Weekly Roundup: Ultimate Cheapskate Reminder

A reminder that the Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches autographed giveaway deadline is tomorrow, Sunday April 20 at 12:00pm EST. So far, 53 readers have submitted their comments for a chance to win the book. If you are interested, and haven’t dropped a comment, go do it today (be sure to include your email address so I can contact you to arrange shipping)!

Now, for the Roundup:

How Much Money is “Walk Away From It All” Money. Trent asks this thought-provoking question and builds a case for socking away some serious cash to one day “walk away.” You get to decide if that’s just a normal “retirement,” early retirement, extended sabbatical, or a “cold career change.” @The Simple Dollar

Powerful Networking Through Business Card Etiquette. In a face-to-face networking session your business card might be the only take-away a new contact has to remember you by. Follow this advice to make your exchange stand out. @Just a Guy Thing

Learning to Love the Emergency Fund.   J.D. says, “As exciting as it was to repay my debt, it’s even more thrilling for me to build wealth.”  We are still on phase one of that plan ourselves, but not for long! @Get Rich Slowly

Supercharging the Debt Snowball offers one of the best snowball plans I’ve read to date. The constant arguing over ordering by debts by balance or interest rate is solved in this one post. @Plonkee Money

How to Prepare for a Baby’s Arrival on a Budget is an excellent resource for expectant parents. I have several blogging friends out there expecting a child, or who have just recently celebrated the birth of a child. Read this one to keep those baby costs low. @21st Century Dad

Are You Missing Some Money tells readers how to find unclaimed money in their names. I always perform these searches hoping some long-lost uncle left me a couple hundred thousand in a bank account. No luck so far. @My Dollar Plan

Rainy Day Survival Kits come in handy when you are stuck at home on a weekend and the kids can’t go outside to play. I especially admire the frugal procurement of a used suitcase. @The MotherLoad (quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs for frugal family fun ideas)

Signs You May Be a Mega Consumer really made the rounds this week. It was picked up by MSN Money and even made its way to the MSN homepage for a brief time. The traffic surge was enough to knock Ron offline for a while, but never fear, he is back and better than ever. What a great read – and congrats to Ron on scoring some major traffic. @The Wisdom Journal

Top Reasons People Don’t Budget offers some insight into why people avoid the “B” word. Control is probably the key issue here. People don’t really want to be told how to spend their money, even if they are the ones doing the telling. @Gather Little by Little.

24 Weekly Actions for Creating Lasting Success. My favorite – “Take Action Every Day.” As long as we are moving in the direction of our dreams we are making progress. It’s when we stop taking action that we have failed. @The Next 45 Years

Gaining Perspective Helps to Achieve Excellence in Life suggests things would seem so much easier in our lives if we could just change our perspectives. Read this one to find out how to do just that. @My Super-Charged Life

Frugal Tip: Give Up Paper Products details Lynnae’s mission to go paperless aroun the house. My personal favorite? Cloth napkins. It’s a simple way to eliminate some of your paper products budget, and reduce waste. Check out the article for several other great ideas. @Being Frugal

10 Signs that You Should Cut Up the Plastic for Good. This was an excellent guest post from Jonathan of Master Your Card. We throw around the advice to cut up your credit cards rather haphazardly at times, but this article gives ten specific symptoms to help determine if the time is right for you. @Mrs. Micah