Gather Little by Little

A little bit of Sunshine by *Micky

For the first time in weeks it seems, we actually had a fairly quiet week in the GLBL household. Nobody has been sick, work hasn’t been to crazy, and we enjoyed a little downtime. One surprise this week for me was Gather Little by Little being blocked by my employer.

My schedule for the past year has been to arrive at work around 6:30 or 7:00am and write my article for the day first thing in the morning. I would then formally start work at 8:00am once my article for the day was published. Seems my site along with a number of other blogs was included with some type of site blocking update to my employers firewall software. So, had to make a change to my blogging schedule suddenly.

I was a bit upset by this at first, but change isn’t always bad. I’ve continued writing my articles early in the morning, but instead of writing it for publishing that morning, I am writing a day in advance. The article I write in the morning then gets proof read again in the evening and then published that night so it goes live the next morning at 6:00am (a nice feature of WordPress).

The big advantage to this is I have more time to proof read my articles and format them a little better. I sincerely hope as a result of this I’ll have less typos, spelling issues, and missed words. The second advantage is you’ll have an article each morning at 6:00am EST.

Important stuff!

• Alltop.com – Guy Kawasaki has started something new called All The Top Stories. Alltop collects stories from “all the top” sites on the web and groups them into collections by topic. They additionally provide “single-page aggregation” of the latest five stories from thirty or more sites on a single page — they call this “single-page aggregation.” Gather Little by Little is included as one of the top 30 sites on the Personal Finance page. Thanks Alltop for including me!
• Carnival of Peer to Peer Lending #6 – Fellow M-Network member Cash, Money, Life hosted the carnival of Peer to Peer Lending and ironically enough included my article Why I think P2P lending is a bad idea. Thanks Patrick! This week is also the 1-year birthday for Cash, Money, Life so head over wish him congratulations AND he’s giving away free stuff!
• Frugal Hacks Showcase – I am the showcase blog this week on Frugal Hacks. Thanks so much to Kim for the opportunity. Head on over and learn a little about me! If you have a blog, consider becoming a frugal hacker.

The Gathering!

• There’s No Shame in Renting – Lynnae provides some really good reasons why renting can be a good choice. To me, the best part is if you need to walk away you can. No strings attached.
• How Online Bill Payment Adds Months To Your Life – Jim talks about how using online billpay and automating your finances can save you a significant amount of time.
• 8 Benefits to a Recession or Down Market – I thought this was a refreshing article that puts a positive spin on all of the bad financial things that seem to be happening around us.
• Why NOW is the Best Time to Get Out of Debt – NOW is always the best time to get out of debt, but Randall gives us a few reasons why the current state of the economy might be an even better time.
• 20 Inexpensive Ways to Lower Your Utility Bills – Excellent ideas for lowering your utilities bills. He forgot one though…turn off the hot water on your teenager after 10 minutes :-)
• I Used to Be an Emotional Shopper – Frugal Dad is a new blog I’ve added to my blogroll. He runs a great blog. I am still an emotional shopper sometimes. I commend him on his ability to control it.
• Debt As The American Way – Really good write up on how we as American’s have come to accept debt as normal. I’ve had an article very similar to this I started back in August of 2007 but could never get it to say what I wanted to say. Paidtwice did it and did it well.
• Couple Living in Camper After Foreclosure – Is it the Lender’s Fault? You Decide – Jeremy finds a video about a couple who is living in a trailer due to their house being foreclosed on and examines who’s at fault.
• Why I’m Not Getting a Refund Anticipation Loan or H&R Block Emerald Card – Excellent advice. Be a two marshmallow kid and wait for your refund.
• Money Mistake Monday – Keeping My Wife Out Of The Loop Syndrome. – Been there done that, have scars to prove it ;-)
• Crazy Experience – Mr. Cheap and Mike met THE MAN at a Starbucks in Boston. Too cool!
• 7 Key Factors to Build Successful Alternative Income Streams – Great ideas for alternative income. Can’t reduce your expenses, increase your income.
• The “Economic Stimulus” Check is in the Mail – Find out when your check’s coming.