is that they mark the end of one phase. So here I am, with an entire weekend to myself. The better half and I have planned to spend the entire day out tomorrow. So today, I decided to curl up and catch up on all the great carnivals and festivals for the week. I have come to realize that carnivals and festivals are a great way to read what others have to say, especially when you don’t have the time to track each and every blog every single day. Since folks usually send in their best work to carnivals, there’s less fluff to wade through. If you are even shorter on time, feel free to stop by here every weekend (hopefully!) to read about my picks :)

During the past few weeks I have noticed among the regular weekly carnivals, I have started to enjoy the Festival of Frugality a lot more than the Carnival of Personal Finance. The number of entries in the CoPF is far too many and several articles are just short blurbs which don’t particularly inspire me. Also, since the coverage is fairly broad, there are a lot of entries that I am just not interested in. The FoF on the other hand has so many inspiring articles, that it becomes difficult for me to pick three or four to highlight here! So, as of today we start out with FoF first.

This week, the Festival of Frugality was hosted at Money, Matter, and More Musings. Without further ado, here are my favorites -

• I really loved Is it OK if Your Bling Bling comes from Costco? at Ask Mr. Credit Card. The reason is two fold – (a) I had no clue that Costco sold diamonds and this was new information for me (the point that I will likely not use that information in the near future is moot, in my opinion) and (b) The author made a effort to contact several different bloggers and have them participate in the poll. As a result, in addition to the excellent write up by the author, there are some excellent comments by readers. What more can you ask from a blog post!


• Stop Overspending Now! 14 Ways To Conquer Binge Buying at The Digerati Life is another one I enjoyed reading, this week. I have read a lot of articles about overspending and impule buying, but what sets this article apart is that SVB (author) digs below the surface and inspects the causes for this behavior and ties the solutions to these causes. It really hit the spot for me. Check it out!


• And while we are looking into ourselves, check out Money Saving Pop Quiz. How Frugal Are You? at Money $mart Life. It’s light reading that invokes deep thinking. I dig such things :) A quiz graded on the honor system, by using common sense as a judge. Cool :)


• And since we have a trend here of going from deep stuff to light reading, I have to end this week’s list with a mention of 25 Ways to Cook an Egg at The Frugal Law Student. The title says it all :)

And as I said earlier, the Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted this week at Fivecentnickel. The CoPF these days reminds me of the time when I had picked up "crime and punishment" from the library, but never got around to reading it since it was too darned bulky :( So, I will highlight just one of the article this week and that is Deconstructing Robert Kiyosaki at The Simple Dollar. I recently read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and have a very mixed opinion of Kiyosaki. So I thoroughly enjoyed Trent’s take on Kiyosaki, followed in the comments by readers' take on Trent’s take on Kiyosaki, Trent’s defense, readers jumping into Trents defense and a whole lot of readers' take on Kiyosaki. If you are like me and enjoys listening to arguments about both the sides of an issue, you will just LOVE this article!

The last carnival in today’s "Best of" is the Carnival of Ethics, Values and Personal Finance hosted at Tired but Happy. This is just the second edition of this carnival, but it has already wormed its way into my heart. Nothing tests a person’s ethics and values like the quest for money. And a carnival dedicated to investigating these issues and sharing related stories and experiences is just amazing. Here are my favorites from this week’s carnival -

• Why Work at Worldwide Success is a beautiful piece that discusses the merits of work, beyond the mere compensation perspective. I have recently started working and found this article very motivating. Check it out.


• I don’t know what’s with all the diamond related posts… maybe something to do with Valentine’s day coming up. I personally am not crazy about diamond rings, and really enjoyed reading this article. The greatest story ever sold is a fantasy covered in blood at Wise Bread is a nice in-depth look at the "diamond is forever" story. I particularly liked the statement "The reason a "diamond is forever" is because you’re basically stuck with it. You’ll never be able to resell it except to a pawn shop. Even a jeweler (the few who would be willing to buy it) would offer a fraction of what you paid."


• Getting any gift this Valentine’s day? Check out Valentine's Day With A Heart (Fair Trade) at Money and Values to find out more about gifts that say a little more than "I love you".


• Last, but not the least, hare’s a post that discusses the dilemma I have been dealing with over the past few daysabout blog Monetization. Get up off my ads - why advertising sucks is a passionately written article at Stingy Students . If you have ever had this conundrum, you will love this article.

Hmmmm….another Saturday afternoon well spent! I hope you enjoy these finds as much as I did!

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