This week kicked my ass. I’m not sure what was so different but wow, am I tired. So tired, in fact, that forming any sort of coherent thought takes a tremendous amount of effort. I really hope next week is better.

Since I’m incapable of thinking, you should probably go ahead and check out these posts instead:

• A few other bloggers decided to play Money Shuffle this week: Serendipity at Serendipity’s Guide to Savings, Vanessa from Random Thoughts and Acronyms, and Erika at From Shopping To Saving. If you played along, make sure you leave a link in the comments!
• My internet twin Mackenzie wrote about The Underbelly of the American Dream. I love the way Mackenzie writes and she always has such great stories to tell.
• Bill from Dollars and Debt had an extremely thought provoking post, asking Should You Be Ashamed of the Food Pantry? I don’t think so, especially when you’re charged with the care of others. Providing basic necessitites should never be a source of embarassment.
• Daisy from When Life Gives You Lemons wears awesome dresses. Go check them out here, in her closet.
• Nick at Step Away From the Mall wants to know if a Big Wasteful Obnoxious Toy Is Part of Your Motivation? Not for me, it’s not, but what he wants is pretty damn cool.
• Bryan from Pinch That Penny continued our Southland crossover event. Check out his post on Officer Sammy Bryant (who looks really good in a towel).
• My blogging tutor, Andrea from So Over Debt, also has an incredible site, Curiousity Killed the Blog. It’s a one stop shop for all your blogging questions. Whether you’re a new blogger or veteran one, there’s information that can help you.
• One of my favorite bloggers, Carrie from Careful Cents, had a guest post at blog I love to read daily, Get Busy Living. Check out the site and her post, 5 Ways to Live and Love Again After Failure.

There are some other people who are kind enough to let me write for them. Here are some other shots from this week:

• The Jealousy Files–my other site. Please take a peak and make your friends jealous!
• I’m officially a Yakezie member!! Check out my member post!
• Factors to Consider When Accepting a Job on Prairie Eco Thrifter
• Recovering From a Bad Job Interview on Fiscal Phoenix
• When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Find Motivation to Keep Going on A Straight Talk on Debt

You know when you set out to see a movie because it looks like it’s going to be great and then you watch it and something happens that makes it even greater? That’s what happened to me when I saw I Love You, Man for the first time. Why? Because a central part of the movie is the band Rush. And if you didn’t already know, Rush is my most favoritest band of all time. I’m completely serious, too.

Which is why I thought it would be totally fitting to use during my turn hosting The Financial Simplicity Carnival, created by Nick from Step Away From the Mall. When I learned he was creating a carnival, I knew it would be awesome but it’s turning out to be even better than I expected. Just like I Love You, Man.

So…

Are you ready to get your mind blown? You wanna get some Neil Peart all up in ya? Well, prepared to be…Rushified!!!! Oh, and there are some pretty great blog posts thrown in there, too.

Editor’s Pick

Rush song: “Dreamline” Album: Roll The Bones. Sample lyric: “We are young, wandering the face of the Earth, Wondering what our dreams might be worth, learning that we’re only immortal, For a limited time”

Posts: 5 Business Lessons Learned From Monopoly from Faith and Finance and How Does Credit Card Interest Work from Ready for Zero. Completely different posts, both fantastic to read.

Debt Reduction

Rush Song: “Stick It Out” Album: Counterparts Sample lyric: “Trial under fire, Ultimate proof, Moment of crisis, Don’t swallow the truth”

Posts: Why Have an Emergency Fund from See Debt Run; Get Out of Debt in 2012: Fix Your Credit Report from Yes, I Am Cheap; Why We Plateau and What To Do Next from American Debt Project; How We Paid Off Debt from My Money Counselor

Investing

Rush Song: “The Big Money” Album: Power Windows Sample lyric: “It’s the power and the glory, It’s a war in paradise, A Cinderella story, On a tumble of the dice”

Posts: Women Investors from Family Money Values; Starting to Invest from Thirty-Six Months; Grow Your Nest Egg with Automatic Retirement Contributions from Free From Broke; Why You Should Save for Retirement in Graduate School, Part 1 from Evolving Personal Finance

Spending/Budgeting

Rush Song: “Show Don’t Tell” Album: Presto Sample lyric: “You can twist perceptions, Reality won’t budge, You can raise objections, I will be the judge, And the jury”

Posts: My Infamous Cereal Aisle Meltdown from Debt Black Hole; How Do You Choose Your Bank from Boomer and Echo; Money Can Be Fun: Games That Can Teach About Money from Credit Cards Canada; Expenses to Get Set Up in Bangkok from Money Infant; Folly of Paying Someone to Cook for You from Modest Money

Making Money

Rush Song: “Working Man” Album: Rush Sample Lyric: “I get up at seven, yeah, And I go to work by nine, Got no time for livin’, yes, I’m working all the time”

Posts: Index Funds Win Big from Free Money Finance; Killer Jobs: Do You Have One from The Millionaire Nurse Blog; The Only 3 Ways To Get a Sweet Ass Government Job from Cult of Money

And now I leave you with the video for one of my favorite Rush songs, “Time Stand Still”. There’s a quiz, too: Who’s the chick in the video and what famous 80s band was she in?

http://youtu.be/UTFHwTKWawU

You know those weeks where everything that can go wrong seems to? That was my week. I’m not going to bother you with the specifics but suffice it to say, nothing went as planned and it pretty much sucked. When the highlight is getting called for jury duty, you know it’s a bad week.

But enough about that. Fortunately, there was a ton of good writing around the PF blogosphere this week which did provide some amount of escape from the dreariness (for the record, I do read non-PF blogs, too. Some of my favorites? Life Without Pants, The Bloggess, EduClaytion, and Cake Wrecks). As always, I struggled with which ones stood out the most. There are so many good writers around, I sometimes feel ashamed of myself for even trying to keep up. Here are just a few:

• Carrie from Careful Cents wrote about 5 different types of budgets. I think this is a great way to look at your money and plan accordingly for different scenarios.  
• Bill from Dollars and Debt asks What’s Your Spending Mentality? I’ve shifted through all these different mentalities at one point or another in my financial life. In my current financial position, I’d have to say that I actually don’t fall into any of the categories he’s listed (which I think is a good thing). 
• Budgeting in the Fun Stuff hosted a guest post from Dave at Gen Y Finances about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. I know someone who took advantage of this program and wound up with a large portion of her loans paid off after approximately 5 years of service at an at-risk, inner city school.
•  Two of my favorite bloggers, Mackenzie from The Random Path and Daisy from When Life Gives You Lemons, each wrote about the workplace this week, and both posts reminded me of why working in an office is so frustrating. To learn more, check out Mackenzie’s post on why she doesn’t miss working in an office and Daisy’s post on 6 work personalities we can live without. 
• Another one of my favorite bloggers, Nick from Step Away From the Mall, kept up his pace of producing so many good posts, I couldn’t pick just one to spotlight. So, if you haven’t already, go read his blog. All of it. Because it kicks ass.
• Jeff from My So Called Financial Life gave a breakdown of his restaurant tipping policy. No matter how bad the service, I leave a tip. And I get some pretty bad service. Including from the upscale restaurant my husband and I went to last weekend that overcharged us by $100 (well, we weren’t overcharged on the bill. They waited to do that until after they’d run our card and said the dollar sign looked like a 1. Uh huh…)
• If you follow me on Twitter, then you probably know that I am madly in love with the show “Southland”. Well, so is Bryan from Pinch That Penny and he wrote a post this week about “Southland” money personalities. You can look for another post in that series on his site and right here on DMS this Tuesday (it’s my very first non-Yakezie blog swap crossover event, and I’m so excited!)

I also want to give a huge congratulations to my girl Aloysa from My Broken Coin who was featured on LifeHacker this week as well as my friend Lindy from Minting Nickels who was featured on MSN Money! They are two amazing bloggers and I’m glad they’re getting that kind of mainstream recognition.

There are some other people who are kind enough to let me write for them. Here are some other shots from this week:

• Green Energy Jobs–What Are Your Options? on Prairie Eco Thrifter
• 52 Week Prosperity Plan, Week 6: Analyzing paychecks and billing statements on Go Be Rich
• College Student? Fix These Errors Now! on Fiscal Phoenix

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I don’t know about you but I am glad February is over. Not so much because it’s a crappy month but because March is better. March means that spring is coming and more importantly…baseball season is almost here! That means another 6 months of watching my beloved Mets suck ass and having to face the abundance of Phillies fans in my office. It’s fine, though. I’m not going to stop being a Mets fan. That would be like surrendering my dog or giving up chocolate. No way is that going to happen.

But more importantly, the end of February means another Bloggers Give Back donation. I really struggled with what to contribute to this month. There are so many good causes but for me, there was one I felt that I had to give to. It hits way too close to home for me. As part of my job, I sit on my state’s child death review panel. At the end of a meeting last month, I learned that 3 students at one school committed suicide within one month of each other and a middle school girl also committed suicide. I don’t know the reasons why and it breaks my heart that these kids thought they had no other recourse but to take their own lives. So, in their honor, I am donating my money to a local organization that assists with suicide prevention.

Moving on to happier things. Once again, my reader was filled with all kinds of blogging goodness. I almost feel like I need to stop doing these posts because it is a struggle for me to pick which ones stood out the most. But there were a few this week that impacted me for one reason or another:

• Debt Dieting from See Debt Run
• On Letting Go and Trusting from Mom’s Plans
• Workplace Bullies, Comeback and Fighting Back from Financial Samurai (this one really stood out of me because I spent 3 years working for the biggest bully I have ever met. What I experienced is it’s own series of posts. My method of fighting back? Leaving). 
• A Part-Time Job: The Secret to Success from Bucksome Boomer
• 12 Reasons Why Blogging May Never Become My Full-Time Job from Fiscal Fizzle
• How Do I Stay Motivated to Pay Off Debt from Everything Finance
• Frugality is Exactly What the Economy Needs from Mighty Bargain Hunter
• How To Use Twitter to Improve Your Finances from Money Cactus