Weekly Update 10

Happy Easter!   Easter is 100% my favorite day of the year and I am so excited every year to invite friends and colleagues to church.  I just love this season of focus on the Gospel and the Resurrection in particular.  I converted to Christianity from atheism because I came to understand that Jesus really, actually, physically, literally became alive again after his death on the cross two days earlier.  The huge implications of that event – namely, that God wanted so much to restore our relationship with him that he died to accomplish it – have simply revolutionized my life.

Other than our normal weekly activities, our dentist appointment, and preparing for Easter, one of the extra fun things we did was spend an evening with two other couples associated with Kyle’s PhD program.  We were helping to answer questions for a visiting student applying to their program, and after he and his wife left we hung out for quite a while with the host couple.  They are in our basketball group but we haven’t seen much of them since the regular season ended so it was nice to catch up.  It turns out the husband also has a personal finance blog!

Posts I Liked

Earn Save Live wrote about how she is going to address one of her recent money anxieties surrounding paying for dining out and issued a challenge to her readers to work on their own issues.  I definitely have some anxiety around money so I’m going to think about her challenge this week.

Well Heeled Blog detailed her food spending and compared it to several studies on average food spending in the US and asked her readers to share what they spend.  Definitely go check out the comments!  Our food spending was apparently in the lower levels for married couples.

J. Money at Budgets Are Sexy copied an article on financial milestones from Money Magazine and asked his readers how their situations compare to the recommended plan.  We are ahead, shockingly.  Therefore I don’t think the plan is useful.  🙂  But it was fun to read the comments.

Adam Faughn at Christian Personal Finance made a great list of steps for financial goal-setting so that you don’t get derailed even when you take a financial hit.

Frugal Portland listed the reasons why she is a happy renter.  I’m a happy renter too, and it’s refreshing to see a post about the upsides of renting!

Kari at Small Budget Big Dreams detailed the ways she “hides” money from her loved ones and even herself so she can avoid spending it!

Mentions

Young Professional Finances listed Dental Care without Insurance in her link love.

Carnivals

Financial Tethers to Our Families of Origin was featured in the Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #28.

Top Comment

This was a tough decision because there were so many wonderful comments on each of the posts this week!  I loved hearing everyone’s opinions on what to do with $1,000 in found money and their creative ways of receiving dental care. But the posts closest to my heart was the one I wrote on money and familial relationships, so I picked the top comment from that bunch.  I enjoyed Leigh’s detailed comment in which she wrote “I would say that when you get married or graduate from college and get a real job is a really good time to cut financial ties from your parents” and went on to credit her parents with giving her a great financial base but emphasized that she has been managing her own financial house completely for years.  Great job, Leigh, and thanks for sharing your viewpoint!

Most Frequent Commenters

1. Leigh @ Leigh’s Financial Journey
2. Mike @ Investing in Silver
3. Kari @ Small Budget Big Dreams

Top Referring Sites

1. 20 Something Finance
2. Young Professional Finances
3. Work Save Live
4. 20’s Finances
5. Housewife Empire
6. Leigh’s Financial Journey