This Writer’s Wallet

End-of-the-Week Updates & Round-Up

More news:

1. Friday night turned out to be the summer’s first officially free event for me: a movie in the park. Unlike the big Chicago Film Festival, which shows classics on Tuesday nights (big bummer for this get-up-early girl), this showing was conveniently at 9 PM Friday. The movie of choice? E.T.

Verdict: I still spent $6 on bakery ahead of time, which isn’t that bad really. The showing itself could’ve been better, though. Because of our seats, we couldn’t hear well, and the screaming toddler nearby didn’t help. So all in all, learning experience #2: go early if you’re going to a free event. There will be lots of other money-savers who scope out better seats.

2. I got the raise. Sort of. Basically, my boss worked out a way for me to get a bonus-based increase each month that should (fingers crossed) mean a 10% boost, at least if our workload stays the same or increases (likely). So all my worrying for was nothing.

________________

On to the round-up. This week’s CMN bloggers are even better than before, armed with a new member! Help us welcome Spilling Buckets to the crew!

Here are some highlights of the past week:

• Broke Grad Student gives us a little background into when/how he started his site and how it’s allowing him to pay off his student loans. He also interviewed me, so THAT’s definitely a must-read.

• Want to win an iPod Shuffle? Head over to Poorer Than You for your chance!

• No matter what your financial situation, Broke-Ass Student says you have the greatest asset already, and it doesn’t cost anything. Take a look at her post, which, I’ll be honest, made me smile.

• Green Panda Treehouse was recently featured on MSN! She celebrated with a post giving us an overview of what she’s all about. Definitely worth visiting.

• What do YOU do when the cashier makes a mistake in your favor? Is it worth correcting, or is it a frugal blessing? MFA or Bust initiated a great discussion on this; go see!

• Last, but not least, our new friends Spilling Buckets (love their blog! have been reading for a while!) make an interesting observation about Real Simple. True confession: I think this mag is beautiful, even if not so helpful/simple/frugal. Used to subscribe but now I only flip through it at the store every once in a while.