This week I’ve had the privilege to join an amazing new group of personal finance bloggers called the Pecuniary Associates. These bloggers help challenge the way I think about spending and saving money. I was also able to guest post and read some other amazing personal finance articles from around the web.

Pecuniarities wrote Our Financial Lent: Giving up Chocolate and Ice Cream for a Month to Save $14. I’ve been able to stay the course and not spend money at Starbucks for my daily cafe Americano and scone. I have slipped once or twice, as we have a Starbucks at our Target store. I figure by brewing my coffee at home we’ve managed to save hundreds, if not thousands each year.

Living Well On Less wrote Losing weight can save you money and I’ve found some cheap ways to exercise with the family include riding our bikes and playing tennis. I love all the free and inexpensive ways we can all stay fit and have fun as a family.

Financial Nut wrote America’s Cheapest Family: Raising 5 Kids On 35k Per Year. I am always inspired by families like these who have a philosophy of establishing saving goals and sticking to them.

Counting My Pennies wrote Friends and money don’t mix. Having a roommate can certainly put stress on your budget if you don’t have a plan for community expenses.

Greener Pastures: Personal Finance wrote It’s EPA Fix a Leak Week. Once small leak that drips every second could waste up to 3,000 gallons a year. Time to do a spring checkup around the house.

Personal Finance Carnivals

Green Panda Treehouse hosted Carnival of Personal Finance#196: Music Edition

Good Financial Cents hosted Money Hacks Carnival- March Madness Baby!

Remodeling This Life hosted Festival of Frugality #169: St. Patrick’s Day Edition

Great Personal Finance Blog Reads:

The Greenest Dollar wrote Cut Your Electricity Costs With An Energy Monitor. I’ve looked at purchasing the Kill A Watt with a friend to help find out what appliances use the most power and if we should upgrade any older units.

Smart Passive Income Blog wrote How to Publish an Ebook Series – Part 1 – Hard Copy vs. Ebook. Pat offers some wonderful insight to creating an ebook.

Passive Family Income wrote Cutting out Wasteful Spending from the Budget.

The Almost Millionaire wrote How I Shaved $30,000 From My Family Budget. I also appealed our property tax bill and was granted an $800 reduction.

Guest Blog Post

This week I wrote a guest post for Yielding Wealth called Passive Income Opportunities In Your Job

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photo credit: Rob Lee

This week I’ve found some great personal finance blogs and one in particular made me laugh out loud. You’ll find it among the wonderful articles found in my Google reader this week. If you are new to The Passive Dad or a regular visitor, I hope you consider subscribing to my blog and receive free updates via email or RSS reader.

Living Almost Large wrote Hip to Clip? about the trend she’s noticed of shoppers using coupons. I’ve been clipping now for about 2 months and enjoy interacting with other shoppers. I’ve managed to help out some shoppers when I had an extra 20% off coupon that I didn’t need.

If you are looking for a great source for coupons, be sure to checkout Coupon Dad before your next grocery trip.

The Family Wallet wrote Freezing Meat to Save Money and I’ve actually done this recently. We had a local store advertising tri-tip for $2.77 a pound and I bought several packages for our freezer. We bbq almost every weekend and we’ll use it up this spring and summer. Do you freeze meat or veggies if you find a good deal?

Money Ning wrote The Secret to Having More Time and Being More Organized and asks how you spend your time each day. Do you accomplish more if you stay busy throughout the day or if you have more down time?

One Frugal Girl wrote Real Numbers: Eating at Home Saved us over $130 this Month and shows how eating at home can really add up.

Not Made Of Money wrote The Tightwad Gazette – 4 Things I Learned from the Queen of Thrift and mentions how precious space can be in your home. It feels like I’m always having to find another way to store kids clothes in the garage. Currently we have the plastic stacking bins with different ages and clothes marked on the outside.

No Debt Plan wrote How to Start the Drug Store Game and walks through the process of saving money utilizing coupons and money saving programs. I’m looking forward to following Kevin’s progress.

Nancy Zimmerman wrote the funniest post I’ve read all week called Friday Fun: the Taco Bell mgr who wouldn’t accept the $2 bill as payment. You’ve got to read this perfect narration of what happened when she tried to buy a burrito. It seemed that Taco Bell thought she had “funny money”. Have you ever had someone reject a $2 bill before?

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This week I surpassed 1,000 twitter followers and am amazed at the growth potential of this social media giant. Networking with other twitter users who share similar savings goals can be very addicting. I especially enjoy finding out what friends are doing and how they react to the economic news of the day. Be sure to add me as a friend on Twitter or open a free account so we can network together.

Here are some of the posts I enjoyed from other personal finance bloggers:

Passive Family Income wrote Passive Income Opportunities – Think Creatively and asks readers to get creative about finding passive income sources.

Dusty @ Becoming Debt Free wrote 100 Articles On eHow – Why It Is Important To Set Goals. Dusty has a goal of writing 15 ehow articles for passive income during the month of March. Ehow can be a fantastic way to earn passive income through writing.

Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life wrote a post called Taxes For Bloggers where she discusses income sources and deductions for bloggers to consider during tax season. This will be a helpful list to print out and reference throughout 2009.

Prime Time Money wrote 529 Plan and College Savings: Should We Contribute?
Some great comments challenge readers to consider saving for retirement before establishing a college savings account for children.

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photo credit: Rob Young

GE is one of my favorite investments over the last decade and made the decision to slash it’s dividend this week to cut costs. The move by GE will free up over 9 billion dollars and cut’s the dividend to 10 cents a share. GE is a core holding in many mutual funds and I probably indirectly own a few shares in my Vanguard 500 fund. Is this the time to snatch-up shares of a beaten down titan like GE, or do you focus on building up your savings account? Maybe you are doing both. Have you started a 529 account for your children? This could be a great opportunity to invest for college with today’s stock discounts.

Some of my favorite reads from personal finance blogs that challenged me to save more money:

Greener Pastures: Personal Finance wrote The Dreaded Bi-Weekly Paycheck and challenged Lisa to utilize ING and help budget her expenses and savings.

Bargaineering wrote Ever Go Dumpster Diving? I worked for an investment bank that would throw out new items left over from conferences. I salvaged leather bags, notebooks, and tons of pens and markers.

The Thrifty Life wrote Why It Pays To Speak Up.

Budgets are Sexy wrote How Frugal is too Frugal? (when you don’t have a life anymore) I would consider frugal as utilizing your resources and income wisely and cheap being the person who doesn’t consider the entire family unit when making budget decisions.

Fiscal Fizzle wrote The Lifetime Cost of Owning a Dog and breaks down all the fees associated with owning pets.

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photo credit: laffy4k

Today my blog is in the first round of a basketball tournament against giant The Street.com blog called Main Street. Well, not actually basketball. Free Money Finance is holding a March Madness personal finance blog tournament and my post 10 Ways To Make Your Stuff Feel New Again is competing. I’m honored to be able to participate in the March Madness tournament and am thrilled that some new readers are able to visit my blog. If you are visiting from FMF, welcome and I hope you take a few moments to read some of my blog posts about passive income ideas. Feel free to leave a comment and join in the discussion at The Passive Dad. Thank you.

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