It's an Honor Just to be Nominated!

I got a really nice surprise in my comments the other day; a blog that I enjoy, Downstairs and In Debt, had put my name up for a Liebster Award (and said something very kind about my writing!)

As she explains in her post, this is meant to highlight some smaller blogs, like the one belonging to yours truly, and provide a little networking goodness. There are two conditions of accepting this award -- one of which is to nominate five more blogs, and one of which is to answer a few questions posed by my nominator. I am happy to do both!

So, without further ado, here are five of my favorite smaller PF blogs (I tried to avoid nominating blogs I'd seen nominated elsewhere, but I'm not sure I did a perfect job at that!)

1) Alicia at Financial Diffraction -- Alicia's blog might actually be on the "big" side for this award (I feel like I saw something somewhere about 200 twitter followers, and she's got more than that) but I'm going for it anyway. Alicia is sensible, down to earth, and, like me, trying to figure out debt repayment and retirement savings after WAY too much graduate education. I love it when I see she's updated.

2) The Budget and the Bees -- this is a new blog for me; I found it following a link from someone else's comments (I find a lot of blogs this way.) I like her style -- both in terms of writing and in terms of her thinking about loans, life, and spending.

3) Liz at Budgeting for More -- worth it just for the recent post on games ;)

4) Indebted and in Debt -- written from the perspective of a woman who would like to stay home with her kids, but can't afford it. It's a very different set of problems than I have, but it's a really raw and emotional blog, and it's easy to sympathize.

5) Cindy at Growing Her Worth -- not updated all that often, but I wanted to mention it because we mid-30s single women living in the midwest have to stick together!

The first few weeks I was reading PF blogs I did read a lot of "big" blogs and "how-to" posts, but I definitely have gravitated towards blogs that are more ongoing inner narratives, with regular people sharing their ups and downs and just brainstorming about options.

Now, here are the questions:

1. What is the best advice you've been given/read since starting your blog?
--I got a lot of very thoughtful emergency fund advice. But I'd say the most useful overall advice was that I should not wait until I was out of debt before starting a retirement fund. 

2. What is your favorite book?
--Oh, I'm bad at questions like this. It might be Middlemarch. Which is actually a great book for PF bloggers to read, come to think of it. I should do a post on that.

3. What is the one food you can't say no to?
--Coffee! Does coffee count? Oh man, I start looking forward to my morning cup around 2 pm the previous afternoon. If beverages don't count, then I'd have to go with bacon.

4. Who has been your biggest supporter through your debt repayment (or blogging) journey and why?
--Well, hardly anyone IRL knows about the debt repayment thing. I did mention to various people this year that I had some student loan debt, but not how much. I started blogging in large part because I wanted to try to connect with other people about this, but without boring all my RL friends. :) So, I would have to say that my "biggest supporter" has actually been everyone who's commented on my posts. I am not making a huge effort to promote my blog elsewhere, so predictably I don't have a lot of comments, but I treasure each and every one :)

5. Do you keep your Cheese Whiz in the fridge or in the cupboard after you've opened it?
--I solve this problem by not eating Cheese Whiz. Actually I'm not sure I've ever even tasted it; it just seems gross to me. I keep my peanut butter in the cupboard, though (my parents always kept it in the fridge growing up and I used to hate how hard it was to spread it.)

Thanks again, Downstairs and in Debt!