Nevertheless, I am committed to continuing this blog both as a way for me to continue exploring personal finance and frugality issues, as well as a way to share what I have learned with others. If anything, the month off gave me a chance to decide if I really wanted to continue to work on the blog — and the answer is a definite yes. 

Festival of Frugality

To start things off, I will be hosting the 166th (and as-of-yet unnamed) Festival of Frugality next week. I really enjoyed hosting the Festival last time around, and am looking forward to being able to share some great entries from around the frugality community. If you’re interested in submitting a post for the festival, as usual, head over to the carnival page.

Stay Tuned

In addition, I have some ambitious plans for the blog over the next couple of months, including more frequent posting, regular features, a new blog theme, and more. I would love to hear any feedback you might have for me on where I can go from here, so please don’t be shy. 

So please stick around!

Some Attention

• The highlight of the month was undoubtedly the attention my post “Tipping: Psychological Warfare?” received. Not only was it chosen as an editor’s choice as part of the 175th Carnival of Personal Finance – “Jokey McJokester” Edition, but it was also picked up by the MSN Smart Spending MoneyBlog, which sent a huge surge of traffic my way.
• At the beginning of the month I participated in a group-writing project with about a dozen other great bloggers on what the next President can do to help the middle class. You can read my own response and then head on over to the other great responses from my fellow bloggers.
• I also participated in the 174th Carnival of Personal Finance — The Columbus Day Edition, which included my post on “Tipping: The “No-Tip” Restaurant”

Record Visitors

Almost exclusively because of the mention from MSN Smart Spending, October saw a record number of visitors to my blog. 4,997 visitors with 6,973 page views — certainly not huge by any means, but a nice confidence booster. I’m hopeful that one way or another I’ll be able to top that in November with your help.

Thank You

If you’re one of the 5,000 visitors who have stopped by in the last month, I do hope you will stick around - If you like what you see here at Student Scrooge, please consider subscribing via RSS Feed or via Email.

I also love to hear any comments or suggestions you might have — just use the Contact link at the top right of the page.

On to November!

Happy Fall, everybody!

With the start of the fall semester, I just want to take a moment and thank those of you who have been visiting my blog over the past few months — I truly appreciate every visitor. And if you’re just stopping by for the first time, I encourage you to look around. If you like what you see, consider subscribing to Student Scrooge via RSS Feed or via Email.

My apologies for the relative lack of posts lately — I have been pretty busy over the last week or two with the start of the fall term; I had a couple of posts that I had meant to finish, and you’ll be seeing those appear over the next few days. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon!

Carnivals

Broke Grad Student hosted the 167th Carnival of Personal Finance – Highlights from the Beijing 2008 Olympics edition, which included my post on whether or not interest rate is all that matters when choosing a bank. I was surprised and honored to be picked as an Editor’s Choice (or, in keeping with the Beijing theme, receive a Gold Medal). Very cool!

That One Caveman over at One Caveman’s Financial Journey hosted the 168th Carnival of Personal Finance – Fire Up The Grill, It’s Labor Day! edition, which included my post on those sketchy looking ATMs.

Frugal Babe hosted the 142nd Festival of Frugality last week, which included my post on travel discounts for college students.

Thanks to the hosts of these carnivals — it really is a lot of work, and each did a great job.

Of Note…

• Broke Grad Student offers some great financial tips for college students heading back to campus. Most of them are pretty basic but fundamental suggestions, but definitely a good reminder given how easy it is to get yourself into financial trouble in college.
• Similarly, Patrick over at Cash Money Life presents his own money tips for college students on how to have a successful financial philosophy in college. Its all about getting in the proper mindset with regards to money, and training yourself  early can huge benefits.
• Steven Levitt over at the Freakonomics blog at the New York Times has a guest post that does a very good job of explaining what exactly has been happening on Wall Street the last few days, and what the implications are for us as taxpayers and as consumers.

To that end, I finally have written my “About page, and I highly suggest you check it out if you want to know a little bit about Student Scrooge and myself. In a nutshell, Student Scrooge is my venue for chronicling my process of taking control of my finances and making the most of my finite resources. It is definitely a two-way street, and I hope to not only provide information but also to learn from my own research, from other bloggers, and from my readers.

One thing I want to comment on, which I mention on the about page, is the title – consider the student in “Student Scrooge” to be a “student of life.” It is true that I write from a student’s perspective, but I fully believe that what I write about is applicable well beyond one’s academic years.

Thanks to my last-minute hosting of the “Festival of Frugality” this week, I have had a huge spike in visitors, and although it’s undoubtedly temporary, it has been nice to pass many of the psychological visitor-count thresholds that I had set for myself. For those of you who are dropping by for the first time, please look around, and consider subscribing to Student Scrooge via RSS or Email if you get a chance.

Thanks for your support!

I hope to slowly pick up speed with posting on Student Scrooge, and I do hope that you stick around. Please feel free to comment on the blog or contact me through the link at the top.