It’s been a busy week here at ConsumerFu as we continue to visit all the different personal finance blogs to get to know the other writers and get a feel for this community. We’ve enjoyed reading what others have to say. Here are a few that caught our eye.

Frugal in Portland – I’m Buying a Condo in Portland!

At Frugal in Portland Kathleen is celebrating her upcoming purchase of a beautiful condo in Portland. Her story has an interesting twist to it. Someone who reads her blog provided some assistance.

Last week, I was out-of-town attending to the only business that really matters, family business. But of course, I was never very far away from my computer, and Andi sent me an email. “Hey, so that condo you loved? It’s now FHA approved. I know you said you didn’t want to buy, but I thought I should check with you anyway.”

The Money Beagle – The Simple Reason JC Penney’s Pricing Gimmick Failed

The Money Beagle gives his take on why JC Penney’s new pricing policy failed. 

See, customers who shop regularly at stores like Kohl’s, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, Sears, and JC Penney enjoy finding deals, or at least thinking that they found deals. Over the years, the markdowns and coupons and promotions and everything else that goes along with it have conditioned their customers into believing that getting a deal is just as important (or more so) than the actual product that they’re getting the deal for.
Getting a deal motivates people, and JC Penney severely underestimated the importance that shoppers place on that.

Not Made of Money – Tips for a Winning Budget

Mrs. Not Made of Money offers advice for creating a workable budget.

The best budgets are ones that are factual and realistic. Too many people make budgets that are just wishful thinking and not real. A winning budget is one that properly addresses all of your budgetary needs and accounts for both income and expenses. A real budget should take all of your expenses into account and allocate every single dime to some category.

 

Sustainable Life Blog – Nontraditional investments: Online stores

At Sustainable Life Blog, Jeff tells about his attempts to buy online properties and discusses both unsuccessful and successful attempts. One bit of partcularly good advice is to use an escrow service when completing a sale.
 

After a few strikes, I finally found something that met all of my criteria, and I impulsively put in a bid. After being confirmed the winner, things began to get fishy. My partner in the venture and I told the seller that we would like to use escrow.com for payment. We would pay escrow, and after the escrow closed and everything was OK, they would pay the seller. Obviously, this would take longer but added protection for both sides. Once we suggested this, the seller was very quick to suggest wiring the money to him directly – total red flag in our book.

ConsumerFu away from home

Beating Broke – I would like to thank Beating Broke once again for hosting my guest blog on eliminating clutter.
Family Money Values – hosted the Yakezie Carnival
Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses – hosted the Lifestyle Carnival