Friday Round-Up: The Best in Personal Finance Blogs

As the holiday preparations wind down, we are left to scramble madly at the last moment or to reflect calmly at another season put to bed. Hopefully, you are in the latter crowd, but if you are not, there is still time to wrap presents and prepare for the welcome onslaught of family.

Next week, we here at MomVesting will take a few moments to offer last minute holiday tips and tricks, celebrate the season and enjoy the simple pleasures of family. We hope you’ll join us for our celebration. We wish you all Happy Holidays.

In other reading, this week’s web has been full of trickery (to save money), permission to own nice things, pitfalls to avoid in a home purchase, deck building fun, and bridesmaid avoidance. Join some of our favorite bloggers for the best posts of last week:

• Retire by 40 tricks himself into saving money, and he thinks you can do the same. Follow along here.
• Broke TO asks a great question that we’ve probably all asked at one point or another in our lives: Is it OK to Have Nice Things When You’re Broke? Check out her post to see what she thinks!
• Sandy at Yes I am Cheap discusses Pitfalls to Avoid for First-Time Homebuyers. Anyone looking at a home loan in the near future could benefit from this post.
• Need a new deck? Follow along with Beating Broke for a story about how a deck repair turned into a complete deck rebuild.
• If you’re being drafted for the bridesmaid game, are you prepared for the expense? Join Free Money Finance for a look at an alternative idea to saying yes to the expensive wedding commitment that may not mean much ten years down the line.

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