There are no new posts for this morning other than this monthly reminder. By subscribing to our RSS feed with feed-reading software such as Google Reader or aggregators such as My Yahoo, you’ll always be aware of new content here.

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Social Media

If you’re a member of Facebook, visit the page for Consumerism Commentary and become a “fan.” Also, feel free to view my own profile and add me as a “friend.” You can also find me on StumbleUpon (FlexoCC), Digg (FlexoCC), and del.icio.us (Flexo).

It’s time to thank other websites that sent traffic to Consumerism Commentary during the month of April. It was a great month in terms of traffic, driven mainly by articles about the economic stimulus payment. Here is a list of websites, excluding search engines, RSS readers, and social media websites, that sent the most traffic to Consumerism Commentary over the past month. I’ve also included a number to show each site’s movement on the list since March.

1. Lifehacker 0
2. Get Rich Slowly 0
3. The Simple Dollar +3
4. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity +1
5. MoneyBlogNetwork -2
6. AllFinancialMatters +1
7. Consumerist -3
8. Free Money Finance 0
9. AllTop new
10. No Credit Needed -1
11. Five Cent Nickel 0
12. Fabulous Financials -2

Here are the top 10 visited articles from the top month, based on visits to the web site. Readers who view articles in their RSS software but don’t visit the website directly are not included when calculating this list. Once again, the Economic Stimulus Tax Payment Calculator was my far the most visited page, but it’s not included below because that article was posted initially in January.

1. 50 Tips to Help Establish Your Emergency Fund
2. Festival of Frugality #119: Quitting My Day Job to Blug Full Time (April Fool’s Joke)
3. The Frugal Lifestyle: Are We Missing Out on Life?
4. Personal Balance Sheet, March 2008 ($143,174, +6.7%)
5. If Monthly Budgets Don’t Excite You, Try This
6. Following Your Bliss: Good Advice or Bunk?
7. Personal Income Statement, March 2008 (Net Income: $9,257)
8. Earn Up To $525 By Opening an Account at ING Direct
9. 10 Steps to Break the Credit Card Habit
10. The Recession Won’t Hit Generation Y (And Take Advantage of That) (by Penelope Trunk)

By subscribing to our RSS feed with feed-reading software such as Google Reader or aggregators such as My Yahoo, you’ll always be aware of new content here. The feed contains full articles, so you only have to visit the website directly when you want to leave a comment or ask a question. Here is more information about subscribing to Consumerism Commentary.

If you prefer to have daily updates emailed directly to you, simply enter your address below.

Your email address will be used for nothing other than daily updates generated by Consumerism Commentary with help from FeedBlitz. I won’t sell your email address or send you any junk.

Social Media

Consumerism Commentary now has a presence on Facebook. If you’re a member of this networking website, visit the page for Consumerism Commentary and become a “fan.” Also, feel free to view my own profile and add me as a “friend.” Also, view these profiles, and add me as a friend on these social media sites:

• StumbleUpon: FlexoCC
• Digg: FlexoCC

• Del.icio.us: Flexo

At the end of every month, I take a look at the source of visitors to Consumerism Commentary, and in March, there were a lot of readers. Don’t forget to stay up-to-date by subscribing to the RSS feed, which will inform everyone of new articles here. Consider, for example, adding Consumerism Commentary to My Yahoo. Thanks to the following websites and blogs, not including RSS readers and social media websites, who sent the most readers this way during the month of March, with their movement on the list from February:

1. Lifehacker 0
2. Get Rich Slowly 0
3. MoneyBlogNetwork +1
4. Consumerist -1
5. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity New
6. The Simple Dollar -2
7. All Financial Matters +1
8. Free Money Finance +2
9. No Credit Needed New
10. Fabulous Financials -1
11. Five Cent Nickel New
12. My Open Wallet New

Here are the top 10 visited articles from the past month, including the last few days of February. This only counts web visitors to each page; I don’t have any way of knowing how many people have read these articles via RSS. Only articles published within the last month are included. The Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Calculator was still by far the most visited article, but that article was from January.

1. Airborne to Pay $23.3 Million for False Advertising
2. Economic Stimulus Rebate Schedule: When You’ll Receive Your Rebate
3. How to Get Money Back From Airborne
4. 8 Benefits to a Recession or Down Market
5. Your Food Pantry is an Essential Part of Your Emergency Fund
6. Is it Better to Receive a Tax Refund or Owe the IRS?
7. 15 Families Hit Hard Recently: Time to Adjust Expectations?
8. W-4 and Your Working Spouse (by Smithee)
9. Turbo Charge Your Financial Transformation (by Father Sez)
10. Too Cheap for iPhone or Blackberry, But I Got My Mobile Web Access (by Sasha)

A new writer is joining me and Sasha on Consumerism Commentary. Like the two of us, Smithee is an “old-school” blogger who has been publishing on the web for 14 years. The following is from Smithee’s bio:

I floated around from job to job, and from state to state, for most of my 20s, living primarily on credit cards and the good will of my friends. It wasn’t until age 30 was near that I found myself married and filled with ambition. I finally have cemented a career in Interaction Design, wherein I hope to build a good reputation and eventually someday work as an independent consultant.

Compared to the other authors here, I am a relative newbie to the field of personal finances. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but I’m learning from them, and I hope to help readers of the site avoid the same problems.

I’m looking forward to reading about the experiences Smithee chooses to share. Please welcome him. Smithee’s articles will have his byline as well as his avatar at the top of the post, so it should be easy to identify his writing.

By subscribing to our RSS feed with feed-reading software such as Google Reader, you’ll always be aware of new content here. The feed contains full articles, so you only have to visit the website directly when you want to leave a comment or ask a question. Here is more information about subscribing to Consumerism Commentary.

If you prefer to have daily updates emailed directly to you, simply enter your address below.

Your email address will be used for nothing other than daily updates generated by Consumerism Commentary with help from FeedBlitz. I won’t sell your email address or send you any junk.

Social Media

Consumerism Commentary now has a presence on Facebook. If you’re a member of this networking website, visit the page for Consumerism Commentary and become a “fan.” Also, feel free to view my own profile and add me as a “friend.” Also, view these profiles, and add me as a friend on these social media sites:

• StumbleUpon: FlexoCC
• Digg: FlexoCC

• Del.icio.us: Flexo

Erik from MoneyCrashers contacted me recently and offered me the chance to share the story of Consumerism Commentary. We finished the interview this past week, and you can now read it online. I appreciate the chance, and it’s exciting to me that someone is interested in the motivation behind Consumerism Commentary.

Here are some other articles from around the web that are worth reading, as well.

NCN from No Credit Needed explains where he keeps his emergency fund. His fund consists of an online savings account, and online interest-bearing checking account, and hard cash. That’s not a bad combination at all. He also explains that he’s not afraid to dip into the emergency fund. As NCN’s philosophy is to live life without any debt, he’s going to need cash for big-ticket items. It’s hard to imagine buying a house without incurring debt, at least in my area, but I would think that these large purchases would come from a savings account dedicated to a purchasing goal, not an emergency fund.

What do you think about wardrobing? There’s an interesting discussion at Free Money Finance about the practice of buying a product for short-term use and taking advantage of the store’s return policy by bringing the slightly used product back to the store for a full refund. Is this ethical? It’s legal as long as you follow the store’s policy; after all, what’s the difference to the store if you’re returning it because it doesn’t work as expected or you don’t like it, or if you’re returning it because you got what you needed and no longer want it? Stores take this practice into account when they set their return policies and prices, but is it a form of lying? The commenters in the discussion bring up some interesting points.

Avoid taking loans from your 401(k). If you do, AllFinancialMatters has run the numbers so you’ll know what to expect. He also has some tips for minimizing the financial pain if taking a loan from your 401(k) is necessary. More articles are below. Read the rest of this article »

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that 100,000 unique visitors browsed Consumerism Commentary during the month of January, the highest monthly count in this website’s history, 106,492 to be exact. There’s a good chance that February’s count will double that. I hope some of this month’s new readers plan to stick around for a while.

The following blogs and websites sent the most visitors here during the month of February. This doesn’t count visitors coming from search engines, RSS readers, or social media websites like StumbleUpon and Digg.

1. Lifehacker
2. Get Rich Slowly
3. The Consumerist
4. The Simple Dollar
5. CBS 8 San Diego
6. MoneyBlogNetwork
7. KSPR (CBS Affiliate)
8. AllFinancialMatters
9. Fabulous Financials

1. Free Money Finance

   Here are the top 10 visited articles from the past month, including the last few days of January. This only counts web visitors to each page; I don’t have any way of knowing how many people have read these articles via RSS. Only articles published within the last month are included.

2. Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Calculator
3. How Will the Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Affect 2008 Tax Returns?
4. Tax Rebate Calculator Updated and Blog Roundup
5. The New Emergency Fund: Five Components of an Emergency Plan
6. Living Paycheck to Paycheck (On Purpose)
7. How to Save a Million Dollars at Any Age: 25 Years Old
8. How to Save a Million Dollars at Any Age: 35 Years Old
9. Smart Women Marry for Money, and Here’s Why
10. How to Save a Million Dollars at Any Age: 45 Years Old

1. Personal Balance Sheet, January 2008 ($125,770, +2.3%)