This week we took part in 3 carnivals / festivals. As usual, there's loads of great content - and the other blogger's posts are pretty good too! Be sure to check them out.

Festival of Frugality - Carrie at It's Frugal Being Green brings the frugality this week and features our post on salvaging the laundry after the attack of the purple crayon.

Carnival of Personal Finance - Our favorite French finance blog, Almost Frugal, gives us a language lesson as well as an Editor's Pick for our post on Roth IRAs.

Carnival of the Green - Victoria Klein gives us the green goodness this week including our review of Fresh the movie.

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We're trying something new. You'll quickly notice the added links at the end of posts we have 3 images with links to related posts.

At the moment:

1. The linked posts are not necessarily related
2. The links are showing up at the end of posts and between posts

We're working to resolve the coding issues - please bare with us. In the meantime, give the links a go.


Update:: The fine folks at LinkWithin corrected the issue, and their crawler has now parsed our site, so the widget is top notch now. Enjoy!


Comments?

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Occasionally, as a personal finance enthusiast, I'll read a blog post or two that make me realize that blogs are really just a digital form of water-cooler talk. I read one the other day about how gosh-darn important FICO scores are to every aspect of your life.

I hate FICO scores.

Let me rephrase that.

I hate posts about FICO scores.

That's a tad more accurate. But why? I'm glad you asked. My issue is not due to my own negative experience with FICO scores. Not because of the inappropriate ways they are abused by various industries. No. My issue is that 99% of the information you'll find about FICO scores falls into one of 3 buckets:

1. Lies
2. Myths
3. Half-truths

What's the difference? Lies are when you know the truth and say otherwise. Myths are when you don't know the truth, but for some reason you're still talking. Half-truths are when you fall jut short of lying by giving enough information to still be misleading. Without judging my fellow bloggers, writers and commenters, let's look at the other side of some of this mis-information floating around.

1. Your FICO score can affect your ability to get a job. Absolutely dead wrong. This is a sure sign that whoever you're talking to doesn't know the difference between a credit score and a credit report. Some employers will request to check your credit report - a detailed list of your financial reputation mostly focused on debt repayment and timeliness with bills. This is typically done when the job entails some sort of financial responsibility, which gives them every right to want to know how you handle your own finances. Now maybe there is some niche industry that can somehow gain value from assessing candidates by reviewing credit scores. I don't know who it would be. If an employer wants to review your credit score as opposed to a credit report, then turn and walk out the door - they are idiots.
2. Your FICO score affects your ability to buy a house. Wrong again, though it may limit who you can work with. Before the days of automated underwriting, lenders used to do this magical thing now known as manual underwriting. Some lenders will not offer this service for home loans as they are far too lazy to go through the process. If you have a low score or no score at all, then according to FHA guidelines, you can override the automated system by proving that you have payed your landlord and other bills on-time or early over the past 12 months - 24 months is even better. They will also look at things like your employment, income, and assets. Three things not necessarily considered in automated underwriting. BTW - it was that fun-loving Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that championed auto-underwriting. What does that tell you?
3. Your FICO score affects your ability to rent an apartment. Yes and no. There are many apartment communities that do not allow the management staff to use their brains. They are reduced to submitting a leasee's information for a credit check and not even getting back the score, but rather letter grade based on the score. (You're going to start to notice a trend here, but these sorts of things should tell you a lot about who you are dealing with.) Often times, these are the apartment communities that look more like a resort than a home. There are no shortage of landlords out there who are more interested in the person they are renting to than a three digit number.
4. Your FICO score affects your insurance. At some point in the 1990's, insurance companies conducted studies that associated FICO scores with the likelihood of filing a claim. This would fall under the heading of 'Non-Traditional FICO score uses'. In fact, Consumer Reports has found that the insurance industry has "no standards, little disclosure" when it comes to insurance scoring. Consumers Union has been urging legislators to ban it's use for years, and you should do the same.
   
5. Your FICO score affects your ability to get utilities. Ummm.... yeah. A bad FICO score could mean you have a poor history of paying bills on time. Thus, your local water utility may require a higher deposit, but you can still get service. Cable and cell phone providers may turn you down altogether. But then again, you don't need cable or cell phone and if for one reason you think you do, then maybe that's a good motivator for you to clean up your act.
6. Your FICO score affects your ability to open a bank account. We're almost crossing the line into fear-mongering here. It has been reported that Citibank runs in-depth credit checks before granting a request for a checking account. Funny - they are strict about checking accounts that contain your money, but require little more than a pulse to issue a credit card (and even that may be optional)?! So what is your first hint that you shouldn't be doing business with Citi? Or for that matter, any of the other mega banks?
7. Your FICO score can affect your personal relationships. I'm no dating expert, but I've never heard of anyone requesting a credit check before a date. Facebook friend requests? Nope. LinkedIn contacts? Nope. Now don't get me wrong, if you are in a serious relationship and considering marriage, money and finances are a subject that you need to discuss and be in agreement on. Even still, your current financial behavior should be more important than a score. And if you start to sense that money is more important than the mate, then it is definitely time to move on.

So did you see the trend? Those that place a high value on a credit score are not using their brains. They are not people that you want to do business with. You don't want to live in their apartments, work for their company, have money in their bank, and you don't want to date them. Many people fail to realize that the way of the FICO is in fact not the only way. In several areas, it is the default way, and many times if there is a semi-intelligent manager around, you can be considered as a person - rather than a number. Remember - your FICO score does not consider:

• your income
• your assets
• your investments

And if you still have questions, see our post on the difference between credit scores and credit reports.

Take charge of your life. Your FICO score only determines your life if you let it.

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The best ways to save money on food is to grow your own. Hands down, it's the best way. I know you can clip coupons and get hamburger helper and boxed brownie mix for pennies, however there is a hidden cost to those food items. You and your children's health. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that if you eat on healthy foods you never get sick, but you will be healthier and your odds of getting serious health issues like cancer, stroke, heart disease and diabetes does greatly decline.

So why is eating your own home grown food so beneficial? I'm glad you asked. Here is a list of ways you "Save".

• You save on gym membership fees and the cost of buying a home gym since you are getting your exercise in the garden.
• You save gas since you are not driving to the store or farmers market as much.
• The cost of food (seed, etc) is cheaper then the store produce.
• It saves the planet by not polluting the air with carbon imissions from tractors and semis.
• If you use organic methods you will save our precious water supply and soil by adding fewer toxins into our water supply.
• You save on health costs by eating healthy.
• You save your life by adding more healthy days onto your life span.
• You save your kids lives by teaching them where their food comes from and educating them on how to cook healthy food.
• You save your friends and family by setting a good example for them to follow.
  
• Save your neighbors money by selling them your extra produce.
  
• If that's not enough, you also get a good tan, free highlights and killer thighs for no added cost!
  

As you can see the list could go on and on. The impact that one home gardener has on their health, wallet, environment, and those around them is endless.

Here is just one of the healthy garden fresh meals we had last week. Grilled mozzarella and tomatoes sandwiches using a homemade Italian herb loaf, corn on the cob and fried zucchini.


Why do you garden? Have you been eating garden fresh meals lately?

To see more great recipe ideas join us on Food on Fridays.

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Raising chickens in our backyard has been a great experience. The kids love them and love taking care of them. They'll follow our 18-month old around when she isn't looking. And they're fun to watch.

There have also been several surprises along the way. We were quite surprised at how quickly our dogs accepted them into "their domain" (the backyard). We were surprised by how positively our neighbors reacted when they found out that we had them. The most surprising thing has been the questions. It seems like everybody is interested in the chickens and/or has questions.

So let's cover off on a few of these, shall we?

1. So how many eggs do you get? We get this question all the time. Right now - none. Chickens, like any other animal, have to be 'of age' to produce eggs. Once they're ready to lay, they'll produce 4-7 eggs per week, per chicken. Your mileage may vary depending upon the breed and conditions.
2. So how do you keep from ending up with a bunch of little chicks instead of the eggs? This is one of my favorites. Didn't mother talk to you about the birds and the bees? You see, it takes a mommy chicken and a daddy chicken to make little chickens. We have only hens - no roosters. If the eggs don't get fertilized, then you don't end up with babies, just eggs.
3. How do you get them into he coop at night? Actually, its pretty easy - we just leave the door open. Since they know it's their home and that they have a place to roost inside, they file in each night around 8pm. All we have to do is close the door behind them to keep preditors out.
4. What do they eat? Whatever they want! Since they spend their days out in the backyard (fenced in for the doogs), they eat what ever they can find. Bugs, grass, weeds. We also have a feeder inside the coup and will also put out some scratch, oyster shells, or scraps out for them.
5. Don't they fly away? Yes and no. They can technically fly, just not like the birds in the sky. They have been roosting out the fence gate lately and have flown out of the backyard on 2 or 3 occasions. We need to clip their wings, which will keep them from flying too high.
6. Aren't they messy? Not really. No messier than they dogs when it comes to droppings. Most of the feathers end up in the coop. Other than that, you don't really notice them. The coop doesn't smell terribly since we built in so much ventillation.
7. Don't you need a rooster? It's fun to let folks try to guess which of the four is the rooster. None! No, roosters needed. In fact hens produce eggs just like women do. The difference is that chicken eggs are fertilized after they are laid, not before. No rooster, means no fertilized eggs.
8. What do you neighbors think? That was actually quite funny. On the same Saturday afternoon, both neighboors came over to aske what I was building. When I told them it was a chicken coop, not only were the supportive, but they also asked when e were going to get them. We'd had them for 3 weeks.
9. Aren't they loud? Different breeds behave differently, kinda like our neighbors! Ours happen to be known for being neighborhood-friendly as they don't make much noise. And again, no rooster crowing.
10. How do you know what color the eggs will be? Different breeds lay different colors. Ours happen to lay various colors - blue, green and brown to be specific.

Now, with those out of the way, what questions do you have about chickens?

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I grew up on a family farm. Unless you were raised on a farm it is hard to explain what it is like to be a farm kid. You learn so much about life and gain a true since of responsibility from a very young age. I would not trade it in for the world. However, it was not always easy. Thankfully there are groups like Farm Aid that help support farmers in need and help to get laws passed that protect farms not big corporations.

When I saw that they were doing a photo contest I knew I had the perfect picture to share with the world. This is a photo I took of my father and two daughters. They are having a blast riding with their papa and you can see the wind turbines working hard in the background. Please take a few minutes and visit the Farm Aid website. I'd love it if you voted for us, but really, I would just like you to support farmers by voting. Thanks!

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Oh Yes, it happened at our house. Somehow our 18 month old put a purple crayon in the diaper pail with the dirty diapers. I somehow didn't notice it. The crayon not only made it through the washer but also the dryer with the diapers. This is not the first time crayons ended up in the dryer. Several years ago our oldest daughter stuffed her pockets full of crayons. When she did it I looked up lots of things to try to remove the wax and dye from her clothing. Nothing really worked. This prior history had me really stressed.

This time things are different. I have a wonderful group of mom's over at DiaperSwappers who are a wealth of knowledge. And have kids like mine. LOL

In a thread about removing crayon stains from March K8second0 stated that she had used one cup of baking soda to remove crayon from her diapers and it had been successful in removing the stains.

I was so frazeled that I forgot to take before photos of the diapers. Here is what they looked like after the first round of baking soda. the stains are less then half the size and amount of wax that they were before the wash in baking soda. I've since washed them again in baking soda and it is almost completely gone. I needed to use them right away but after this next washing I'll take more photos. I really is just some purple dye left on them. The wax is completely gone.

Thanks for saving my diapers k8secondo and DiaperSwappers!

This post was included in Works for Me Wednesday.

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I really just wanted to show off some of the flowers from my yard but I felt like I need to write something with it so it doesn't look like I'm being a show off. So this is what I came up with.

1. They are somewhat free.
2. They are a lot better for the environment then store bought flowers.
3. They give you bragging rights.
4. They beautify your landscaping before you cut them.
5. They help you get your kids involved with nature and thinking of others (if used as a gift).
6. They build your self esteem and lift your spirits.

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One of the best parts of working in the yard is being surrounded by beautiful flowers. Sometimes they might even end up in a persons hair. As a child is seems so magical to wear flowers in your hair. But what happens when the petals start to fall off from playing a little to much with your picked flower?

After our daughter finished sulking about losing her petals she came up with a great idea. Earlier this summer she took a collage art camp at the local art museum. She learned about mixing mediums as well as using natural items in her art work. Without any guidance from us she asked for her a glue stick and got busy at her desk.

This is her newest masterpiece. It's a wonderful sight to see her love of nature and art working together.

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