I’ve been keeping a home budget for several months now, and it’s great.  I’ve gotten my spending under better control, paid off some debt and moved forward financially.  However, I also have noticed problems I have with my budget.  I’ve noticed “leaks” in my budget - places where money seeps out.  I also want to ratchet up my debt elimination plan so I keep to my goals for the year.  In order to do that, I’m trying out a software budgeting system.  It offers a free trial, so I’m going to take the month I and do a multi-part review.  This is part one.

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Sometimes it’s the mistakes we make that teach us the most.  I just read an article from someone who made a small fortune out of a much larger fortune, and the lessons the author learned from his experience provide some powerful lessons on investing.  I thought I’d comment on them and add a few of my own lessons.

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Recently I wrote an article stating my plans to avoid purchasing a HDTV for some time.  Well, part of my reasoning looks like it’s slipping away, due to the forces of supply and demand.  And it might be partly due to people agreeing with me.

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Here it is: my very first festival or carnival of any kind.  Heaven knows I need help being frugal, so I am looking forward to drawing wisdom from the following entries:

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I just canceled another one of my credit cards this week.  It had a zero balance, but I just kept it around.  That was partly out of laziness and partly out of a warped sense of security.  The good news is that I’m running out of cards.  What scares me is that I have a very small emergency fund, and have an feeling that I should hang onto a few cards “just in case.”  What changed my mind was the annual fee the card charged, and it got me thinking about all the other “fees” consumers face.  (warning, rant follows)

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I’ve been a very bad boy.  I didn’t mean to be, honestly.  But I realized that I’m doing something that really sabotages my success.  What is it?  I still charge things to my credit cards.  There, that feels so much better now that I’ve said it.

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I’m in two carnivals this week, feel free to check them out!

Frugal for Life features my post Personal Finance Isn’t About Money.

Make Love Not Debt features Slow and Steady Wins The Race.

Personal Finance involves a lot of number crunching.  Not to mention that there are forms to be filled out, phone calls to be made and dates to remember.  We calculate, negotiate, and consolidate.  When you think about it, there’s a lot to do in the course of a year.  No wonder people get burned out on it and leave behind the perceived drudgery of the things that make us rich.

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I entered no fewer than four Carnivals/Festivals this week and I’d like to point out the fine blogs who are hosting them:

• 2million is hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance where my post How to Own a Home is entered.
• Investor Geeks is hosting the Carnival of Investing where my post Dilbert’s Stock Picks is entered.
• Savvy Saver is hosting the Carnival of Debt Reduction where my post How to Stay in Debt Forever is entered.
• And I’ve put my post Why My Car is Going to Make Me Rich into the Festival of Frugality at Boston Gal’s Open Wallet.

Scott Adams is the creator of the comic Dilbert.  He’s a pretty clever guy, and like everyone else on the planet, he’s gotten into blogging.  He has a tendency to throw out some rather controversial topics, such as gender pay disparity or the war in Iraq.

This time he got his readers to help him make a few stock picks.  I’ve struggled when deciding if I should invest in stocks, mutual funds, real estate or something else entirely.  I haven’t invested yet - I’m currently paying off some debt - but let’s just say my cashless experiment with fax stock picks didn’t go so well.  So I thought, why not look to the funny papers to get some hot stock tips?

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