Ta-Da!

For some reason, I love the hokey ’50’s-ness of the title. Reminds me of the ‘Cavalcade of Stars’ or something like that. I am thinking of starting a Gala, but I’m not sure what kind yet.

Anyhow, here are the highlights:

Perennial favorite, LAMoneyGuy on those two old ladies who were in the Law & Order-like plot to kill homeless men and collect insurance.

Bob of our Cavalcade Host, InsureBlog, writes about Single Disease policies.

Though I’m not sure how this is related to insurance or risk, I love this post by Wenchypoo. I find luxury creep an obnoxious result of advertising, hence my exhortation to kill your television.

This one touches a nerve. I went to the dentist recently and was handed a disclosure sheet about ’silver’ fillings which were really a mix of silver & mercury amalgam. It traces back to this article which also hits a nerve.

I have taken lots of herbal medicines as a child and I absolutely do not condone it. Herbal medicines have a serious physiological effect and too many things are unknown about them. DO NOT take herbal medications. They really do mess with your metabolism and physiology. I was meant to be underweight as a child and a slender adult. My mother would force feed me herbal medicines to fatten me up when I did not need it. In the end, IT DID NOT WORK. The effects were only temporary. Once the substances passed through the system my body returned to its natural metabolism and shed the weight I had put on while consuming the preparations. The net financial effect was also that my mother wasted thousands of dollars she could have been saving.

If you want to take packaged supplements of bee pollen and cranberry pills, be my guest. I have been known to pop an acidophilus pill or two. There’s nothing wrong with eating local honey, etc. But I absolutely do not recommend taking prepared herbs of unknown strength and potency for any reason.

I’ve got family & friends who consume this stuff and are practitioners of herbal medicine. It’s their choice, but I urge you to do some research about what the heck you are taking and err on the side caution if you think this is the choice you wish to make.

Serendipitiously, the NYT has an article today about places to rent in NYC for $1000.00 a month. No, they aren’t in Manhattan, but they are certainly cheaper than my condo fees and mortgage. Does that mean I’m ready to make a move to NYC? Not hardly, but if you’re willing to live in a 350 sq. ft. studio, there may be something out there for you.

Best piece of advice from the article? If you see something you like for the right price, jump on it.

Tip: May require login. Visit Bugmenot if you need one.

I was inspired to write this after following Flexo’s apartment search posts.

A friend of mine works in IT in Pennsyltucky. To be more generous, it’s in Amish Country. We were discussing rents and when we decided to compare the DC market to Lancaster, PA. A quick look at posted rents at Craigslist.com will show that DC 2-bedroom apartments are at least $1500 depending on your amenities and neighborhood.

A 2-bedroom apartment with hardwood floors, high ceilings, dishwasher, disposal, off-street parking in a safe commercial/residential district in Arlington runs for much more than that. You’re probably going to pay $1700. In Lancaster, try less than $600. I nearly choked when I heard that figure.

Of course, I would hate living in Amish country. Scrapple is a nostalgic breakfast item for me, but I really hate riding in traffic behind horse and buggies. Oh wait, I’m still going faster than I would in rush hour traffic on the Beltway.

Cow tipping isn’t fun for me, so the price I pay for living near the center of power in the free world is the high cost of housing.

This is my first time hosting, so if you are new to MFC, welcome! 51 is an interesting number. It seems like it might be prime, like 1, 11, 31 or 41, but it’s not. It’s 3 times 17. It’s one of my favorites since no one really knows the seventeens. I admit, I only know them up to 3 x 17. This fact comes in handy when playing card games with three people and you have give everyone the same number of cards out of a deck of 52.

There were a lot of submissions this week and I exercised my right as the Carnival hostess to pick and choose the ones I felt should be included. I filtered out submissions that were mainly about Investing, because there’s another Carnival for that.

I also exerted some blatant favoritism for my blogroll peeps by putting their submissions at the top (in no particular order, but roughly by order submitted), followed by new submitters (one!) and then all the rest. The easiest way to get on my blogroll is to ask. I do have some minimum criteria, like being at least 3 months old. Email me at mapgirlsfiscalchallege at Gmail’s mail service.

Thank you for visiting and now sit back and enjoy the show!

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Claire at Tired but Happy presents Financial Blind Spots and Misconceptions.

Dawn at Queercents presents Taxed on Benefits.

Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog presents What’s a Hard Credit Check, And Why They’re Valuable.

Flexo at Consumerism Commentary presents Does This Number Impress You.

LA MoneyGuy presents Lifestage Conversations posted at It’s Just Money.

Single Ma at Single Ma’s Fabulous Financials presents Should I Tithe While Paying Off Debt?

Amanda at Young and Broke presents New or Used Cars: Finding What’s Right for You.

Free Money Finance at Free Money Finance presents Turn Your Hobby into a Career and Love What You Do While You Earn.

jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents WGES - Alternative to BG&E .

Nina Smith presents Thrifty posted at Queercents.

JLP presents How Much Can You Save in a Lifetime posted at AllThingsFinancial.

Dawn at Frugal for Life presents Moving the Score in My Favor.

Cap at StopBuyingCrap.com presents HOWTO: Choose a Student Loan Consolidation Lender.

nickel at fivecentnickel.com presents Ethanol-Blended Gas = Lower Gas Mileage?

Jeffrey Strain at Personal Finance Advice presents Dave Ramsey Is God.

Bill at Ask Uncle Bill presents Taxes Country by Country.

[First time submitter!] Michael at It’s Your Money: Money Musings presents Opening A Child’s ING DIRECT Account.

Don’t Mess With Taxes presents Give now, get back at tax time.

For a little international perspective on college tuition, read Big Cajun Man on a University Education in Canada posted at Canadian Financial Stuff.

King of Debt presents Applying For a Mortgage is Tough posted at We’re In Debt.

thatedeguy presents PFBlog writing challenge: How do we improve? posted at A Penny Saved….

Chris Quimby presents Watts the Problem? posted at Chris Quimby, CPC - Certified Public Comedian.

supermom_in_ny presents How To Shop At The Mall, But Pay LESS! posted at Getting Out Of Debt.

Bob Vineyard, CLU presents Cancer Plans posted at InsureBlog.

Kevin Surbaugh at Becoming and Staying Debt Free presents What do the Billionaires Drive?.

Paul at Paul’s Tips presents The easiest way to fool smart people .

Jeff Howard at JeffSHoward.com - Ideas on Financial Planning, Wealth Management, Investing, and Economics presents Over-Diversification: How Much Diversification Do You Need?.

Victor Fam at Towards Better Life presents What If You Lose Your Job?.

David Porter presents Is Traditional Journalism Dead? posted at Pacesetter Mortgage Blog.

Gullyborg at Resistance is futile! presents We’d have more money if we were gay.

AboutPMI at About PMI presents Mortgage Rates Increase, Good for Homebuyer’s PMI .

Jason at Pragmatic Finance presents Keep track of all your finances and accounts with Yodlee.

Amy Allen Clark at The MotherLoad presents Frugal Teacher Gift.

Financial Reflections at Financial Reflections presents 6 Questions to Ask About Life Insurance.

Steve Mertz at In Cash Flow We Trust presents Personal Finance Tip: What Do You Need To Let Go Of?

Steve Faber presents HELOC your way to independence? Maybe So, Maybe Not posted at Debt Free.

Bill Perry presents Why Charity is Essential in Pursuit of Prosperity.

Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade presents Rejected Offers to Purchase Real Estate.

Pete at My Financial Awareness presents When “Spend Less & Earn More� Just Doesn’t Work.

frugal presents Engineer Salaries in Silicon Valley posted at My 1st Million At 33.

Harrison Loke at Journey To Financial Freedom presents 9 good Habits In Personal Finance.

George at Fat Pitch Financials presents Home Depot Inc Investor Shopping Experiences.

Richard Todd at lovely products presents On Cash-Back Credit Cards.

Tony Miller presents SavingMoney » How To Make Collection Agencies Delete Negative Accounts posted at SavingMoney.

Christine Kane presents Getting Things Cheap posted at Christine Kane - Blog.

Joe Kritan at Roth & Company Tax Update presents FORGET THE MAINE! IRS THROWS IN TOWEL ON SPANISH AMERICAN WAR TELEPHONE EXCISE TAX.

Vince Chan presents PFDigg Your Favourite Personal Finance News! posted at Investorial.

Next week’s Carnival is being hosted by Financial Fruition.

[EDIT] Jason is at Pragmatic Finance. Not Jason.

Olivia Hsu Decker, luxury real estate agent. You should check out her firm’s website at Decker Bullock. Like Curbed, I’m not wild about the website either. For all those millions, they could do with some flashier web design.

I’d like to own two luxurious palaces in France too. Sheez. Color me green with envy today.

This is a story about the Carmody family of Connecticut. The oldest daughter makes $40K a year and lives at home. Her older brother makes about $30K and also lives at home. The youngest just finished college, and not surprisingly, also lives at home.

I am horrified because their parents seem to imply they are cannibalizing their retirement contributions to support all three kids living at home in a comfortable lifestyle. The parents make $90K annually and still find it hard to make ends meet.

I know I made the financially crippling decision to leave home after finishing school, but to be 25 or 27 and still spending selfishly doesn’t seem very wise to me. I left home and I lived hand to mouth for a few years, arguably until last year. But that lifestyle translated into a mentality where I don’t need new things all the time. (Listen carefully to the older daughter about shopping.)

What do you think? Do you think all these folks need an attitude adjustment? I do!

The short version, I’m down by less than $10. The long version, I am ramping up my summer travel spending, so I count myself lucky to only be down by ten dollars after buying airline tickets. However, I am experiencing weird fiddly problems with Quicken and how it tracks transfers between a mortgage and checking accounts. I also don’t like when the mortgage statement arrives with the final numbers since I like to close the accounting month as close to the first as possible, i.e. get my net worth/balance sheet together for the prior month on the 1st.

Don’t get me wrong. I still love Quicken and find it very important for tracking my expenses, but I still use a spreadsheet to gather my numbers for my graph.

Five things meme.

I have to think hard about this one.

1) Fiber: yarn and wools for spinning. I’d hate to give up my hobby. Fortunately I have a lot of stuff stashed away right now. I haven’t bought any since I quit working at the yarn shop a few months ago.

2) Gourmet cheese: In the summer, I love cheese with bread and a ice cold vegetable (red pepper, cucumber, tomato) for lunch. Giving up stinky cheese would be giving up all my calcium for the day. (I hate milk.)

3) Trips: I’d hate to give up my camping trips or trips to visit family x-country.

4) Dining out: I buy my lunch almost every day at work. Because I’m controlling portions, I can spend less than $4.00 on some days. I’m not sure I could bring my lunch for cheaper than that, but I know I can spend less than $5-7/day if I bring something from home.

5) Driving: I drive every where right now. In DC, driving your car & not drinking is a LOT cheaper than cabbing it and drinking, but only if you don’t pay for parking (a near mortal sin in my mind). While I would love to ride the bus and ditch the car altogether, sometimes I like opening up the car windows/roof and stepping on the gas flying down the highway on a summer’s day. Giving up driving would stink.

Of course, now the question is, would I be able to give this stuff up? I know I’d definitely backslide.

I’ll be hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance next week. Please, please, please use a Carnival Submission form. (You can find one at Conservative Cat). I am not a HTML code-monkey and your direct and uncoded submissions will not be treated the same as form submissions.

PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC. If your post is more appropriate for the Carnival of Investing or Business, please submit it over there. I’m getting slightly overwhelmed with the breadth of submissions, some of which appear to be from commercially-oriented sites. Carnivals are a great way to increase traffic to your site, however, they shouldn’t be used as free cross-website advertisements. Make sure your post has something to offer the reader if they were to receive it as plaintext.

Thank you for listening.

/me steps of soapbox.