Green Panda Treehouse

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Photo Credit: by alborzshawn

Welcome!

I noticed last night that quite few visitors came from MSN. Thank you Smart Spending and Karen Datko. Special thanks to my fellow bloggers for their great articles. I also want to thank friend and long time reader Neal (You know you always have an open invitation to our place, right?).

A recent piece of news, I’ve joined the College Money Network .

Here’s an overview of some of my most popular posts to get started:

Banking

• Does Your Bank Care About Online Banking Security?
• Another Reason Why I Hate Bank of America
• Make Banks Treat You Like The Valued Customer You Are
• Bank of America Raises ATM Fees
• When Will My Banks Account’s Balance Show the Correct Balance?

Budget & Savings

• His, Mine, and Ours: How We Pay Our Bills and Budget
• New Neccessities That Are Draining My Bank Account
• Rebuilding An Emergency Fund
• Eat Healthier & Save Money: Brownbag Your Lunch
• Build a Doable Budget in 2 Weeks
• Easy Ways to Get an Emergency Fund Started
• Easy Recipe: Sausage Dip

Cars

• Keep a Gasoline Spreadsheet
• Anitcipate Your Needs in Your Budget
• My Husband Saved Us Money on Car Insurance

Credit Cards

• How to Use Credit Cards Wisely
• I Got a Lower Rate on the Credit Card I Use
• Rich College Student: Understand Your Credit Cards
• Top 5 Credit Card Mistakes

Debt

• Our Game Plan for the Economic Stimulus Check
• Worst Credit Card Offer I’ve Seen
• 5 Ways to Get Out of Debt
• Pay Off Debt First or Start Savings (Chicken or the Egg)

Education

• Getting The Most Financial Aid
• College or Technical Certification? Why not both?
• CLEP Can Reduce Your Student Loans
• Which Foreign Language Should I Learn?

Life

• What’s in My Wallet?
• Negotiating in Chinatown
• Frugal Pet Care
• How to Avoid Arguing About Money
• 3 Ways To Wisely Spend Your Bonus
• Family and Finances

Here’s a series describing our struggle to get our money back from a car mechanic’s negligence. It was around the time I started blogging about personal finance.

Car Repairs Gone Bad Series:

• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses to Pay for Damages
• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses To Pay Part Duex
• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses To Pay Part Three
• How to Pitch Your Story to the Local News
• Small Claims Court: Basic Information
• Our Day in Court
• Win in Court!

Feel free to subscribe to my site to get the latest delivered to your inbox.

Photo Credit: crowt59

I had some fun this weekend. I went up to Virginia to enjoy Lake Fest in Clarksville. It was a bit of fun. As for my job hunt, I’m being careful this time around and I updated and tweaked my resume. I sent my resume o 1 job that caught my eye. I don’t want to just send my resume everywhere, I’m being a  a bit pickier. I’m grateful for having some money saved and a husband who is smart with his money.

Here are some great posts I saw this week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

College Money Network Posts

• Stephanie offers tips on Saving Money on Driving, One Way or Another.
• Is Your Money Safe In The Bank? I think that’s a relevant question, especially with how much the local news ‘covers’ it. Thanks Jennifer!
• MFA or Bust has asked “Please, sir, I want some more.” Trying to get more financial aid is not easy, but a smart move when you’re in college.
• Should You Take A Break Before Grad School? This is wonderfully written article with the pros and cons.

• So I Have This Friend (or, on mooching) I think all of us have to deal with this at one point or another.

Rest of the Web

• How my publisher got $5,000 of goodwill with $100 shows us that goodwill goes a long way.
• Flexo explains reminds us that in net worth competition: don’t compare yourself with others.
• Generation X Finance presents from the front lines: changing your risk tolerance based on a bear market .
• Dough Roller finds a way to change gift cards into cash.
• Plonkee asks how should kids learn about finance?
• Patrick discusses retirement in How Many Retirement Accounts Can You Have?

Have a great day !

The College Money Network has launched!

I recently joined the College Money Network, a fantastic group of personal finance bloggers. I encourage you to check out their blogs this week. It’s amazing while we have the similar circumstances on money and college, we have such a collection of different views.

What’s our purpose?

The College Money Network is a diverse group of college students, grad students, and recent graduates who blog about personal finance in a way that’s easy for other college students and twenty somethings to relate. By forming a network, we hope to provide a single location where college students and twenty somethings can visit for the best information on personal finance.

Please check out all the blogs, I think you’ll like them. I’m really excited about this and hope you will be too.