Normally when I participate in a blog carnival, I write it up as an entire post on its own. That’s because I like to share the different articles and links that were included in the carnival along with my thoughts on the writing there. However, I’m doing it differently this week since I participated in several blog carnivals at once. I’m just doing a roundup because the same post was included in so many carnivals. If you’re interested in the topic of the carnival, I encourage you to follow the link to check out all of the other great articles that were included along with mine.

The post was an educational article called Beware! 15 Common Scams that Can Steal Your Money. It was included in the following carnivals:

• Struggling Bumbling Newbies carnival
• Working at Home Blog Carnival
• Carnival of Money Stories
• Carnival of Everything Personal Finance
• eBay and Small Business Carnival
• Money Hacks Carnival

I thought it was a good article and I hope that others do as well. It’s certainly included with some top articles in these carnivals!

Tags: blog carnival, links, money, Personal Finance, scams

I recently wrote an article with ten tips to avoid picking up the bill. As a general rule, these tips weren’t about skipping out on your part of the bill. They were simply about how to avoid paying for other people when you go out.

These tips fell into three basic categories:

1. Getting your mind straight. These tips were related to making sure that you understand why you feel obligated to pick up the bill and to work on not feeling that way.
2. Making smart payment choices. These tips included ideas like paying your part in cash (so you don’t end up with the whole bill on your credit card) and making a mobile payment transaction at the table to repay someone who has just paid for your part of the bill.
3. Find ways to avoid paying altogether. This could mean going out with someone who will pay for you or simply doing things that are free.

Some people responded to me by saying that they didn’t think that picking up the bill should be that big of a deal as long as you’re not picking it up all of the time. I think that’s true but I also think that attitude can cause you to pay more for other people than your budget should really allow.

What do you think? Should we pay our part but avoid picking up the bill for others?

Incidentally, one thing I didn’t say in my article was that you can just get separate checks and pay for your own. That was pointed out to me in the comments on an article on The Consumerist which referenced my original article. That’s true but I’ve found that there’s a lot of places that won’t do that for you easily. If that’s an option, do you think it’s the best one?

Tags: don't pay for others, money, money etiquette, Personal Finance, picking up the bill

We all know that scams exist. We’ve all seen those letters from the person in need of baking assistance in Nigeria. Many of us have received emails telling us that a friend is in need and we must wire money to them. Some of us have gotten phone calls trying to convince us that our car warranty is up and that we need to renew it. These are all common scams that are designed to steal our money. We know that they exist and yet people continue to have their money stolen from them again and again.

The best way to make sure that you do not become a victim of a scam is to educate yourself about scams. Learn about which scams are most common. Find out how they convince you to give up your money or your financial information. Arming yourself with this knowledge makes it a lot easier for you to identify when you might become a victim of a scam so that you can avoid that terrible fate.

One great resource for getting this type of education is an article called Beware! 15 Commons Scams That Can Steal Your Money. This article lists fifteen scams and describes them so that you can understand them better. It also provides details about variations on the scams. And finally, it has loads of links to resources that can help you get even more information. Protect your money and protect yourself!

Tags: common scams, money, Personal Finance, scams, victim of scam

A lot of people are living frugally now who weren’t doing so a few years ago. The reason for this is obvious; the recession has caused them to need to cut back on spending. This type of frugal living is considered to be involuntary frugal living. That’s because it is the circumstances surrounding a person’s finances that make these people decide to live frugally.

Not everyone who lives frugally feels this way though. There are a lot of people who engage in voluntary frugality. And you might be surprised how many different reasons there are for the choice to live frugally. Some of the top frugal living philosophies include:

• Desire to simplify. Many people opt to enjoy voluntary simplicity. They avoid spending money on things that will complicate their lives including anything material that is unnecessary and creates debt.
• Eco-friendly mindset. People who choose to be green are people who choose not to waste. These people also aren’t wasting money and so are living frugally.
• Greater purpose in life. People may choose to live frugally so that they can pursue a greater purpose in life. This may be a spiritual purpose or it may simply be a life devoted to creativity.

I am working on being a bit more frugal myself. My main motivation is the desire to save some money to be able to have more freedom in my life. However, I’m also motivated by some of these other reasons including the belief that a simpler life allows us to explore a great purpose while we’re here.

Why do you live frugally?

Tags: Frugal Living, frugal living philosophies, frugality, kathryn vercillo, Personal Finance, save money, voluntary simplicity

It’s amazing how many marriages end because the two people involved in them can’t reconcile their financial differences. It’s sad that money comes between us and our lovers so often, isn’t it? So how do we stop fighting about money.

Here are some of the tips that I think make sense:

• Deal with your emotions surrounding money. People fight about money because they have all kinds of money emotions. Issues related to fear, power and control dominate people’s money conversations. If you learn to deal with your money emotions and to keep them out of your financial talks, you’ll fight a lot less with your partner.
• Create a plan for handling money in your home. It’s not easy to come up with money solutions that work in your home. You need to consider who will pay the bills and how, which purchases need to be discussed in advance and which don’t and what your long-term savings goals are. This is tough. But if you create a plan, you’ll have something to work with and won’t fight as much anymore.
• Pick a date to deal with money. You don’t have to fight about money every day of the month. Pick one date (perhaps when rent is due) to deal with your money problems. Commit to solving them on that date. Then put the rest on the back burner until the next month and just enjoy your spouse without money being an issue.

I think we just need to start being more responsible and more respectful in our conversations about money and we’d have a lot fewer fights about it!

Tags: fighting about money, kathryn vercillo, marriage, money, money fighting, Relationships, stop fighting about money, talking about money

I recently wrote an article about the methods you can use to get startup capital for a new business. There are a lot of different methods (including the ten that I wrote about in that article). One of the ones that interests me most is one that isn’t so common. It’s called a ROSCA group.

ROSCA stands for Rotating Savings and Credit Association. This is a small group of people that agrees to get together to lend one another the money that they each need to start a new business. From what I understand, the way that it works is this:

• A group is formed among people who have a small amount of money but not enough to start their own business.
• Everyone in the group meets monthly and brings a membership fee to the group each month.
• The fee is collected and put into a group account for one year. At the end of the year, the fee goes to the first member to start his or her business.
• The group continues to meet. The fees collected for the second year go to a different member.
• This continues until everyone in the group has taken their turn at getting enough money to start a business.

There are obviously risks that you take when you get involved in a group like this. It requires a commitment from people to stick with the lending process over a long period of time. As a result, it’s typically only done in developing nations where other options for getting loans are limited.

However, I think that this might be something that would be beneficial to people in today’s economy. It’s getting harder to get personal loans. At the same time, people in some communities are trying to come together to help one another out. Small community-driven ROSCA groups seem like a smart solution.

What do you think?

Tags: get a loan, get money, kathryn vercillo, loans, money, Personal Finance, rosca, rosca group, rosca loan

One of the topics that I write about on a regular basis is personal finance. I write about many different aspects of this topic but my focus is on saving money and living a frugal life. I believe that living within our means allows us to pursue dreams and focus on what really and truly matters to us.

Some of the things that I’ve written in relation to this during the past week or so include:

• How to find and attend free events. People waste a whole lot of money on entertaining themselves. That’s sad when there are actually tons of free events that you can enjoy with your family, your lover or by yourself.
• How to use coupons during summer travel. There are a lot of people who use coupons to save money. Do you know how many of them forget to do that when traveling? Too many! Hopefully these tips will inspire people to take their coupons on their trips with them.
• How a frugal life is a healthy life. Some people live a frugal life and are also unhealthy but it’s not that common. It’s especially rare among people who choose frugality (instead of having it forced on them by circumstance). Here’s a look at why frugal and healthy go hand-in-hand.
• Choosing foods that pair well together. If you buy two inexpensive foods that can be combined to make many different recipes (like broccoli and cheese!) then you can save money on groceries.
• Coupon news. I like to stay on top of news about coupons. News this week included a new printer that’s great for coupons, statistics about online coupons and problems with in-store coupons.

I love writing about saving money. I also love reading about it so if you know of good blogs or articles on this topic then feel free to drop a line!

Tags: Frugal Living, kathryn vercillo, links, money, Personal Finance, saving money

I have been trying to earn money for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, I was always trying to start my own business or to find a job that I could do even though I was young. I remember one time when I got together with some friends and made homemade friendships bracelets and then took them around the neighborhood to try to sell them.

I wasn’t the only one in my family who earned money with my own business. My kid brother learned early on that he could purchase candy in bulk and then sell it individually to kids at school to make a profit. He and my sister also used to scout the ground at every parking lot we ever entered because they knew that they could find loads of dropped change there which would add up.

We weren’t particularly unique kids as far as this goes. In fact, I think that most kids are pretty creative and I would say that most of them want to do something that allows them to earn spending money of their own. The problem is that it’s really frustrating for kids to figure out how to earn money when they aren’t old enough to work yet.

There are definitely options for kids with all different types of skills, though. Take a look at my article on 30 ways kids can earn money to get some ideas!

Tags: businesses for kids, earn money, home business, how kids earn money, kathryn vercillo, kids, kids business, Personal Finance, work

I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about coupons. I think that coupons are a great way for people to save money on the items that they buy regularly. I also think that that there is some interesting social history around coupons. (Does anyone get nostalgic thinking about clipping coupons with Mom when you were a kid?!) But what I’m thinking more and more about coupons is that the in-store, printable, clipped-out coupons that most people think of when they think of couponing are really totally inefficient and unproductive in today’s society.

There have been a lot of problems reported with printable coupons recently. There are huge problems with coupon fraud which exist primarily because criminals are able to easily manipulate printable coupons to get more money back than the manufacturer wants to allot. There are also problems with too many people trying to print out coupons and then creating in-store problems when they all flood into the store at the same time.

So what’s the solution? Technology seems to be changing in a way that will allow us to avoid use of in-store coupons in the future but to still save money with coupon deals. We already see this happening in the form of online promo codes which let you enter the code into your online shopping sites to get savings. There is a lot less trouble with coupon fraud using these types of coupons and of course you avoid the issue of shopping in overcrowded stores that run out of the products they’ve issued coupons for.

But what about when you do want to shop in stores? I think that coupons may be popular but society is leaning in favor of just offering good overall deals instead of coupon deals. For example, many people have found that they can save just as much money by buying generic store brands of items as they can from buying name brands with coupons. They skip the coupons and still get the savings.

What do you think? Do in-store coupons still make sense or are they going to become a thing of the past?

Tags: coupon codes, coupons, kathryn vercillo, Personal Finance, save money, society, Technology

People who read my writing regularly know that one of my favorite topics to write about is personal finance. I have specifically taken an interest recently in frugal living. I’m trying to implement more frugal living tips into my own life. I’m also trying to find the links between frugal living, simple living and green living. These are all ways I want to live and I believe that they go hand-in-hand.

There are tons of great posts and articles out there around the web about personal finance and frugal living issues. I would like to think that my voice contributes to this base of knowledge at least a little bit. Here are links to some of my frugal living and money-saving blog posts that have been around the web so far this month:

• The Difference Between Promotional Codes and Coupons
• How Frugal Living Simplifies Your Life
• Tips for Coupon Use During Summer Travel
• 5 Ways to Save When Shopping Online
• Frugal Tips for Family Day Trips
• Massive Coupon Fraud Case

Would love to know any thoughts that you have on these different frugal living topics!

Tags: Frugal Living, guest posts, kathryn vercillo, money, money saving, Personal Finance, save money