Catch-up on reading

Before I do my own catch-up on all those topics I promised, I have a couple of articles of interest that I wanted to share, so I'm gonna post those first.

~Yahoo featured a story on a group of friends who agreed to go an entire year without buying anything new. With the help of sites like Freecycle and Garbage Scout, as well as a few carefully agreed upon groundrules and loopholes, they did it, and are now vowing to try it all again.

~MSN featured an article by Liz Pulliam Weston about how to save money even if you're living paycheck-to-paycheck. While not necessarily quick-fixes, such as finding cheaper insurance or daycare, some of these suggestions can be real bright ideas for people who are sick of being told to cut back on vacations when they haven't been on one in 5 years.