As I delve into the real world of blogging about personal finance, I’ve discovered a network called Yakezie. I liken Yakezie to the underworld of personal finance blogging, but that sounds kind of negative. Its really just a great, big support network for all personal finance and lifestyle bloggers out there on the internet to help each other out. So in an effort to join the Yakezie Network, I hereby launch my participation in the Yakezie Challenge. As of writing this post, my current Alexa ranking is 21,639,161. That means that there are over 21 million sites on the internet that get more traffic than I do. Normally, the goal of Yakezie Challengers is to get their ranking down under 200,000 within 6 months. Since I just missed the last 6 month challenge cutoff, and since its going to be slow at first, as I wrap up school in the next 4-5 months, I’m going to give myself just under a year to get down to 100,000! Its a big goal, but I think I can do it! One of the first mantras of Yakezie is to selflessly promote others. So without further ado, here is another edition of what I’ve been reading in the blogosphere this week!

• Young and Thrifty wrote a very interesting and impassioned piece on why she’s ditching Facebook. It drew a lot of comments, including my own disagreement.
• Frugal Fries is a great looking new site, and a fellow Toronto blogger. She explores the idea of buying for life, and whether you actually get what you pay for.
• Musings of an Abstract Auklander discusses engagement/wedding rings and why commitment isn’t necessarily tied to the price tag. As someone getting married this summer, I plan to write about how we’re saving money and gaining emotional value by making our own rings from raw materials.
• This week, I wrote all about books (both my favorite personal finance books and the value of the public library). But sometimes, a good game will always win out over a good book. Sustainable Personal Finance relates what games taught him about life and finances in an interesting read!
• Canadian Finance Blog writes about the pros and cons of using an automatic budgeting tool like Mint. Personally, the idea of handing over logins to financial sites is too much of a con, that it outweighs any of the pros.
• A guest writer at Prairie Eco-Thrifter talks about frugal alternatives to cable TV. I got rid of my TV completely about two years ago and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Happy Weekend Everyone!