You can win that! Photo courtesy of Canon
Happy Friday everyone!
To start with a bang, I am co-hosting an awesome giveaway, brought to you by Settlement Buyers.
The prize is a Canon Rebel T4i DSLR camera! Just check the widget below to enter, if you are a FB fan or Twitter follower of RFI you are already entitled an entry. Contest is open worldwide, good luck!
Other than this life is good. February is now over and I am pretty happy with all that has been achieved. Works on the house, swimming, buying a car and a boat, growing my net worth in spite of all that, seeing 10 chicks hatch and run around the house making the cutest noises… Stay tuned next week for a house and finances update.
Swimming goal update: CRUSHED IT! I aimed for four swims and stopped counting around 10, it has been heavenly warm and sunny lately, you even have to dive to under one meter or the water is not refreshing! I think it should be too hard from now on to keep the swimming, it should be hot until May.
Over at Helpful Habits, Gareth has some wonderful advice about overcoming procrastination… if you can take a 4,000 words post, and struggle with that problem too, it is a must read.
Jana recommends a little drastic action on Daily Money Shot and I can’t agree more. If you don’t push yourself you’ll never get wherever you want to be.
CF breaks big goals into smaller, easier tasks on the Outlier Model, and I have tried that too. Thinking about swimming for 20 minutes is big. Thinking about getting into the water isn’t so much, but once you are there, you just end up doing the swim. Or swimming for 10 minutes which is better than the task of just jumping in. See? It’s all inside your head.
Digital life simplified update: My other February goal was to simplify my digital life and this week was geared towards the blog. Well, it was ambitious, I was supposed to write 15 posts to put in queue, but had a really hard time posting last week so I used up my queue, and writing 15 posts this week plus the usual 5 was a bit too much. I am also getting complains from BF that I am too much on the computer, so I will get it done when he leaves for a trip to the capital city in a week or so. I have 5 posts queued meaning I wrote 10 this week, not so bad.
I began to update the old posts, adding links and checking the existing ones, and it is also a work in progress.
Overall I am quite happy with this month, and mostly with my zero inbox! I hope it encouraged a few of you to try and simplify your digital life as well!
On blogging news, I want to talk about the ”older” bloggers. Most of them are in their early to mid thirties like me, but have been blogging for five years or more. I remember back in 2007 when I was still working in the UK and reading PF blogs made me dream about financial independence. I filled my Reader with them, and couldn’t wait to get to it and read another post about how to make smart money choices and how I could retire five years into the future. I wasn’t really involved in the community back then because I am a bit shy, and felt those posts were already so awesome I didn’t have much to add with my boring life and my boring job.
Anyway, fast forward five years, I am noticing that those cool bloggers visit my blog too 
. It is like being a freshman (freshwoman?) and having senior friends, I feel so cool hehe. Even when I just started blogging, I read a few new to me blogs that may have been no more than a year old at the time and felt like they were unreachable people. Now we are friends, we help each other out, they ask for my advice on occasions. I am even starting to get my own “freshmen” come over to me like I am some kind of veteran blogger. We are all human so don’t be shy and come say hi!
As I got to know many bloggers in the past few months, I now have a decent size sample to say 99% are wonderfully kind, helpful, awesome people. /start rant. And the 1%… well, I guess a few of you have been victims of blogging douchebaggery, from the sneaky subtle obstacle thrown your way to the plain obvious act of malfeasance. I have chosen to ignore those people and move on with life, it perspires anyway over the long term and the amazing success of the most selfless and helpful bloggers out there is proof that you never have too many friends and should rather play nice, but hey, that’s just my two cents. /end rant.
Finally, I want to thank everyone for reading this today. Savvy Scot recently had a polite post saying what a PITA it is to read blogs with weird fonts.
The thing is I live in Guatemala. Internet is not always reliable and the lack thereof has cost me more than a fully written post. So I write in Word, paste in WP, and off it goes. But if I add something, the extra stuff will come out with another font. And it all looks normal on drafts.
When I saw that, I copied the whole post again to Word, made it all one font and size, brought it back to WP. Same crap. One more than one occasion, I have to say I gave up and hit publish.
Don’t get me started on the paragraphs. Yes, I know how to click enter and have a line break paragraphs.It all looks good in drafts and once again by hitting publish it shrinks together, meaning I want to pull my hair out and you have to blink through a 500 word paragraph. I am so sorry for that, thanks for bearing with me!
I published 4 posts this week
Little house in Guatemala, week 16/17
About money, time and doing the right thing
Installing a water pump: costs and tutorial
Bang for your buck, UK edition
Thank you to the awesome people who mentioned Reach Financial Independence this week
Money Bulldog, Budget and the Beach, My Alternate Life, Modest Money, Frugal Rules, Canadian Budget Binder, Prairie Eco Thrifter, The Frugal Path, The Heavy Purse, Mo Money Mo Houses, My FI Journey, Eyes on the Dollar, Outlier Model, Canadian Budget Binder, Carnival of Wealth, The Money Principle, Mochi and Macarons
And finally, here are a few great posts for you to enjoy!
Losing Isaac, finding life in the death of a child on Frugal Rules, by John’s wife Nicole
Thinking like the rich on Freedom 35
The oddest financial claims of all time on Modest Money
How to increase your yield through micro loan on Average Joe
How much house can I afford? You got to be kidding me! On Wealth Informatics
The death of the 9/5 work week on Young Adult Money
Online funerals: stream your goodbyes on The Frugal Path
Longing for the simple times on Budget and the Beach
Are the self employed less credit worthy? On Money Bulldog
Make life better for yourself: Change your attitude on Prairie Eco Thrifter
A psychic gift On Unique Gifter
How 100ft is saving me $100/year in utilities cost on Edward Antrobus
Sex & the City on a budget on Student Debt Survivor
Is poverty in the US an excuse to do poorly in school? On Eyes on the Dollar
How to hit the reset button on your life on You Only Do This Once
Five dumb ways to spend your tax refund on The First Million is the Hardest
Beware of financial rip-offs On Club Thrifty
Estate planning – Our return from Miami On Wise Dollar
Have a lovely weekend!
Latest posts by Pauline Paquin (Posts)
- Our not so typical frugal family - June 19, 2013
- Spending on daily items, quality or price? - June 18, 2013
- Choosing your investment strategy - June 18, 2013
- Traveling to Florida on a Vacation - June 18, 2013
- Little house in Guatemala, week 31-32 - June 17, 2013
Hmm. I sort of agree with the ‘you can never have too many friends’ but I also think you need to stand for something, and if you strongly believe in something (or are strongly opposed to something) you shouldn’t be afraid to call it. Groupthink sucks and condoning crap sucks.
eemusings recently posted..Why travel abroad? Four reasons I want to travel the world…
You should be your own person and have your own opinions, but there is no reason to be destructive with other people. I am talking about making blogs lose their PR, stealing content, ignoring completely a blogger who comes to your site and promotes it (you can miss replying to a comment, I know I do, but ignoring 10 comments like the person is transparent?), removing links when someone gives you a thoughtful guest post that does comply with your guest post guidelines, or passing the content as your own … those won’t get you anywhere and will just hurt others.
PS – with your pasting from Word, do you paste into the plain text (rather than Visual) tab? That should deal to any font or formatting problems.
eemusings recently posted..Why travel abroad? Four reasons I want to travel the world…
I paste in visual because I have some hyperlinks already included but will try text, thanks for the tip!
I’ve tried writing in Word and copying into WordPress before. It works, but there’s always going to some some kind of a formatting error. Now I write everything in WordPress, but I have manage to lose posts due entirely to my own carelessness. Usually closing the wrong tab or something. Happens more often than I would like to admit.
My Financial Independence Journey recently posted..Getting to Know the S&P500
haha same here! I also hit the publish button instead of schedule and sent half baked posts…
Really? lol… now that would be a nightmare for me as my thoughts are usually over the shop. I tried to type it in word but it didn’t give me the same inspiration as it does in wordpress, odd,maybe. It could be that I’ve been doing it since the beginning. I also thought I lost some post when the hydro shut off but WP seemed to automatically save it for me. Looking forward to your updates next week mate as they always remind of why I surround myself with happy people! Cheers Have a great weekend and keep up with those swims, I’m jealous! I can only swim into a snowbank… not fun! lol
Canadian Budget Binder recently posted..Personal Finance Reading List #9- Welcome March~ B.C Pooled Pension Plan
I am trying Windows Live Writer which seems pretty neat. Don’t want to lose another post when the internet breaks down!! have a nice weekend Mr CBB
I wasn’t including you in that statement. You know how to use styles and formatting properly!
Well done on the swimming… NAILED IT! 
Savvy Scot recently posted..Cutting Back on My Basic Spending
I know how to use styles but my theme doesn’t…#pfburnout. Are there any cupcakes left? could use some chocolate!
Thanks for the Mention! I write my posts in Evernote for the convenience of being able to get to it from any of the computers that I use. I do run all of my posts through Word clean them up but thankfully, haven’t had any formatting problems. I suspect the theme I use does a pretty good job of formatting everything I put in the post. eemusing had a very good suggestion though, pasting it as text should fix any formatting problems you may run into.
Jose recently posted..Sequestration – Let it Come – Here’s Why
Yes, I will certainly try that. I think copy pasting back and forth from Word to WP exports some web formatting or something.. It has been going on since the beginning and through 4 themes!
Way to go on the swim goal!!!! Pauline, yes, you are definitely now a cool veteran blogger that all of us newbies look up to; thank you so much as you are always approachable, helpful and encouraging! I should tell you that with your kicking tail on the swim goal, you’ve motivated me to increase my exercise schedule too. In these long MN winters, I often finding myself spending LOTS of time on the couch with a good book, now it’s time to get back at it in terms of physical exercise!
Laurie @thefrugalfarmer recently posted..February 2013 Recap
Thank you Laurie! Yeah, I would curl up with a blanket and a book, and hibernate until spring as well in your case. Although I need the fresh air, maybe an invigorating walk once in a while. Have a nice weekend.
Thanks so much for mentioning me! I have a lot of work to do on the coding end with my site…as I’ve mentioned many times to you
I will get around to it SOMETIME this year, I promise! But I think your site looks great, I just feel bad that your internet is so spotty.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted..Friday Giveaway Roundup – 26 Giveaways
thank you, that is so kind. The site looks ok, it is just the font I am fighting with now. Oh and I have a new logo since last week that I am too lazy to update… a week!!
Thanks for the mention Pauline! Glad to hear you’re rocking it on the swimming and simplifying of your digital life. I do have to admit that you’ve encouraged me to do the same thing and it has made things a little easier for me which is nice. I type in Word and then transfer it over. I generally do not run into any issues unless I do something like a table. If I do a table then WP and Word simply just do not get along well for some odd reason. Have a great weekend!
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted..Frugal Friday: Blog Posts That Ruled This Week, How is it March Edition
then I don’t know what is going on with my Word! Have a nice weekend too John.
The reason your word-to-wordpress strategy isn’t working is because Word adds in a lot of formatting of it’s own that isn’t readable to other word processors. If I were you, I’d write the post in a plain text editor like Note Pad, copy and paste that directly into the “text” editor on wordpress, then switch it back to “visual” and add your own formatting. Word is a pain in the butt for copy and pasting!
Jordann @ My Alternate Life recently posted..Goal Progress Check In & Link Love
thanks for the tip Jordann, I usually add links in Word too so all my linking work would have to be done afterwards in WP, a change of habit but it may be worth it. And I have to copy paste back every time I hit schedule just in case it doesn’t load.
Thanks so much for the mention!!! I agree that 99% of bloggers are awesome….and the other 1%is absolutely insane!!! I try to stay far far away from them! Haha!
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted..VIP Club Roundup – 18th Edition
I think your posts look fine. I have had WordPress eat some posts so I tend to do everything now on Google drive, because I can work on a post anywhere if I’m not at home, then copy and paste into WP. You always seem to have weird thing come up sometimes, even if it looks fine in drafts. Thanks for the mention.
Kim@Eyesonthedollar recently posted..Money Memories-Canon Rebel T4i DSLR Giveaway
Some look better than other and I have no idea why… great idea about G drive, I should try that.
Looks like you had a great month!! Thanks for the blog mention, and have a great weekend!
Budget & the Beach recently posted..Checking Out Your Ass
I think it`s great that you managed to write 10 posts this week, especially, since your posts consists of a lot of useful materials for us mortals, I can only imagine how long it takes to write only one! Have a nice weekend:-)
The Norwegian Girl recently posted..Marble Cake – Reviving a Childhood Classic
One post can take anywhere from 30min for a topic I enjoy to 2-3 hours when I start a post then don’t like it so much, or have to do some research on it. And then starts the slow process of having my super slow internet upload it
. I am glad to hear you enjoy them, it makes the whole thing worth it!
Pauline, I truly appreciate you going out of your way with a prime time mention of my post. Like you say, it makes such a difference when people go out of their way to help, instead of hinder; and for me, your mention is action speaking louder than words. You’ll get a thankful mention in my next post for sure; although don’t expect any links to send you many visitors for the time being
It’ been a bit of a slow starter, but it’ll get there.
It’s ironic that you almost have the opposite problem when it comes to swimming over there. I don’t know which is worse…boiling like a lobster or freezing to the point that bits start to snap off.
Because I’m such a big girls blouse, I’ve been doing all my exercise indoors over the last few months on my Concept 2.
I have two tricks to motivate me. One that you mentioned, is to just accept my effort threshold. If I do sprints for 15 minutes, I’ll get it done everyday without thinking. Put the time up to 20 minutes and it becomes an unbearable chore. Like you said, it’s all in the mind. The second way I motivate myself, and this is where you can truly feel blessed, is that I have to literally visualise rowing through water – otherwise the futility of just pulling repetitively on a chain becomes just to much to bear
A big thank you again for the mention, Pauline. Have a great weekend!
Thank you Gareth. Don’t worry about your blog growing slowly, you are building on solid ground, and once the quality of your work gets noticed you can be assured the growth will be exponential. It is much better than to inflate artificially a thin site that will deflate as soon as you release the pressure. Have a nice weekend too.
Congrats on hitting your swimming goal
That’s great!
Have an awesome weekend!
Mackenzie recently posted..Link Love: Hello March Edition!
you too!
Thanks for the mention, as always. And congratulations on the swimming. Over the last three years, I managed to get to the pool twice. Now I live in a neighborhood without a pool.
What version of Word do you have? The newer versions (2007/2010) have a feature where you can connect Word to your blog and upload the post directly from there. I wrote about the process last year on this post
Edward Antrobus recently posted..How to Maximize the Benefit from Swagbucks Rewards: Frugal Hack
thank you Edward, I have updated the link on your comment in case other people find it useful too.
Thanks. I just didn’t want to link spam your comments. Hope you find that post helpful.
Edward Antrobus recently posted..The Parable of the Paint Can: The McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case as a Divining Rod for Political Leanings
I have honestly been overwhelmed by the generosity and helpful nature of the PF community. It’s been humbling and inspiring. It’s a bit scary the first time you hit “publish” and send your thoughts and words out into the great internet abyss to only be heard by your Mom.
I appreciate people like you – being a member of 99% – who help make it fun! Have a great weekend!
Shannon @ The Heavy Purse recently posted..Weekly Roundup: Week of February 25, 2013
At least you have your mom! My family doesn’t speak English or know much about this blog, so I was in a cave at the beginning!
Pauline, I second the sentiment. Actually, you may have missed it, but I wrote a bit about how incredibly helpful you have been to me this week! We are all human, indeed. And I agree, it is SUPER cool when someone you have looked up to for years comes to say hi and comment on your writing. What a great feeling. Have an awesome weekend!
Tony@WeOnlyDoThisOnce recently posted..How to Live Without Using Credit Cards
Thank you Tony, I did notice your post, I even wrote a comment to say thanks… to which you replied
4 hours to the weekend!! Have a great one.
Reason 999 I am losing my mind…..
Tony@WeOnlyDoThisOnce recently posted..How to Live Without Using Credit Cards
It takes a lot of energy to run one of the Top Personal Finance Blogs of 2012
Congrats on making it to the podium!
Have a great weekend and Happy March! Glad you surpassed your swim goal! Wheee!
debtgirl recently posted..Pinterest Picsk – Colorful Sugar Glitter
Thanks for the mention again Pauline! I’m with you on this one, play nice, there’s plenty of room for everyone. I’m also more than happy with the font, have a great weekend.
Money Bulldog recently posted..The Euro Crisis & Bankers Bonuses ~ Dejavu Anyone?
You and Queen B have a nice one too!
Hi Pauline,
We really appreciate the continued mentions. We’re meeting up with the local blogging crowd this weekend and if there was one other blog I wish lived nearby, it would be you! Let us know if you’re ever on the west coast…
Brian
Brian recently posted..Quit Smoking, Become a Millionaire
Thanks Brian, will do! Have fun with the other bloggers.
I’m glad that February was such a great month for you Pauline and thanks for the mention. I can’t wait to read about your house update.
Justin@TheFrugalPath recently posted..The Frugal Path Blog Update #1
De rien!
It is interesting getting to know many of the people in the PF community. There are so many friendly people and almost everyone is willing to help out if they can. I must admit I haven’t found the 1% you are talking about yet, but i’m sure with enough time that will come.
Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted..A no-headache checklist for moving house
I hope not!
I have also had font issues from time to time when copying and pasting. I try to just type in WordPress if at all possible, but I can understand that you don’t want to do that with spotty internet. I can never figure out how to solve it either, so just have to live with whatever happens.
Breaking down goals into smaller chunks is very important in my opinion. I think it is easy to get overwhelmed if you don’t. Then you don’t make any progress at all.
JT recently posted..Speed Bump on Debt Payoff
I need a new Canon for my photography business.
I wouldn’t mind winning a sweet camera like that. Thanks for the mention. Glad things are going well with you. Editing past entries and checking links can take a lot of time, especially if you have hundreds of posts. But it’s good to keep busy
It will all be worth it in the end. Keep that net worth climbing and pretty soon you’ll “insert your blog name here”
Liquid recently posted..Fiscal Update – Feb 2013 – US Stocks