I am going to start to post some very small articles on Saturdays. They are going to consist of polls, small snippets that make you think or quick updates. I am also going to include a roundup in the post each week. So, make sure you check in on the weekends to read up on some articles that I found interesting over the past week!

Anyway, I thought today would be a good time to assess the status of everyones debt. I have always been interested to see how much debt you all have.

Please be assured that I am not collecting ANY personal information with this poll. It’s just that, a poll. Once you are finished, make sure you check out the great blogs that are listed below! If you are reading this and cannot see the poll, click here to come to the site.

Great Posts

Is Being Rich Important For Living The Ideal Life? This is a great post on how being rich shouldn’t be your main goal in life. There are other “life currencies” that you should be striving for. (@scott h young)

Worth More Than Money: Taking a Detour On The Road to Riches. Sierra (a writer at Get Rich Slowly) recently got out of credit card debt. However, before she paid the last bill, she spent over $5,000 to take a trip to visit family in Argentina. I’ve kind of talked about this before. Sometimes you may need to take a break and do something exciting. If my wife and I just sat her for 10 years while getting out of debt, we would go crazy. (@get rich slowly)

Are You Spending Intentionally? This was my favorite quote from the post: “Living a frugal lifestyle is about using money intentionally. It is not about using the least amount of money to fund your lifestyle, rather it is about maximizing the money we do have by making its spending a reflection of our values.” (@frugal dad)

How to Simplify When You Love Your Stuff. My wife and I have always loved “stuff”. We are trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible but it’s just so hard! (@zen habits)

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Have a great weekend!

Clothing is one of the really difficult things for me to spend money on. If you looked through my closet, I could point out to you over a dozen articles of clothing that have been in there for 6+ years. Yeah, I just don’t shop for clothing that much.

When I do shop for clothing, I typically look for things that are good quality but at bargain prices. Two of the places I always look is TJ Maxx and Marshalls. As you probably know, they have brand name items at low prices. Most of the stuff isn’t “hip” or “in style”, but I’m OK with that. I mean, I do have really old stuff in my closet!

Going off of some experience and research, I tried to figure out the best time to shop at the store. You obviously want to be in the store when things aren’t picked over or messy. Based on those facts, I would think that the best day to shop in either store would be Tuesday mornings. That gives the store staff plenty of time to restock the floor and straighten up the mess from the weekend crowd. Tuesdays are also one of the slowest for retail business so you likely won’t have much competition.

What do you think? Have you had success at other times? Leave a comment and then enjoy these links below!

Free Summer Activities For Kids – @Frugal Dad

8 Things Every High School Graduate Needs to Know About Money – @Bible Money Matters

How to Avoid Giving Gifts at Work – @brip blap

Is Your Spouse Hiding Debt? – @Get Rich Slowly

Should We Discourage Some Students From Attending College? – @Consumerism Commentary

Your Financial Mindset Determines Your Ability to Handle Credit Cards – @Enemy of Debt

The Realities of Dropping Cable – @The Simple Dollar

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Have a great weekend!

Well, it’s been a little while since I had a roundup so I thought I would get back in the mix. It’s tough for me to read as many blogs as I used to. I can’t read blogs at work like many other bloggers can. Frankly, it stinks. I feel so much more disconnected than I used to be. I hardly Tweet and I very rarely comment on other blogs. Hopefully, I can find a new routine that will allow me to do more of that. We’ll see!

In other news, I will be starting a series on the blog called “The Debtor’s Mind”. The series is going to be about the things that we as debtors tell ourselves to make us feel better. So, if you try to rationalize why you are in debt on a daily basis, I want to hear what your thoughts are. Send me an email with some topics and I will give you credit if you so desire. I already have a few thoughts but I am curious to hear yours!

Must Reads

Family Member Loan: Three Reasons I Would Reconsider – This is a guest post by yours truly over at My Super-Charged Life. As you know, I owe a family member over $16,000 and in this article I talk about how I will NEVER do it again.

How Conan O’Brien Wants You To Succeed. Flexo has a guest post over at Budgets Are Sexy that has some great thoughts to take from Conan’s last night on the “Tonight Show”. I hope Conan comes back even stronger in a few months. He deserves it.

7 Money Lessons From Monopoly. Ray from Financial Highway shares a great post on the financial lessons you can learn from the classic Monopoly game.

Should I Save For Retirement While In Debt? Here is my weekly post over at Frugal Dad. I explore the question of stopping retirement savings to get out of debt. Is it really worth the savings that you are missing out on?

Other Great Reads

• Tracking My Expenses: The Results
• It’s Morphin’ Time: Transform Your Financial Life
• How Personal is Personal Finance?
• Financial Infidelity: Cheating on Your Partner With Dollars
• When Pigs Fly: How I Fought My Parking Ticket and Beat City Hall
• Mammoth 2009 Tax Credit and Deduction List
• Car Financing Insider Secrets
• Negotiating Debt Settlements With Collection Agencies

Well, I just noticed that I started Your Money Relationship on July 2, 2008. That makes this site 1 year and 6 days old. So, I’m a little late but it has been a great year here and I am very grateful that I have made it this far. I know that it has been a weird year. I posted infrequently for a few months and changed the design of the site multiple times but I just want to thank everyone for sticking with me.

Looking Back

I wanted to share with you my favorite posts over the past year.

The Age of No Negotiation – After receiving so-so customer service from a big-box store, I question if customer service and price negotiation is dead.

10 Reasons Not to Pay For Your Kids College – Ever want to know some convincing reasons to not pay for your kids college education?

Should Your Forgo a Match From a 401(k) In Order to Start An Emergency Fund? – Would you pass up free money in order to be prepared for financial emergencies?

10 Things to Do When You Graduate Without a Job – Searching for a job? Follow these tips in order to get ahead of the game.

Are You Living ‘Within Your Means’ or ‘Below Your Means’? – Does ‘within your means’ mean you are living ‘paycheck to paycheck’?

Money Genie: I Grant You 3 Financial Do-Overs – What would you do if you could erase some financial mistakes?

Create a Financial Mission Statement to Stay Focused – Having trouble getting started with your financial future? Utilize this method to get focused.

Have Jobs Become Disposable? – Have the recent generations starting thinking of jobs as disposable?

5 Motivational Tips to Start Saving Today – Use these tips to kick your bad habit of not saving.

Looking Forward

As many of you already know, I have recently added another blogger to the site. His name is Chris and he is going to be blogging about getting out of $150,000+ in debt. I think Chris will add a lot of additional topics that I would not have otherwise covered.

I also look to be back to blogging at a faster pace once my new job begins in August. Up until then I will be pretty inactive as I am getting married next week and we are heading to Jamaica after that.

Once again, I want to thank all of you readers for the great conversations over the past year. I look to many more!

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to subscribe to the blog. By subscribing to this site, you can get FREE updates in your inbox daily. Why not give it a try? You can unsubscribe at any time and it’s FREE. You can subscribe via RSS or you can subscribe via email.

Hope your long weekend is going well! We are headed off to some friends today for a cookout/pool party. Enjoy the time off the next two days and do some relaxing while reading these great articles from last week.

Matt from Five Cent Nickel asks what’s your money mindset?

Free From Broke gives you the 25 traits of the not so well to do.

Kevin at No Debt Plan tells you how to create a “stop doing” list.

Stretchy Dollar has the 10 phrases that will sink your budget.

Gather Little by Little shares with you his biggest financial blunders.

Make sure you check them all out!