All month, I’ve been putting off quite a few things that I needed to purchase.  There was the flight to March Madness Games in New Mexico, Shares from the CSA for H and I (We’ve expanded to fruit and vegetables this year), Race entry fee for my marathon, as well as a couples race that H and I will be running in February, as well as a few other odds and ends.   All in all, I ended up spending a boatload of money – thankfully, most of it will be split in half with H, and should abate bills down the road, specifically with the food shares (though that may not be the case).  It could invite a challenge for the last 6 months of the year (and the first 6 months of married life!) that H and I only buy milk from the store!  At any rate, I’m hoping that this could be all of our food money, but we will have to see.

Here are the best links for the week:

J Money over at Budgets are Sexy is talking about living off of 50% of your pay.  I think this is a good idea and if I wasnt trying to pay down debt or planning a wedding, I know that I can do this (though I would only make minimum payments on my debt.  H and I have talked about this extensively, and I think we will probably live off of one person’s salary after we get married.

Tim Sullivan at Get Rich Slowly has some thoughts on wedding registries.  In the process of wedding planning, I know exactly what he means.  H and I have been talking over the past few days about what to register for, or whether or not to register at all.  We’ve been living together for 3 years and we are both adults with jobs – so when we need something, we go out and buy it.  We’ve already got just about everything we need (or want) so I’m not sure what the point would be, except to fill our house with even more stuff!

Million Ways to Save presents 5 Free Gifts for Valentines Day.  Great stuff here – dont get caught up in the chocolates, jewelry and cheap card fad – give someone an experience or something they will remember.  Put some thought into it, you’ll surprise yourself.

As I write this, I’ve just finished cutting up the elk I harvested on saturday.  I’ve been working on trimming it up for about 3 hours every night except for sunday, which I worked on it all afternoon while H was snoozing.  I’ve gotten the whole thing trimmed and cleaned, but I still need to grind the pieces I’m going to grind and wrap all of the other pieces.  It will probably take most of the weekend, and then I’ve got to figure out where I’ll put it all – I’ve got some space in a freezer of a friend of mine which I’ll probably take advantage of.

Lindy over at Minting Nickels talks about her frugal jedi mind trick.  I’ve got to say that this is a great idea, and my favorite part of it was defining a dinner out.  I’ve found that that’s a slippery slope where you can write off certain times of going against your budget.

Tim From Faith and Finance talks about how to overcome project overload over at the yakezie.  I seem to have this problem at times – I feel like I toss a bunch of things up into the air and try and keep some of them floating while I take care of 1 of them, and keep continuing like that.  Not exactly the best way, but the only one I know at this point.

SPF has a great article on why no one is buying electric cars.  This is pretty thought provoking, and for someone like me who usually drives long distances (when I drive at all), electrics aren’t feasible.  They are giving it a trial run in Hawaii, which I think could provide some interesting results.

The Money For College Project has an infographic (love those things) on surviving the college dining hall.  As I remember campus dining halls, they were an amazing place where you could put soft serve on your cheerios at breakfast, eat way to many tacos for dinner, and basically get whatever you wanted.

Erin from Dog Ate My Wallet has a post on her brothers new venture - an interesting way to earn a living, I think. I had never even thought of doing something like that, but I imagine it could be fun for the right person!

For those of you that are connected with me on facebook (and you should be!) you may have caught that picture that I uploaded of my elk hunting 2 weeks ago, where there were about 150-200 elk in the shot.  Unfortunately, I was unable to take home one of those.  I went back this weekend (Saturday and Monday) and didnt see a single elk!  So not only was I trudging around for miles in the cold and pretty heavy wind, I didnt even get to see a single elk.  My tag ends at the end of january and I’d really wouldnt like to make a 52 dollar donation to the game and fish for the second year in a row (It’d also make for a crappy “Cost of your food” post, which I was planning to do if I got one).  On to the best of the week

Trent at the Simple Dollar has a post about trusting in god to provide for you.  I think he makes some very good points in here – no one will want to help you do something (like start a local charity) if you dont want to do any of the work and just sit around and wait for god to take action on your behalf or wait for something to fall into your lap.

If you’re interested the Yakezie has a review of the Steve Jobs Biography.  I’m curious about the book, but I’ve got a few others on my reading list to complete before I start into that one.

Miss T over at Prarie Eco thrifter has a post about the best foods for increasing brain power.  I like lists like this because they are pretty easy to remember – nothing complicated, just eat your curry and drink your red wine – you’ll be fine.

Jeff Over at Money Spruce is giving some stuff away, to you and your favorite charity!

John at Married with debt wonders if parents should pay for kids college.  Personally, I dont think they should pay for all of it, but help out if they can.  If the kid has some skin in the game (financially speaking) maybe they will get better grades.

WH at Well Heeled wants to know what is enough?  This was interesting – I feel like there’s always going to be something more you want.  The key is to find out exactly how bad you want it, and start prioritizing and moving down the list.

Hey everyone, as I’m sure you know we are in the prime of football season.  Unfortunately my grad school’s football team got blown out in their bowl, and my undergrad didnt make it at all.  Along with the bowl games, there has been some fantastic playoff games in the NFL.  Though I dont watch too much football (cant still still for that long in most cases) I do enjoy watching highlights and reading updates about games.  Once the month is over though, basketball season will be in full swing, and I can. not. wait.

On to the best of the web this week:

Mrs SPF is back with a post on why to use cloth diapers.  I got these when I was small, so if they are good enough for me, they are good enough for anyone! (Just kidding) – they are a great, cost effective service and prevent a lot of waste.

Miss T at prarie eco thrifter wants to know if traveling is over rated.  Personally, I think it is a bit overrated, and it seems like vacations is the place where you’ll need to keep up with the joneses next.  Oh, you went to georgia last year? that’s nice, I just got back from a safari on madagascar.

Jana over at Daily Money Shot has created bloggers give back.  Each month, she’ll select a chairity focus (like food or animals) and then bloggers can give back to charities in their area.  I really like this idea because national charities bother me when I know that there are people in my neighborhood and on my block struggling.

Erin from Dog Ate my Wallett has a post on the importance of self promotion – though it’s often annoying, it’s not something you should completely shy away from.  People are busy with their own things, they aren’t going to keep track of your accomplishments – so you should remind them in a non-annoying way.

I had a post over at the Yakezie network this week on income streams and big dreams.

Giveaways

Cash Flow Mantra is giving away some cash.  Everyone likes free money, right?  head over and sign up and maybe win!

Well Heeled is giving away some candy bars!  Personally I wasnt going to enter this, but then I saw one of the bars was a salt chocolate bar, which happen to be my favorite!

Jacob from my personal finance journey is giving away some cash and donating to a charity of your choice.  Head over and help him pick one.

I hope that you all are having a good holiday season.  I’ll be spending time in the midwest with H and her family, going to dinners, checking things out and having a grand old time.  The one thing I dont like about it is the super-long drive across a terrible state (sorry Nebraska).  At any rate, here are the top 10 posts on the site from this year – there are some oldies and goodies on here, and I hope you can go back and check out some of the ones you may have missed.

1. Making your own fabric softener.  This was something really interesting to write, but I later found out it may not be the most cost effective use of vinegar. I still dont mind though, because I like knowing where my stuff comes from.
2. Willpower Book Review.  I thought this was a really interesting book, and I felt  like I learned a lot from it – now I just need to apply the teachings.
3. Cinnamon Apples in Red Hot Syrup - I really liked this recipe, and it really helped out when we got overloaded with apples from the CSA.
4. No Spend November - While this wasnt a total success, it felt good to get back on track to start making large debt payments again.
5. Saving Money Tip: Manual Phone Upgrades – This I wrote after having some annoying (but fixable) problems with my droid.  I got quite a few comments on it, but i’m happy to report that everything with my phone is still working fine, once I got the initial kinks worked out.
6. How I Saved over 3500 on my honeymoon – This busted my no spend november, but was totally worth it.  Huge deal, and I’ll get to go someplace H or I has never been.
7. My DIY Page – as I get through more projects, I’d really like to build up this page more.  Hopefully that will happen in 2012.  I got quite a few books on solar projects and other types that I should have things to do.
8. Go Green, Reuse Household Items and Save Money – This was a guest post from Fellow Yakezie member SB from One cent at a time.  Thanks SB!
9. Is Getting your Own Food Cheaper, Part 2 – This is about me hunting for ducks, and unfortunately it’s a lot of effort for little reward in terms of food.  Though there is down and other useful feathers, I just got rid of them because I didnt know what to do with them (though I did check with a few guys at work who tied flies for fishing to see if they wanted them) Also, Check part 1, on alaska halibut fishing
10. Food in a Split Household – my tales of living with a non meat eater.  I honestly had no idea that there were so many people who had vastly different diets from the others in their house.

As you’re reading this, I’ll be in a car with H and her parents heading from Wyoming out to the midwest where most of H’s extended family live.  Last year was my first trip, and I had a lot of fun, though I missed my own family.  I’m excited for this year as well – though I’ll admit that I absolutely can not stand the drive.  It is quite literally all day in the car – from about 530a to 10pm, and it gets tedious at times.  At any rate I’d like to wish all of you readers a happy holiday season, and I hope you are spending time doing what’s important to you this season – whatever that may be.

Trent at the Simple dollar talks about whether or not a basement greenhouse really saves money.  I think this is an interesting idea and something I’ve always wanted to do, it was nice to look at the numbers.  I’m surprised he went for the soil growing method as opposed to hydroponics, though – much of the hydro stuff is reusable, in my experience.

J Money at Budgets are Sexy is going to be a parent – congrats man.  What a nice christmas present!

Kevin over at Thousandaire tells you how he makes his christmas shopping simple.  He just buys the same thing for everyone.  I’d do this kevin, but I dont think that everyone on my list would want a box of rifle ammo

Money Beagle has a post about online poker.  I had no idea it was this huge until the feds shut them down a while ago,  I dont know the status on it now, but it was still surprising.

I was hoping to get away from the holiday rushing and relax this weekend (while going elk hunting) but just found out a good friend and his wife will be in the area.  Even though I’ve got a lot going on, I’m glad they are coming out – hopefully this will be the beginning of some more visits from these two.  Other than that, I’ve got a few Christmas Parties to go to this week, as well as some hard cider to bottle (which I’ll hopefully post about) and the last of my presents to wrap.  On to the best of the PF web this week:

Money beagle moved his blog to wordpress (awesome) and got a little grinch-y with the office secret santa!  I dont mind doing stuff like that, but it is annoying when you feel like you’re forced to do something like that.

Trent at the Simple Dollar had a post about reliable items.  I try to only buy the things I need, and then I break that down further – by something that I’ll get heavy use out of often, or something that wont get used that often.  If it’s something I’m going to be using 5+ times per week, I’ll try and go for quality and pay a bit more.

Derek from Life and My Finances got a new puppy!  I’d have to say that i’m pretty jealous of him – I really like dogs and as I mentioned earlier, H and I both think our dog was the best money we’ve spent.

Everyone seems to be getting into the giveaway christmas spirit.  Here are a few sites that are giving away something this month

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents is giving away an Ipad and a Kindle Fire

Free From broke is giving away a $50 Amex Card

Well, they finally released the bowl game pairings, and as usual, just about everyone’s got something to whine about.  My graduate school team is headed to a bowl and my parents invited H and I, but I think it’s just too much for the season.  I’ve got a lot of travel coming up, and her and I are going to a sporting event in march as well.  Not to mention that UW went to this same bowl in 09, and we went that time.  While it was fun and  New Mexico is all-right, I dont need to go to ABQ 2 times in 3 months.  At any rate, here are the best posts of the last week.

JD Over at Get Rich Slowly has a piece on why financial literacy fails.  I think he really hits the nail on the head this time – it fails because money is not about the math – if it were, no one would be in debt, and no one would be paying 18% interest on credit cards month in and month out for years – because that’s mathematically dumb.  It’s about psychology and how you feel and react to certain situations that money is involved in.   Feeling sad? Perhaps a pick-me-up from the ice cream store or starbucks.  Nowhere does that make mathematical sense, but it happens every day.

Sandy from yes I am Cheap made over 1600 in income online last month, and is starting a new job – keep up the good work and good luck, sandy.

Invest in the Markets is having a give-away.  There are some cool prizes on the line, including a stock picking session with the author.  Go enter and good luck.

The Money for College Project has a post about earning after degrees.  This is something I think many college kids dont think about (I didnt).  Lots of students take out lots of loans for degrees that dont end up paying well over time.  I happened to luck out and pick a slightly more technical field that pays good enough for me.

My Favorite doctor (dr dean) has a post about cloning banks.  Long, but a good an interesting read.

Kay Lynn over at bucksome boomer has a post about being financially prepared for marriage – It took me a long time to get to that stage, but eventually I got there.

Jana at Daily Money Shot wants to let you know that foster parenting isnt a side job.  It’s a real job with real responsibilities.

Beagle shares the best job he never took.  I probably have a similar story that I may write on, but I’m honestly still a bit annoyed at the situation and at myself for not trusting my own instincts.

After much waiting, it’s time to start hunting elk.  I went last year and unfortunately came back empty handed.  Hopefully this year will be a different story.  In preperation for my hunt, I’ve been focusing on eating what H and I have in the freezer (I’ll need a place to put it, after all).  This has been going in fits and starts, but it kind of took off when I actually pushed some things around in the freezer and figured out what we’ve got in there.  I was surprised at what I found – there was a ton of food in there that I didnt even know about!  On to the best reads of the week:

Get Rich Slowly has a great article on the best personal finance books, divided financial progression of a person (from debt ridden to financial independence), with a few in between.  It was a good list, and I think I’ll definitely look into the ones that I havent read.

Dr Dean has an interesting take on tire pressure.  Tire pressure isnt something to ignore – it will cost you money can become unsafe if you’re traveling at high speeds with low tire pressure.

Beagle is talking about holiday spending – usually I try to get something for everyone, and make sure that I dont spend over a certain limit.  That’s what has helped me the most.

Erin from Dog ate my wallet thinks cars are NOT gifts.  I happen to agree, usually a gift is something you can get lasting value out of, not something that will continually cost you money.

Over the past 3 weeks, I haven’t traveled out of town more than 1 time, and havent even been on a plane.  This is something of a record for me over the last few months, and I can surely say that I’m enjoying every minute of it.  I’m still focusing on planes and flights so I can book the honeymoon, but other than that, everything here is going well.  Here are the best posts of the week.

How a Financial Pro Lost His House over at the NY Times.  I try to stick with just bloggers, but this story is just too good.  Don’t rely on what other people are doing or telling you, remember to do your own research – this guy could have gotten about 5 houses in Vegas if he’d waited 3 years.  An excerpt from the story:

The process of making financial decisions is about more than building a spreadsheet to calculate the answer, because life rarely fits cleanly into a spreadsheet. Our decisions often appear irrational until we understand the whole story.

JD over at Get Rich Slowly suggests that you Do what works for you.  I’m a huge proponent of this in every part of you life.  I share my finances to show you that you can cut expenses and earn more to get out of debt, and that not every city has useful public transit.  Buying a new vehicle worked for me, but it may not work for you.  That’s fine – there are very few pieces of advice that are one size fits all.

Krystal over at give me back my five bucks had a post on marrying for money.  I’ve got quite a few thoughts on this, and I’m currently writing a guest post for her site with a different take on the issue.

I also had a guest post up over at Sustainable Personal Finance.  Head over there to check out my thoughts on papercrete!  SPF just had a kid, so I hope that everything is going well for him up north.