One of the more common themes among personal finance bloggers, is most of us have been or currently are, working our way out of debt. Some of us are now there there (like myself), some are a little further away but doing equally as well, and some are still dreaming about the Debt Free Day.

The commonality between us all, regardless of race, colour, country or method, is the desire to do it, and the desire to blog about it. And if we’re honest, the running cost of a blog done properly, isn’t all that cheap. Especially for those on a real tight budget.

So I was thinking the other night what I could do about it. I rent a whole server, technology is one of my weaknesses and I love not having to trust any other monkey to do what I can do myself. But this also gives me flexibility, and more CPU cycles than I need for just my few  sites and blogs.

So what’s the deal?

I am offering to provide the web space for free to host a personal finance blogger with a negative net worth, and one other personal finance blogger who doesn’t have a negative net worth, but thinks their hosting company sucks anyway. When you escape from your debt (or your bad host), then we shall rejoice – but you are still welcome to remain. The only real ask is that it’s used to host WordPress and your Personal Finance blog.

The technical nitty gritty: Unlimited disk space (under 50gb would be cool, though), 1 MySQL database, ssh/scp access (sorry, no ftp), DNS with CloudFlare, and I’ll set up Google Apps for you if you need email. And no, I won’t make you put ads on it. It’s your blog!

Selection Criteria

Leave a comment with your blog URL, and I’ll come have a read. The story and background and current needs that touch me the most, shall be declared the winner. I’ll leave the contest open for a while, so if you know of bloggers who might benefit from this, get them to drop in and say Hi.

Why Am I Doing This?

Sure, I know you can get hosting for like a dollar a month, but is it good hosting? Sometimes, that dollar might be important and better spent elsewhere. You cannot beat free, after all. I believe in helping others, and that is sometimes done in unusual ways.

I might get no responses to this – or I might be surprisingly overwhelmed – but if I didn’t offer it out there, then I might never know how much proper hosting for a hobby they can’t really afford, really means.

Folks. I apologise for the lack of posts lately. Suffice to say I have been having a war with TalkTalk (my ISP) the last few weeks. They refused to believe I didn’t have access, and only finally resolved the situation this morning.

Dreadful dreadful service… but you get what you pay for. *ahem*.

Normal service will resume shortly.

The first Sunday of every new month I’ll round up 6 of the best posts from the previous month here at Five Pence Piece. My little world only launched on August 22, 2009 so for this particular post I’m going to include August as well. Come the next time, I’ll concentrate strictly on the month before, promise!

My choices will always be based on whether they tell an interesting story, are timelessly useful, generated a lot of comments or retweets, or just because I had fun writing them. It’s a grab bag of what I (and hopefully others) think was good time spent reading.

1. My Financial Meltdown

This is a mini-series, spread over 4 posts, detailing in rather painful (for me) detail of how I ended up on my debt freedom crusade, and why Five Pence Piece even exists. I walk through step by step how it was my marriage fell apart, my realisation of my debt situation, and how I got the internal energy to go and fight it rather than just give up all hope.

2. The SCRAM Plan

This plan could be the most important document you ever write. If you are serious about increasing your financial stability, make no mistake, you need a SCRAM plan. It takes 30 minutes to put together, and 60 seconds each month to make sure it is still accurate.

3. Dig Yourself Out of Debt

This was actually a 5 part series detailing the route I am taking to getting out of debt. It combines the very best practices from all kinds of tried and true methods and pools resources to get you there as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible, and to keep you out once you get out. The link above takes you to Part 1.

4. Frugal Friday! Batch Cooking

It surprised me that the one article I didn’t think would get much interest, is actually the one that caused the most comments on other blogs and links from other bloggers! It just goes to show that sometimes the best ideas you have or share, are not the ones you think even matter.

5. Giving to Charity

Even in a recession, it is important to keep giving. The one thing you may have to change is how you give. But the important thing to take away is that you do not have to give money. Check out the article for some of the meaningful ways you can still give but not open your wallet.

6. Credit Card Analysis: From Hell to Heaven

Another little look into my own financial situation here, with some pretty graphs to go with it. This article aims to show you how not managing you credit cards properly can be very expensive.

Do you have a favourite I haven’t listed? Come share in the comments.