Kimberly Palmer at Alpha Consumer is a bit of a rarity in the personal finance blogosphere. She’s a senior editor at U.S. News and World Report - so, like me, she’s working for traditional media while blogging under her print byline.

In comparison, many of the well-known personal finance bloggers are freelancers or doing so as a hobby, and it is common to write under a screen name with only vague clues as to the blogger’s geographic location.

Personally, I prefer blogging under my newspaper byline than blogging anonymously. I like being able to access all my print reporter resources for this blog, and I share my own stories in the meantime so you know there is a real person behind the name.

Anyway, Kimberly is hosting the May 5 Carnival of Personal Finance and gave the showcase the headline “Bloggers on Surviving the Squeeze.” Here are some of the links you will find:

• No Credit Needed presents Real Life Example of Why You Need an Emergency Fund: “Four years ago, when our son was born, we used credit cards to cover the gap between actual and expected income. But, not now. No, now we will use the funds in our savings account, to make up for the lost income.” When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had not worked at that job full-time long enough to get paid maternity leave. I saved all my sick leave and vacation time to use with baby’s arrival. But I still had no paycheck at all for about four weeks. Not fun.
• Debt Free Revolution presents Stagflation Survival Tip 1: Stock Up: “It didn’t take me long to get that freezer up to half filled, and my goal is to keep it at about two-thirds full at all times, with as many on sale items as I can find.” I never had a deep freezer, and am not certain that expense would pay off with just two of us at home now. But I do have lots of space for canned and boxed foods: )
  
• Student Scrooge presents Keeping track of rebates and promotions: “You could use a similar system in Microsoft Outlook or a similar task manager, but Remember the Milk seems to provide a sleek, elegant, and easy-to-use interface.” I do use Microsoft Outlook to remind me of blog posts that I intended to schedule for specific dates! I can see where a computer program would also be useful for coupon and rebate details. For now, I use a binder with pockets and a day planner for that purpose.