I love all my picks, but am particularly excited about this one. First, Fern threw me for a loop by renaming her blog "Wild Blue Yonder". Took me some time to make the connection, but as I read through the past entries, it made me realize why I thought of her for this look back.
She originally posted about daily financial life, interspersed with great stories and pix of her cats. After she lost her job, she turned her focus toward issues and challenges for the unemployed, many of which are financial of course, but also a lot of writing about the psychology of the unemployed (e.g., having all of this unstrucutred time on your hands). Really well written, interesting reads.
She was also well known for kicking off the "No Heat Challenge". For 3 years running, in September, she'd invite everyone to keep their heat off as long as possible into the fall/winter. I personally never participated (I'm always cold!) but the reaction she got was fantastic. She wrote a post in late 2009 about which of her entries got the most feedback, and decided the no heat challenge was top of the list. Others agreed that it's much easier and more fun to rally around a money saving idea in a group setting.
She proposed establishing monthly challenges, but left the boards before they got off the grounds. What do you all think? We had CCF's No spend month challenge for March. Does anyone have an idea for April? What else did I miss about Fern?
Looking Back #5: Fern (aka Wild Blue Yonder)
March 20th, 2011 at 07:07 pm
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Even though her blogs are/were from different aspects or perspectives of her life, I read and enjoy/ed (winking at CCFree :-) them all.
She also is a talented photographer - I particularly like the photos of her cats, kayaking and walking adventures and her tireless projects. Whatever name she writes under, I hope she keeps on writing!
Great choice!!
March 20th, 2011 at 10:08 pm 1300658883
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She's still here -- blogging, I think, quite regularly. There was even a post today.
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I am mostly a lurker and I KNOW she's still posting here.
March 21st, 2011 at 03:22 am 1300677745
"The best financial wisdom I have picked up for over the years is that there is usually a way to have something virtually identical for much cheaper."
Maybe that should be the challenge. If you are planning to buy something new or do something, see if you can either find the same thing/activity for less or for free.
Example today: I was looking at some IKEA items and instead of buying new, hit the local craigslist and found some of what I was planning to buy used.
March 21st, 2011 at 07:34 pm 1300736092
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Now that I am back I would love to participate in a challenge. It has been a while since my last no heat challenge in Fall 2009.
March 22nd, 2011 at 05:21 pm 1300814488