Here are some articles that I liked from around the personal finance blogosphere:
– Golbguru from Money, Matter, and More Musings took a trip. He came back with lots of pictures of New York City. I’ve paid those prices for parking on the Upper East Side before.
– Silicon Valley Blogger writes about the first virtual millionaire. Anshe Chung has amassed what amounts to 1 million dollars when translated from Second Life currency to US dollars. I was watching a Red Sox game and started chatting it up with another Red Sox fan. It turns out that he works for Second Life – and he refused to code me a few million of American dollars – the nerve.
– Generation X Finance says to that oil changes every 3,000 miles can be unnecessary. I stretch mine to at least 4,000 miles, but usually get them before 5,000. I like all the extra checks that they do in addition to the oil change.
– Sun’s Financial Diary notes that Zecco really IS cheap – and he’s not talking about the commissions. I’ve never seen a company take back the verifying deposits, but I guess Zecco needs those pennies.
– Henry from Binary Dollar explains why you need to budget. I just liked the photo to be honest. Remember that packing tape can be used for practical jokes, just avoid the painful ones.
– Money Smart Life says that credit cards can simply your finances. They can be helpful budgeting tools, but I find Money and Quicken too difficult… I’ll be going with Mint when it’s ready.
– Free Money Finance talks about a $200 wedding, and says that he doesn’t know anyone spending $27,000 on a wedding. Does my $23,000 wedding come close enough? I guess that’s what you get when you have 200 people and play in Vanderbilt’s backyard. Three dinners doesn’t make things much cheaper. It’s a bargain for what we are getting – and people in my social circle have paid 4-5 times as much.
– Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has saved $71,000 in his 401K plan I’m very close with $74,000. I’m a year or two older I think, but I also was unemployed for two years. Come to think of it, I rolled over about $5K from my first job’s 401K to an IRA.
– Did you know that Ikea now charges for plastic bags? Mighty Bargain Hunter calculates a 400% mark-up. I think it could be more. It’s a nice thing for the environment, as MBH points out, but how does Ikea stand to gain? Click through to find out.
– Flexo from Consumerism Commentary notes that New Jersey is hiking public transportation 10%. Boston had done that a few times before I left for San Francisco. I found Boston’s public transportation to be an excellent value. I feel the exact opposite about San Francisco’s.
– Five Cent Nickel asks if you are a 0% balance transfer daredevil. I tried to be, but it was much more complicated (for my situation) than it appeared.
Nice round-up. My whole country has charged for plastic bags for more than five years now. It’s a wonderful scheme that I’d like to see every country do.
I wish the plastic bags were like a can deposit that we have in many parts of the US. You pay 5 cents for each aluminum can, but if you return it, you get that 5 cents back. If Ikea really wanted to make this about the environment, they’d implement that kind of program – in my opinion.
Several of our local grocery stores have this policy — if you reuse their bags you get a nickel per bag off your grocery bill.
Great collection of posts! I will definitely check out the other articles.
About Ikea…I usually buy things that don’t fit in plastic bags. However, I will toss a few plastic bags in my trunk before my visits to IKEA.
Thanks for the mention!
As for taking the deposits back… google adsense does this as well, I believe. It seems to be pretty common. I don’t remember for sure as I signed up awhile ago, but IIRC that’s the case.