Gather Little by Little

There has been a great deal of buzz amoungst various personal finance bloggers lately around the concept of Gazelle Intense, myself included. As a result, I’ve found myself musing on it a bit lately: What it means exactly, would I be considered gazelle intense, and frankly wondering if those that claim to be gazelle intense truly are. There are a number of factors that I think play into how gazelle intense you can be: Whether you have children and how many you have, how much “spare” cash you have available to snowflake against your debt, your income level, and I am sure many other factors. Another factor to consider is at what point are you maybe hurting yourself or others in the process.

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Photo by: code poet

This article is dedicated to my Dad who has always been there for me. Dad, thanks for your stories. I know I didn’t always appreciate them, but I do now. I am passing them onto my children who I hope will appreciate them and one day pass them on to their children.

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Photo by: Morgue File

The Mighty Bargain Hunter posted an update on how his 2008 goals were going. He says it’s a “tepid start at best“, but I think he’s doing great. While he hasn’t fully met his goals, he’s recognized he has some work to do which is important. He’s heading in in the right direction. Also in his update, he decided to “pick on me” and see how I’m doing on my 2008 goal. Seems we both are off to a “tepid start at best“.

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Photo by: bjearwicke

One of the things my wife and I have been trying to do a little more lately is taking advantage of points programs. Points programs provide you with points for doing various things. These points can then be used like cash to purchase items, receive gift cards, and give to charity. We’ve been primarily using two programs, but are on the prowl for others:

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1. MyPoints
2. Debit Card Rewards Points

Photo by: witpim

I’ve mentioned before that Mercy Me is my favorite Christian band, so I thought I would share another of my favorite songs with you. I can really relate to this song, as sometimes I when I’m praying, I’m just not sure what to ask for or how to say it. Sometimes it’s best to just be quiet, and let God speak what he knows is in our heart.

Here is a video so you can hear it, and here are the lyrics to Word of God Speak from Mercy Me’s hit album, Spoken For:

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Photo by: Peter Gene

This is a guest article by Terry Sprouse, author of the book Fix ‘em Up, Rent ‘em out: How to Start Your Own House Fix-up and Rental Business in Your Spare Time.. For more information on the fixer-upper house business visit his blog at www.fixemup.org. He was formerly a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras. His hobbies include rainwater harvesting and solar energy projects. Interested in writing a Guest Post for Gather Little by Little please contact-me!

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Photo by: jon hanson

I’ve closed down the poll for how you pronounce glblguy. It was very interesting to see the results, and even after my fellow M-Networkers attempts to “skew” the poll, “Global Guy” won, catching 40% of the vote. “Gibble” was next, followed by “Gullible Guy”, which to be honest, I’m glad didn’t win ;-) So thanks for voting.

I’ve put up a new poll about budgeting and would encourage you to vote. I’ve been searching for the right budgeting tool for myself and would be interested in seeing what you guys are using. If you haven’t heard of these products, you can click on the affiliate links a little below the survey over in the sidebar and check them out.

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Photo by: dreamer07

I’ve been debating writing this article for a few days now. Confession time: for the past 2 months I have not been practicing what I preach. I’ve been wanting to share this with you: my readers, my friends, my accountability partners but to be honest though, I was afraid that you would be disappointed with me and might stop reading or subscribing to my blog. So I kept pushing it to the back burner.

Yesterday, I paid the price for my laziness and inability to admit I screwed up and decided it was time to own up. Let me explain…

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My article How to Stop Fighting With Your Spouse About Money is up at Get Rich Slowly today. Get Rich Slowly was one of the very first personal finance blogs I encountered, and frankly was a significant influence in me starting Gather Little by Little.  So head over and check out my article. Also, welcome Get Rich Slowly readers! If you’ve never been here before, you might want to check out my best articles or maybe even read about me.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me. And if you like what you see here, consider subscribing by RSS or email!

m.prinke

I enjoy listening to podcasts and audio books while commuting to and from work, exercising, mowing the yard, and frankly anytime I can. I feel doing so is an effective use of my time. This past week I listened to an audio CD that I checked out from our corporate library called Crucial Conversations. Crucial Conversations and another related book Difficult Conversations are what I would consider required reading for everyone. They will change your ability to have positive and productive conversations under any circumstance. Anyway, towards the end of Crucial Conversations, the authors make a very profound but simple statement, “The path to self improvement is about direction, not perfection.”

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