I’m having a hard time right now losing the last 15 pounds to by goal. To be honest, I’ve lost this 15 pounds before. But I’ve always gained it back. But I’m dogged in my determination to lose this last 15 pounds. I just need a little extra help, it seems. Lucky for me, Baker at Man Vs. Debt is providing just the thing: The PF Bloggers Weight Loss Challenge.

Losing weight together

30 personal finance bloggers signed up, and we were divided into teams. Just so you know, I am on team Beta. Our Twitter hashtag is #BWLCBETA. Since I like to win, and I dislike letting people on my team down, this is just the thing to help me get into shape. It’s all about accountability (it works in personal finances as well). My fellow Beta team members are:

• Jessica at Penny Wise Family
• Josh at Wallet Pop
• Matt at Debt Free Adventure
• SNS at Penny Pence

Mrs. Micah, though she isn’t on my team, made a great point about strength training. I don’t want just losing weight to be my only focus; I also want to increase my bone density and strengthen my body in general. It isn’t just about getting skinny — it’s about being healthier.

Besides, having good health can also lead to increased wealth. Money Energy points out that studies have been done linking good health and weight loss to increased financial stability. M.E. points out that there are confidence factors involved, as well as energy and motivation that can come when you boost your energy level through weight loss, exercise and health living. I would also like to add that when you are healthier, you have a better chance of spending loss on health care. Unhealthy lifestyles are expensive.

Anyway, I am looking forward to this challenge — and to getting back into shape.

Do you have any health goals?

image source: Wikimedia Commons

I’ve been a little lax with my carnival participation lately, but I did take part in the last Carnival of Pecuniary Delights, held at Almost Frugal. My post on whether or not we’d be happier paying more taxes was included. Some of the other entries in this week’s carnival that I especially enjoyed include:

• 1,001 ways to save money from Moolanomy.
• 5 ways to overcome the urge to splurge from Bible Money Matters.
• Getting the best home mortgage rate from The Digerati Life.

Also, in the interest of shameless self promotion, I thought I’d share two posts that went up recently on other sites I contribute to:

1. How the Credit CARD Act of 2009 affects you on Personal Dividends.
2. An overview of the Amero currency at Bankling.

Last week was rather interesting, financially, and I’m sure this week will be as well. Actually, for my personal finances, I know this coming week will be interesting. Our sprinkler system is scheduled to be finished, and we’ll have to pay the remainder of what we owe the landscaper!

It’s been a reasonably big week for me in terms of personal finance carnival participation. I’ve participated in:

• Carnival of Personal Finance on Weakonomics.
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights at Money Ning.
• Carnival of Cashflow Consciousness at Money Energy.

Also, I was rather flattered to be included in the round up at Your Money Relationship.

Carnivals are a great way to look for some of the best personal finance articles from around the Web. I strongly encourage you to get as much good info as possible to aid you as you map out your financial future.

image source: joiseyshowaa via Flickr.

I’ve decide that since I’m trying to participate a little bit more in finance carnivals, that I should try to round them up in one post. This past few days, I participated in two carnivals:

1. Carnival of Pecuniary Delights at Miss Thrifty (where I was an editor’s choice!) for the post on Bizzia Personal Finance regarding canceling your credit card the right way.
2. Carnival of Personal Finance, where my post on $0 tax refund was included.

Some additional highlights from both carnivals include:

• Budgeting spreadsheets from Christian PF.
• Saving money at restaurants from Pay Less for Food.
• Going too far with penny pinching from Domestic Cents.
• Managing an unpredictable income from Spiffy Links.
• Discussing Money Before Marriage from Free From Broke.
• Frugal v. Cheap from My Findependence Day.
• 7 Questions for your Financial Planner from Good Financial Cents.
• How Costs Affect Your Fund Returns on Money Ning.

So go, read, enjoy!

This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance is up at ABCs of investing. It’s nice that spring has sprung for ABC, but in my neck of the woods we had snow last week. At least it’s mostly melted, although I wouldn’t say we have spring yet. My post on 3 stocks benefiting from the recession made the cut. Here are some of my other favorites from this week’s Carnival:

• 5 myths about owning a rental property.
• Why executive pay is so high.
• Should you pay off your kid’s credit card?
• Figuring out when to sell a losing mutual fund.
• 4 months without cable.

Head on over and get a flavor for some of the best personal finance blogging around. It’ll give you some good ideas and some good information.

image source: Denis Collette via Flickr

There’s a new personal finance and frugality carnival in town: The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights from Pecuniarities. The first edition is live right now, and I am honored to be included. I actually submitted a guest post from last week, about identity thieves and tax time.

Entries from other personal finance bloggers that I enjoyed include:

• Happiness is Better
• Good Financial Cents
• Wisebread
• Suburban Dollar
• I Pick Up Pennies
• Frugal Dad

The Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Wide Open Wallet right now! There are some great posts for your reading pleasure, including my submission on what to do to stop a foreclosure that is already in progress.

Other posts that I enjoyed from the Carnival of Personal Finance this week include:

• Money May Satisfy But Does Not Bring Happiness
• No Job Is Below You
• 12 ways to earn extra money doing what you love
• 3 Reasons Why You Should Not Do Market Timing
• Is Owning or Renting Best?

image source: Wikipedia

I’ve been tagged by Money Energy for participation in a meme. I’ve never really done this before in the blogosphere. So, in the interest of self disclosure and navel gazing, I preset to you the following: 7 things you didn’t know about me.

“7 Things You Didn’t Know About Me” Tag Rules

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

If you haven’t just shaken your head an moved on, here are 7 things you probably didn’t know about me:

1. I started my undergrad career as a physics major.
2. I was an exchange student to Austria. (The picture accompanying this post was taken at the BMW factory in Steyr.)
3. Despite my love of sci-fi, I’d never seen the X-Files. My husband and I are watching all the episodes, starting from the beginning. We just started Season Seven.
4. I’m learning the guitar.
5. I love novels, especially sci-fi/fantasy. I’m a voracious reader.
6. I hate talking on the phone. If you want to talk to me, IM me or email. A phone conversation will be awkward.
7. I quite frequently have buyer’s remorse over things. But I never feel bad about spending money on travel.

And now, for the folks I’m tagging, I suppose:

FreeFromBroke

Cash Money Life

Bible Money Matters

Happiness is Better

Leadership Turn

Subprime Blogger

SpendOnLife

This week, Four Pillars hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance. The theme was investing, and learning the basics. As always, there are a great number of posts listed that offer insight an helpful information. The submission from Yielding Wealth was the guest post from Scott at The Passive Dad on passive income opportunities.

If you get a chance, head over and browse through the links. Great information, and a reminder that now is a great time to get started in investing — prices are low and you can get more bang for your investment buck.

image credit: RMajouji via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution license.

I’ve got a randomly selected winner for the $100 Lending Club giveaway:

Betty C.

Congratulations! I’ll be emailing you shortly with the details of how you can collect your $100 from Lending Club.

Thanks everyone who left comments and entered the contest. Hopefully, at the very least, you all learned about an interesting new opportunity through P2P lending.