I very rarely get ill. In fact I find myself at the first signs of an illness saying to myself “you don’t have time to be ill. Get to work!”, and it goes away.

I went to bed last night quite early, feeling slightly under the weather and I woke up this ‘morning’ at 2pm with a very thick head, headache, bodily aches and pains and generally, I fear, suffering from man flu!

Our bodies can only handle so much for so long before they demand some tender loving care. I wonder if the Hepatitis B vaccination booster I had yesterday has anything to do with it?

My Favourite Posts This Week

• Tax Avoidance Versus Tax Evasion – Monevator
• Britain Now Less Financially Stable than Nigeria – Money Watch
• Savers v. Spenders: Opposites Attract? – Five Cent Nickel
• Fifteen Things More Important Than Money – The Simple Dollar

The Best Illness Blog Post This Week

• 7 Cheap & Natural Ways to Fight Colds and Flu – Wise Bread

Have a great weekend!

• My Financial Meltdown: Part 1
• Petrol Set to Hit £1.50/litre by Summer
• My Adult Life in Graphs
• Savings Roundup - September 2009
• Bank of England Holds Base Rate at 0.5%

This week I have been madly catching up with my blog reading, as I have been otherwise engaged on business for most of the last 8 days. Fortunately my dedicated readers will hopefully not have noticed, as I wrote articles to cover my absence for automatic publishing each day.

This Week’s Picks

Five Ways to Live Better Without Spending More

WiseBread has 5 (and a half) easy ways to improve your living without having to spend more. Some easy-to-follow advice with a minor twist at the end.

Emergency Funds: The Ten Essential Steps

Monevator has spent a lot of time putting together a breakdown of the steps needed to fire up an emergency fund. (You do have one, right?). I don’t as yet, so I will be taking his tips and molding them into my own plan.

Lifestyle Inflation Is About More Than You

Have you heard of Lifestyle Inflation? Possibly not. Have you noticed that whenever your income has gone up (raise, better job, etc), your disposable income has stayed the same or even decreased? If this rings more true, then you are suffering from the effects of Lifestyle Inflation. How will this impact your children? MoneyNing faces the question.

Communist, Capitalist or Socialist Joint Finances

Plonkee ponders the best method for managing your family finances. If you are single like me, then this is quite simple. If you are married or cohabiting however, things get a little more complex. Which method is best? Whichever you choose, honesty with each other is the absolute key to success as I discovered – far too late – in my own financial meltdown.

Do You Want to Appear Rich, or BE Rich?

I seem to regularly refer to Trent’s articles over at The Simple Dollar in my own here at Five Pence Piece, but that is because we seem to be on a similar wavelength. We have had similar experiences, a similar meltdown (albeit for different reasons), and a similar outlook on life and money. Trent ponders the question “Do you want to appear to be rich, or do you want to actually be rich?”. I have explained before that my outlook is I want to be rich, and I do not care what others think of my financial situation.

6 Lies We Tell Ourselves That Keep Us Financially Ignorant

Free Money Finance digs deep into the human psyche, looking at the lies we tell ourselves that keep us from proper financial freedom. You probably know the myths listed, but do you know the truth?

What Renting DVD’s Teaches Us About CD Yield Maximization

Financial Samurai has an interesting take on making the most of your saving potential, riding the rates over the years to average out your return, and how a TV and movie rental fits into his equation.

From The Archives

They might be old, but they are timeless.

Twelve Reasons to Stay In Debt

Five Cent Nickel gives us a tongue-in-cheek list of reasons to stay in debt. Read this, then renew your resolve to get out of debt if you haven’t already done so.

Making It Up As I Go Along

Another brilliant example of how life is not lived through guides, but best experienced as you go along. Financial life has to follow the same principle, albeit guided by those who have made certain mistakes to save you the trouble. Trent gives us his examples of making it up as he goes along from The Simple Dollar.

Teach Your Children About Money

The Digerati Life talks about 5 financial steps for helping your child(ren) grow up financially sensible and hopefully help them to avoid the mistakes you may have made earlier in life.

Have a Great Weekend!

• 10 Economic Predictions for 2010
• Dig Yourself Out of Debt: Cleaning Up
• Petrol Set to Hit £1.50/litre by Summer
• Catching A Perception Shift
• Dig Yourself Out of Debt: Avalanches and Snowflakes

How to Invest in Gold

Money Energy has an excellent write up on the different ways you can diversify your portfolio into gold with minimal effort, and help balance your stock market risks.

Money Tips for New Students

With freshers heading to university for the first time this year and the unprecedented fiasco caused by the Student Loans Company, Shrewd Cookie has timely published his 19 Essential Money Tips for Students. There is some excellent advice contained within if you are heading off to higher education.

Free Year Planner for 2010

For extra credit, Simon over at Shrewd Cookie has also made available free A4 and A3 year planners for noting down those important financial dates. Credit card due dates, car insurance renewals, cash back claims, anything and everything should be added. Thanks, Simon!

Your Net Worth is an Illusion

Financial Samurai posits that actually, what you think you are worth might not be all that accurate. In a worse case scenario, it might even be a complete illusion.

Avoid Overdraft Fees

Nickel over at Five Cent Nickel discusses the method I use to prevent overdraft charges: give yourself a buffer. While I do not get charged a fee to use my overdraft, if I stay in it after the close of business that day, I’ll be charged interest until I clear it. Save yourself this and follow Nickel’s tip.

Vacation on a Budget

Michelle over at MoneyNing wants a holiday, but doesn’t want it to cost the earth. See how David and Michelle saved money and still get to have a fantastic memorable holiday at the same time.

How to Build Investing Experience

Jacques on The Digerati Life gives some excellent tips on building investing experience when you have none, and some of the more common mistakes to avoid to keep things running more smoothly.

What is Your Least Important Bill?

A timeless classic from The Simple Dollar archives, Trent asks you to find your least important bill. When you have found it, he then asks why, if it is so unimportant, are you still paying it?

7 Ways to Profit From Other People’s Folly

Monevator is running a guest post at present from the Psy-Fi blog author Tim about the 7 ways you can turn a profit from other peoples folly. A very interesting read into the psychology of investing and human nature in general!

Have a great weekend!

• Weekly Roundup #4: The Illness Edition
• Frugal Friday! 5 Easy Ways to Spend Less
• Dig Yourself Out of Debt: Cleaning Up
• Frugal Friday! 8 Christmas Gift Ideas
• Frugal Friday! 7 Tips to Reduce Your Grocery Bill