Money Under 30 hosts the Carnival of Personal Finance for May 12. It’s common for a carnival host to do editor’s picks when assembling the roundup, so I thought it was appropriate that Money Under 30 pointed out some articles specifically for his target audience!

Here are some of the posts on this week’s showcase:

• The Personal Financier presents The problem of accounting and budgeting for cash expenses: “Adding cash expenses as a budget item makes into an expense which should be minimized. Since assigning cash expenses is often done in accurately we might as well plan and budget for it as just another expense.” If you plan for cash expenses as a line item, that provides an incentive get a receipt for as many cash purchases as possible so that money can be accounted for in its proper line item instead of “unknown cash.”
• A Dollar a Day presents Are you ready?: “I think this is where a chunk of my economic stimulus is going to go. To preparations for the unknown. Maybe it seems silly, but I figure that it can’t hurt to be prepared.” The start of tornado season in Michigan is when I traditionally inventory and overhaul our family’s disaster supplies.
• Not the Jet Set presents How to garage sale shop like a pro: “Established rich neighborhoods are typically good ones to try. They have nice quality stuff, and making money at the sale is usually not an issue, so they will take less to see it go. Established upper-middle class neighborhoods are also great.“ And pay close attention to how those sale notices are worded - something might get your attention. I just bought some Stampin’ Up rubber stamps at one of my neighbors’ sales. I stopped by her sale because she mentioned that product line in her garage sale ad.
• Debt Free presents Dangers of Reverse Mortgages: “In the first place you should be aware that the amount you receive will probably be less than you are shown in the initial calculations.” If you or an older relative is considering a reverse mortgage, this post has a lot of good information.
• And Monroe on a Budget presents Are you really on the IRS direct deposit list?: “If you got your tax refund earlier than the IRS was able to provide, then you probably have a refund anticipation loan worked into the deal.” Since making that post, I’ve heard of a couple more if this, then that scenarios, one of which I added into the comment section. I think we all wish the guidelines had been explained in more detail when tax season was in full swing.

So you think you can find the best grocery deals by looking up the weekly sales fliers on the Internet? That an e-mail service will tell you all the hot deals of the week? That you won’t (gulp!) need a newspaper to see the grocery ads?

Well, if you can find an Internet resource other than Monroe on a Budget that mentions the specials of the week at Danny’s Fine Foods in Monroe and Hi-Lite Supermarket in Monroe Township - please let me know.

Here are the specials from those two local grocery stores that I found in my home-delivery edition of The Monroe Evening News today:

• Danny’s has fresh produce buys that include cantalope melons at $1.49 each. Fresh ground turkey is $1.49 a pound. Regular and diet Verner’s is 99 cents a 2-liter bottle with deposit.
• Hi-Lite has bananas at 33 cents a pound, Fresh Express iceberg garden salad at 69 cents a bag, Hunt’s ketchup at 99 cents a bottle and milk at $2.69 a gallon.

Prime Time Money, with a little bit of help from some personal finance blogger friends, has created a map database called A World of Personal Finance Bloggers.

Monroe on a Budget is listed on the map as of today. Personal finance blog neighbors you might be familiar with include Me vs. Debt from Ann Arbor (I already knew she was from Ann Arbor, but didn’t know if she wanted that publicly known!)

The project is still getting started, but I expect it will catch on fairly quickly.

I haven’t figured out how to install a “badge” or button on my blogroll, but I do have the link listed under “National blogs.”

The Associated Press reports that the number of Michigan households getting food stamps has risen 53 percent in the past five years, with one in eight state residents now receiving such assistance.

A short story is on page 6B of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News.

The Detroit Free Press also went into more details for their story in Sunday’s edition, with statistics and quotes from the metro Detroit area. A snippet from the Freep:

For Angelia Moncrief, 31, a single mother who lives on the west side of Detroit, food stamps and Medicaid health insurance became an embarrassing necessity when she lost her $38,000 office manager job at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn last September.

“Where I came from, not having to depend on anybody — the system, my mama, my brothers, my boyfriend — and now I have to use the Bridge Card,” Moncrief said. “Now, everyone is looking at me when I pull it out. They think, ‘She’s doing nothing, she’s on welfare, she’s poor.’ That’s what the looks say.”

I watch Toledo TV news, so I’m seeing some of the marketing campaign that the Ohio payday loan industry has put on the air in recent weeks. The campaign is an attempt to battle efforts at the state level to restrict their business. (May 6 Columbus Dispatch story)

One of the ads I saw this morning showed a man who said he never used payday loans, but complained about the possibility of the government restricting financial choices.

I’m shouting out to you Ohio residents (and Michigan residents by ripple effect):

There are already government restrictions on payday loan services - courtesy of Uncle Sam!

As of Oct. 1, 2007, anyone who receives a military paycheck has restrictions on payday loans and - as some found out this spring - tax refund anticipation loans.

I blogged about this situation last fall, and you’ll find a report at Military.com, which is a very popular e-news service aimed at military families.

A snippet from the Military.com article:

“It’s a big problem for commanders, because what happens is often these households get themselves in over their heads,” Chu said. “They’re $200 short between now and next payday, but they’re no better off when payday comes, so they need a bigger loan, and it just goes downhill from there.” …

“The first defense here … is good education for our people so they understand better how to manage their finances wisely, so they don’t get themselves in trouble and so they don’t come up short at the end of the month or the end of the pay period,” David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said. “But if they do, they know where to turn and how to get help.”

This regulation is important because financial readiness directly affects mission readiness for military members, Chu said. If a troop is worried about an unpaid credit card bill, a needed car repair, or any other financial crisis, he won’t be able to focus on the mission.

If payday loans have caused so many problems for military families that restrictions had to be imposed by the people who issue their paychecks, then civilian families also should take notice.

I can hear some of you saying, “Yeah, right, that’s fine for people who make a lot of money to say. But I’m living paycheck to paycheck!”

Reality check: The way to avoid payday loans is not in how much money you make, but in what you do with the money you make.

As we’ve seen in recent years in southeast Michigan, it’s just as possible for someone who earns $150,000 to be foreclosed on his house as for someone who makes $60,000.

Yes, people do make stupid financial decisions on occasion. I’ve already mentioned on this blog that I used tax refund anticipation loans in 1990 and 1991; and that I signed up for a college student consolidation loan with increasing payments that turned into a nightmare (yeah, it was a lot like those adjustable mortgages).

But there is more information available than ever before to the general public on how to manage your money, how to shop smart and find great deals, how to DIY tasks around the house, how to avoid getting ripped off, how to find emergency financial assistance for your situation, how to get the best possible prices on prescription drugs, which credit cards are the best ones for which consumers, how to improve your credit rating so your loan rates are more favorable ….

And much of that advice is free.

Start clicking your mouse on the links and blogs on my blogroll.

My co-worker Charles Slat focused his Sunday column for the May 11 edition of The Monroe Evening News on payday loans.

It’s fair to say Charles and I seem to have different opinions on whether payday loans are a necessary service, but he does make this interesting point:

… If legislators want to characterize payday loan companies as villains preying on the poor, they needn’t look too far to find plenty of others.

For example, they might want to target another customer choice that ends up costing consumers dearly. It’s the out-of-pocket costs they pay each week to purchase losing tickets in state-sponsored lottery games.

You might have heard about a clothes hand-me-down swap. The idea is to invite a few of your female friends over to your home or apartment or dorm room. Everybody who attends brings at least one item of clothing that she no longer likes or wants to participate in a swap.

The goal is that everybody gets to take home at least one “new to me” item, depending on her sizes and “likes”.

The rest of the stuff is donated to a thrift shop or other charity that accepts used clothing.

My mother came up with this idea: what about a pantry swap?

Here was the explanation: There usually are a few grocery products in everybody’s pantry that they no longer like or use, or ended up purchasing too many by accident. A family of siblings, a mothers’ group or such could meet with the intention of having a pantry swap.

Everybody bring at least one pantry item to put in the swap. Everybody who brings something hopefully finds at least one thing they’d like to take home instead. (For example, I’ll bring in a box of pancake mix and take home a can of soup instead; or here’s homemade jelly that I’ll trade for homemade salsa.)

Anything that is leftover, but acceptable by your local food pantry (some don’t take glass jars or homemade products) gets donated.

If you feel better donating everything to a food pantry, so be it.

But clothes swappers get their first choice of someone else’s leftovers before the pile of shirts and pants go to the thrift shop. A pantry swap could work just as well.

This week’s newspaper column by Sara Noel of Frugal Village is my hands-down favorite from Sara’s collection in recent months. You’ll find the column on page 3E of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News, but here’s a bit of a summary for those who are not MEN subscribers:

The headline: When life gives you too many hot dog buns …

The question: What do you do with them?

Sara’s readers gave some really creative recipes!

For example: Ham and cheese sandwiches or mini-sub sandwiches (what Monroe County resident call “grinders”) prepared ahead of time, wrapped in foil, frozen until someone needs a quick dinner. Bake them in the oven just before serving.

There’s also meatloaf filling, garlic or cinnamon toast, and this recipe: Banana dogs. Yes, banana dogs. Spread peanut butter on the bun, add a whole banana. Now you have a kid-friendly lunch box sandwich.

I’ll admit: I don’t have this problem often. We usually wrap our hot dogs in bread. Buns, when we have them, stay in the freezer and thawed out individually when needed.

But you never know what will be left over in the aftermath of a potluck or party …. so I’m saving this newspaper article with my recipe collection!

My co-worker Doug Donnelly has this story for page 1C of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News and at www.monroenews.com:

Making the call for help

As more and more people in the state deal with a struggling economy, call centers like 211 are helping more families deal with it.

A snippet:

Through the winter months, the top five most-requested services for Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Monroe counties were gas bill assistance, electric bill assistance and food assistance. Those requests are typical of callers.

In 2007, the bulk of callers from Monroe County to 211 were for health and human services issues. More than 1,000 of the calls that originated from the county were referred to either the Monroe County Opportunity Program, Monroe County Department of Human Services or the Salvation Army. That means those calls were for basic human needs.

“We get a lot of questions for help with rent, gas bills or electric bills,” Kevin Gregg said. He is the call center manager for the United Way Regional Call Center in Ann Arbor. …

“It seems like when we first started taking calls, it was rent assistance,” he said. “Now, we get calls from people where this is a new problem. They haven’t been at this point in their life before. They are trying to make ends meet.”

Go check out what The Backyard Gardener, the newest blogger in the BlogsMonroe neighborhood, is writing about his Landscape on a budget.