The Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted Monday by Everyday Finance. Here are some of the posts you’ll find about all things financial:

• The Family Wallet presents How Your Finances Change When You Have Children: “You learn to save for unexpected expenses. Once you’ve added children to your family, you quickly learn that the unexpected happens.” I also learned to save some of my vacation days for kid errands!
• FruGal presents Town Mouse, Country House: “What Town Mouse’s plight reminded me, is that while it might seem like a great idea to move to a cheaper part of the country to obtain a cheaper cost of living, there is so much more than just money to take into account.” My husband and I almost moved to Bedford Township when we moved to Michigan, on the theory we’d be closer to friends and family in Ohio. It’s just as well we realized with easy access to I-75, living in Monroe made more sense travel time-wise. The historic city atmosphere of Monroe is much more our style of living than Bedford’s suburbia would be.
• Not Made of Money presents Stop buying stuff with the payment mentality: “Because you always have a payment to make, you are never able to save up enough money to pay cash for your next big purchase. Then, when the time comes that you have to make a large purchase, you are forced to finance it and begin the whole cycle again.” My husband and I do not go looking for a new car every time we finish paying off a car loan. We go looking for a new car when the old car becomes so unreliable and is in the repair shop so frequently it can’t even be a ‘go to work’ car.

The Festival of Frugality was hosted Tuesday by Our Four Pence Worth. Here are some of the posts you’ll find about frugal living concepts:

• Daddy Financials presents 10 tips to get anyone into the habit of cooking at home: “In my case I started out with the goal that for every night that we eat out I should cook at least two nights at home. This helped set up a rhythm and also a rough schedule.” A time-saving tip would be to cook or prep one night some ingredients you will use during the week – such as cutting up vegetables, or fry up enough hamburger for more than one dinner.
• Cheap, Healthy, Good presents Food and financial advice for the college-bound: “Being good parents and savvy businesspeople, they had one condition: I had to maintain a 3.0 average.” What happened when she didn’t? It’s the same thing that will happen if you miss the GPA for a scholarship renewal.
• Value for Your Life presents You can have frugality and quality of life: “Be willing to think outside the box and basically get creative with what’s on sale and seasonal that week along with a few staple items.” When you decide what’s worth spending your money on, and what’s not, you’ll find that more often than you might expect, you can afford the lifestyle you want.