Monthly Moneytree Cowgirl Rodeo Round-Up (October)

Oof. October went fast. Judging by the posts and tweets I am seeing from ya’ll you guys are feeling it too. No rest for the weary though, things usually won’t slow down for me until after the Christmas Holidays. And just for funzies I thought it would be cute to stick a picture of me in a cowgirl get-up here:

Back when I was a performer I was in a show called “Pure Country Radio” and I got to dress up as a cowgirl every day.

Picks of the Month

I know it is kinda lame to only do a round-up once a month, but until I can consistently fit it into my schedule, I don’t want to do it. I am averse to doing a half-ass job on things. The upside of this is that if you stick out in my mind as the best of the month, you have to be pretty special, because I read an ass-load of blogs every day. What am I looking for in my monthly picks? Things that are funny, interesting or pull at my heart strings.

So my top five for the month are:

1.) Outlier Model’s commentary on John Scalzi’s piece On Being poor in North America deeply affected me, and I’ve been thinking about it for days. You should definitely read it, especially with election season upon us!

2.) My new friend Paula at Afford Anything wrote a stunning piece on The Day I learned I was Adopted.

3.) Travis at enemy of debt wrote an engaging piece about how he and his wife are Done living Paycheck to Paycheck. Some really motivational stuff here, and a big congrats to Travis!

4.) Kim at Eyes on the Dollar guest posted over at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff on Her Southern Gun-Toting Granny and the funny, sweet, and financial life lessons she learned.

5.) John at Married with Debt wrote an interesting piece Wealth has little to do with income.

Honorable Mentions: Jacob’s @ iHeartBudgets How we survived on $14 an hour, and Veronica @ Pelican on Money How to get out of Unemployment Depression.

 Carnivals

L Bee and the Money Tree has taken a break from entering Carnivals. I miss the #pf community, but I was mostly just doing them so I can read the round-ups and catch up on what I missed. Perhaps when things calm down I can take the time to enter them again!

Mentions

I know a lot of people hate link dumps, but I think it’s important to properly thank everyone who thought enough of the pieces on this blog to mention and pass them along to their readers.

L Bee and the Money Tree All-Stars!

I need to first thank some people who mentioned me two or three times this month, you guys are my all-stars and I can’t thank you enough! Thanks to Veronica at Pelican On Money,Kim at Eyes on the Dollar, Michelle at Making Sense of Cents,and Savvy Scot (who btw…is one of my new favorite people!) Additional thanks to:

Planting Our Pennies
Vanessa’s Money
Nurse Frugal
Plunged in Debt
The Free Financial Advisor
Budgets are Sexy
iHeartBudgets
Blue Collar Workman
Len Penzo
My Money Design
Blonde and Balances
Reach Financial Independence
American Debt Project
Frugal Rules
Canadian Budget Binder
Monster Piggy Bank

Guest Posts

I did not have time or energy to do as many guest posts as I would have liked this month due to some personal issues. However when icons such as Len Penzo and Jeremy at Modest Money ask you to guest post, you freaking do it! I have to thank them both for the great opportunity and sexy web traffic they sent my way this month!

Len Penzo-Cheap Thrills: 6 Awesome Halloween Movies

Modest Money The Benefits of Working Part Time

 Other things I did this month…

I made my first ever video blog. Which you should definitely watch if you haven’t. The ending is hilarious.

And I had a lot of fun with my furry friends-I went horseback riding!

Ignore the crazy look in the horse’s eyes. We had fun.

…And Murray had his first birthday!

Ignore the look in his eyes too. He loved every minute of wearing that hat.