Welcome to the 3rd edition of the Finance Fiesta. I’ve always enjoyed proverbs, and since Spanish is one of my favorite languages, our theme for this week’s fiesta is Spanish Money Proverbs. The following proverbs all come from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs for anyone who wants to know. Hope you enjoy them.

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Our Fourpence Worth has the privilege of hosting the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta this Thursday June 19, 2008. The Finance Fiesta is a new personal finance blog carnival which features articles covering a broad range of topics including but not limited to the following:

• Budgeting Techniques
• Career Development
• Responsible Use of Credit
• Economics
• Money Management
• Debt Repayment
• Saving Methods

If you are a frugal or personal finance blogger, be sure to submit your best article by Wednesday June 18th, 5:00PM EDT for consideration to be included in this week’s edition.

Please refer to the submission guidelines and submit your articles through this submission form.

Blog readers, be sure to check back this Thursday for recommended reading from the personal finance blogosphere!

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Apologies for not posting anything of substance yesterday or today, but due to feeling a little under the weather these few days, I thought I would post a summary of recommended reading for those of you who are new to this blog, and a few news items from the personal finance blogosphere.

From Our Fourpence Worth

• Father’s Day
  If you’re still looking for a Father’s Day present, many of our ideas from Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gift Suggestions could also apply to fathers and father-figures in your life.
• Tax Rebate
  If you are truly interested in helping the US economy, check out Don’t Spend that Tax Rebate Just Yet for a few suggestions on how to and how not to spend your tax rebate based on an article by Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN Money.
• Motivating Children to Practice Music
  Take advantage of summer vacation to help your kids get ahead on their music practice and get the most out of your music lesson fees with some advice by Madoline, who majored in music and has had experience in teaching children’s piano lessons.
  • Motivating Children to Practice Music: Introduction
  • Part 2: Playing the Piano is a Privilege (Not a Chore)
  • Part 3: Playing Slower for Faster Results
  • Part 4: Divide and Conquer

  (If you like the image to the right, which is an original illustration by my sister Madoline, check out our CafePress store Mozartini for gifts and collectibles featuring this image and other artwork by the same hand.)

• Editor’s Picks
  We’re starting to get the hang of blogging (which was completely new to us when we started this blog in February), and have produced a few Editor’s Picks in recent blog carnivals:
  • The Frugal Literate’s Guide to Affordable Reading
  • Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gift Suggestions
  • My Favorite Money and Time Saving Websites
  • Guide to Safe and Smart Traveling with Pets
  • Lottery Tickets: Worthy Investment or Waste of Money?
  • Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt

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Hey everyone, sorry for the recent inconsistent posting. The past month as been really busy for me what with having a house guest (a cousin visiting us from Taiwan for 3 months), a trip to Disneyland (with 2 feisty dogs) the week before last and a trip to Las Vegas last week (with one feisty dog), but I am back and ready to get back to some serious blogging and carnival submissions.

Anyways, here are some great posts by fellow financial bloggers from recent weeks:

PF Bloggers

• Living Almost Large gives us an amusing list of ways in which people justify purchases.
• Seb at Pinching Copper gives his opinion that the penny is worthless. Would you pick up a penny from the sidewalk?
• Kevin from No Debt Plan achieved his goal of going the entire month of May without the air conditioner. Good for you guys!
• Jonathan at Master Your Card gives us 7 Zany Ways to Stop Overspending.
• Ginger from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds gave us Things That Piss Me Off: Food stamp recipients pinched by high food prices that has stirred up a bit of controversy.
• And for a bit of fun, check out Future Millionaire’s (Start of Work Week) Money Funny - Cost of Pop Culture Icons Today about the Brady Bunch, which I am only a little embarrassed to admit was one of my favorite shows at one time.

Elesewhere in the Financial Blogosphere

• I really appreciated Get Rich Slowly’s Closing the Gap Between Dreams and Reality. It has inspired me to get proactive about my financial goals.
• Find out how No Credit Needed will save/make $20,000 by giving up his soda habit!
• Something that goes nicely in hand with my recent Vacation Preparation Checklist is a post from Gather Little By Little about Low Cost Summer Family Vacation ideas with money saving tips.
• Frugal Dad gives a nice Used Car Buying Guide for Teenagers for parents, but it has some useful tips for us grown-ups too.
• We’ve recently begun thinking about starting some investments, so I was really glad to come across The Simple Dollar’s warning about how The Methods You Use to Deal with Ordinary Life Will Fail You As an Investor.
• I was amused by Spam Sales on the Rise, Common Sense at an All-Time Low. I thought it was funny because I recently bought a can of Spam, not as a substitute for real, nutritious food (well, OK it did end up substituting for real food for a couple of meals), but for my cousin to try because they don’t have Spam in Taiwan. It was probably the first can of Spam I have ever purchased. (I grew up in Hawaii where they have something called a “Spam Musubi” which is a slice of pan-fried spam layered over a block of rice and all wrapped in seaweed. YUMMY!)

New Carnival in Town

Oh, and one last bit of news. Jonathan from Master Your Card has started a new blog carnival called the Finance Fiesta which runs weekly on Thursday starting June 5, 2008. If you have a personal finance related blog, be sure to submit your best article!

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We would like to thank the following Blog Carnivals for featuring our posts.

(This list will be updated to include future inclusions for the month of May 2008.)

Descending chronologically by inclusion date

• May 27, 2008
  And the Beat Goes On: 127th Festival of Frugality
  Article: Some of the Many Uses for Vinegar around the House
• May 26, 2008
  Carnival of Personal Finance #154
  Article: Expensive Lessons: Knowing When to Call it Quits and Call in a Professional, and the Price of Spinelessness and Regret
• May 20, 2008
  #126 Festival Of Frugality – If I Had A Car Edition
  Article: Sharing Accounts to Maximize Cash Back and Interest Earnings
• May 19, 2008
  Carnival of Personal Finance #153: the Q & A edition
  Article: 20 Minutes Can Save $180 & Tips for Receiving Better Customer Service

Here are just a few great articles from the past month by my peers in the PF Bloggers Network.

Pet Love

First of all, I can’t pass up an opportunity to congratulate a couple of members on new additions to their households:

• Kevin at No Debt Plan introduces Maggie the [Incredibly Cute] Puppy and shares their reasons for getting her. Congrats to all of you!
• Ginger from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds takes in AJ the cat and doesn’t regret the $400 she spent on his vet care despite the tough weekend she had. Good for you Ginger (and hubby)!.

Frugality and Personal Finance

• I really enjoyed Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover by Kristy at Master Your Card. It addresses some very good points on making assumptions about people and their financial status based on outward appearances.
• With summer just around the corner, Melissa, also from Master Your Card, gives us some Frugal Family Vacation Tips.
• Mom at Wide Open Wallet shares a yummy recipe for Garlic Lime Chicken.
• Seb from Pinching Copper warns us about five items you don’t want to buy at the dollar store.
• Jonathan, again from Master Your Card, offers a few tips on protecting yourself from credit card fraud.
• And last but not least, Future Millionaire reminds us of the importance of taking the time to do things right the first time around in Quality and Personal Finance.

Blog Carnival

We are excited to announce that our Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gift Suggestions made Editor’s Choice at the 151st edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance Bloggers on Surviving the Squeeze hosted at Alpha Consumer by Kimberly Palmer, senior editor of U.S. News & World Report. Be sure to check out this carnival for more interesting personal finance and frugality related articles.