Hi everyone, this week flew by! Google was kind to me and sent me a lot of traffic regarding the economic stimulus rebates. With all the issues going on with the rebate I answered several hundred reader questions. Wow! Hopefully most people will begin receiving their rebates soon. In personal news, I have to make a career decision soon. More to follow!

Thoughts and prayers. Two personal finance bloggers whom I consider friends (and great writers) recently shared some news. Glblguy from Gather Little By Little made a prayer request for his Mom, who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Pete, who runs BibleMoneyMatters, has been caring for his wife as she recovers from a severe blood clot. Glblguy and Pete, I wish you and your families the best during these times.

Prosper Blog: This week I had 2 articles published on the Prosper Blog. Be sure to check them out!

• Breaking the Spending Addiction. These are some solid tips for breaking your addiction to spending. You can apply them to other situations as well.
• My Bank Wants Me to Buy a $50,000 Car. My bank pre-approved me for a $50,000 car loan. They were even nice enough to send a loan check in the mail - all it would take is a phone call to activate it. They sure do make it easy to drop 50 large… I said, “no thanks,” though!

Thanks for sending folks my Way! April was a record month for traffic for my site, and I appreciate everyone who helped make that happen! This list is the top referring personal finance blogs to my site during April. Though I can’t thank everyone individually, I sincerely appreciate every visitor to my site - you guys keep me going! I recommend checking out the following sites as well - I read and enjoy each of them.

• Being Frugal
• Gather Little By Little
• The Dough Roller
• Moolanomy
• My Money Blog
• PaidTwice
• Frugal Dad
• Quest for Four-Pillars
• The Wisdom Journal
• My Two Dollars
• Mrs. Micah

Thanks everyone!

Here are my favorite personal finance articles this week:

Economic Stimulus and the economy:

• Mighty Bargain Hunter questions whether or not it is a good idea to use your economic stimulus rebate for a huge gift card?
• Free From Broke has some ideas for using your stimulus money.
• Overall, the economy isn’t doing so well in the US right now and Debt Free Revolution says that stagflation is here.

Frugal Living:

• Antishay has some frugal tips to make your Mac last forever. This was a nice complimentary article to one I wrote last week about frugal tips to improve your Windows computer’s performance.
• David shares ways to Clean Your Entire House The Natural Way For Mere Pennies.
• The Dough Roller shares 25 Ways to Save Money on Gas.
• Being Frugal has some great yard sale tips.
• Plonkee shares 21 resources for budget travel.

Personal Finance:

• Handling Finances talks about the RevolutionCard - Great Idea, but still in Beta.
• Brip Blap shares his best financial moves in college.
• Do you own your stuff, or does your stuff own you? The Financial Philosophy of “Fight Club”, brought to us by Swim Upstream to Wealth.
• Pinyo shares his practical investing guide for beginners. This is definitely a great guide for those just starting out!
• Flexo shares his thoughts on your job and your identity. My job is not my identity either.

This weeks carnivals:

• Carnival of Personal Finance #150 was held at Lazy Man and Money.My article, 9 Tips to Save Money on Your Next Computer, was included. Another article, How Does the Economic Stimulus Rebate Affect Military Members?, from my other blog Military Finance Network, was also included.
• The Festival of Frugality #123, The Supercapitalism Edition was held at Sound Money Matters. My article, Frugal Tips to Extend Your Computer’s Life, was included.

Have a great week everyone!

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