Improve Gas Mileage, Market Your Home, Plus Winners of the Million Visitors Giveaway!

Winners of The Million Visitors Giveaway

Earlier, I was thinking of giving away $5,000 to the actual millionth visitor on my site, but since I had no way to accurately track down the specific individual, the thought fizzled .

At any rate, I have tried to approximate the event by holding last week’s giveaway where I had a few of my favorite books as prizes. I’ll definitely hike up the prize values once I approach a few more memorable milestones (10 million? ).

And the winners are: Free From Broke, Frugal Dad and reader “EN”. Congratulations to you three for winning one of the following:

• Personal Finance: Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach
• Debt Management: How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously by Jerrold Mundis
• Investing: The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Michael LeBoeuf

Now on to some stuff I enjoyed reading over the last few days!

Personal Finance Reads

• Get Rich Slowly: J.D. reflects on what it takes to be frugal and what it means to embrace thrift.
• Five Cent Nickel: Gas prices are killing our wallets, but look at the bright side…? Anyway, if you want some relief, try improving your gas mileage with these ideas.
• Lazy Man and Money: Lazy Man had the chance to hear Oprah at Stanford’s commencement exercises, and he was thoroughly blown away!
• Money Smart Life: Here’s how to market your home if you’re planning to go the “for sale by owner” route.
• Gen X Finance: ETFs or mutual funds? How about both?
• The Sun’s Financial Diary: With the weak dollar, the smart thing to do is to move into international investments. But that may not have helped your bottom-line recently, with international ETFs plunging along with the US market slump.
• Mighty Bargain Hunter: Being fat costs money! I use this mantra as one of my motivators for my quest to lose weight.
• No Credit Needed: I was a bit unhappy about this news — that gas stations may be curtailing the use of credit cards. Not sure if this is a trend though. Nevertheless, I am admittedly a fan of gas reward credit cards and cash back credit cards in general.
• Million Dollar Journey: Frugal Trader gives us a primer on how to buy and sell stock shares. It’s just what you need if you’re contemplating stock market investments.
• My Dollar Plan: Madison encounters a small business snafu — an advertiser’s bounced check. If you’re a small business owner, it’s always wise to keep an eye on your records regularly.
• Brip Blap: Find out how we got fat, rich and unhappy. I surmise that it’s because of too much work and little play, but that’s just me….
• My Two Dollars: Ugh! I agree with David here that Lego fruit-flavored snacks are hazards! Not a good thing to feed your kids if they’re young enough to still be playing with Legos (not to mention the sugar content).

Additional Readings

• Bad Debt Leads To A Bad Job And A Rough Life @ The Wisdom Journal
• How To Shop For Your Next Cell Phone Plan @ American Consumer News
• A Guy’s Guide to Saving and Survival @ Tales From The Road Less Traveled
• Avoid Baggage Fees: How to Pack a Suitcase @ Sound Money Matters
• Five Ways to Save When Grilling Out @ Not Made of Money [Yum!]
• The Dark Side of Dividends @ Dividends4Life
• Selling the Car, Jewelry & Other Stuff to Raise Cash @ The Frugal Duchess

Recent Carnivals

• The Diva Cup, Spam Sales and Emergency Funds
• Best of Me Symphony
• Carnival of Family Life: Father’s Day Edition
• Carnival of Homeowners #39
• Kids and Money — June 20, 2008
• Money Hacks Carnival #17 – Music of the ’80s
• Finance Fiesta No. 3: The Spanish Money Proverbs Edition
• The Carnival of Twenty Something Finances
• Festival of Stocks – 93rd Edition
• Carnival of the Green #132

• Stock trades: Free stock trades from Zecco, Cheap stock trades from TradeKing, Stock news and Investment info at INO TV Free, No cost Trend Analysis for stocks
• Earn top returns: FNBO Direct [1.90%], HSBC Direct [1.65%], WTDirect [1.76%], E*Trade Bank [0.95%], ING Direct [.25% to 1.65%]
• Cash bonus: Discover More [$50], American Express [$25], Lending Club [$25]

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