Financial Blogger Conference

Quick (and exciting!) news from FinCon13.

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I'M-SPEAKING_LG(2)The bad news: Abby didn’t win the Plutus Award for “Best-Kept Secret Blog” last night.

The good news: She did win the People’s Choice Award. Her reaction was quite choice; read about it at her blog.

And I won for Best Frugality-Based Blog, which frankly astounds me: I didn’t even know I’d been nominated until shortly before the conference. We got a lot of good-natured ribbing about it being Mother-Daughter Night at the Plutus Awards.

So many thanks to all of you who voted. She still can’t quite believe it. Abby has already noted a number of new followers.

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Meet me (for coffee) in St. Louis?

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thI’m attending the Financial Blogger Conference in St. Louis next week, then staying a little while to hang out with my daughter. Saying “hello” to any readers who happen to live/work in the area would be great fun, too.

To a reader named Marsha: I’m so sorry I accidentally deleted your e-mail. Yes, I would like to have coffee and a chat, and I hope it could be on Monday morning, Oct. 21.

Is anybody else available for a cup and a jaw that day?

The place where I’m staying is near the St. Louis Bread Company, 116 N. 6th St. How early would be too early and how late would be too late in terms of people’s work/life schedules?

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Wanna be ‘frugalized’? Let’s meet on Oct. 16.

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I'M-SPEAKING_SMPersonal finance writer MP Dunleavey and I are looking for a family who’d like to save money. Specifically, we’re looking for a family who’d like to meet with us on Oct. 16 and be the subject of one of her upcoming columns for Woman’s Day magazine.

Why Oct. 16? Because she and I will both be in St. Louis at the same time, thanks to the Financial Blogger Conference. We have that sole day free and would love to find a family in that region to visit and immortalize in print.

Yep, you’d have to have your names used and a photo taken. But this gives you some time to get that haircut and tidy your kids’ rooms.

Here’s how it would work: I’ll walk through your home in search of ways you could save money through realistic (and simple!) frugal hacks. Dunleavey – whom you may remember from her work at MSN Money, Daily Worth and Money magazine – will take a lot of notes and then write it up.

What kind of family are we seeking? This kind:

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Like being at FinCon12 – or at the sponsor tables, anyway.

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Even though I had a bad cold I had a great time at the recent Financial Blogger Conference in Denver. If you want to know more about the event, check out my daughter’s posts over at I Pick Up Pennies:

And if you want to win some conference swag? Read on.

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FinCon12, with a cold — and a giveaway to match. Plus: An erudite vampire novel.

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I go for months and months without getting a cold. When it’s time to go to a conference, I get sick. But what makes that particularly amusing is the subject of this week’s giveaway: another cold and flu package.

If the items I’m giving away were here, I’d have been into them all by now.

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SeaTac Airport, 4 a.m.

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Male end, back © by L. Marie

I don’t know what I was thinking when I booked a 6:15 a.m. flight to the Financial Blogger Conference, which starts this afternoon in Denver. Why, oh why, didn’t I travel yesterday?

That will teach me to make flight plans while I’m in New Jersey. Apparently the combined impact of heat, humidity and Tastykakes prevented me from thinking clearly.

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Crunch time at the PF Olympics (aka, “I need your help once more”).

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Pic: Political parties

Thanks to the support of friends, readers and business associates I made it into the finals of the PF Olympics. Each of the finalists were given the same topic to write for the final judging:

“Which golden rule of personal finance have you abandoned since the recession, and why?”

For some reason I thought these would be judged by a panel of experts. I was wrong. Once more, it’s Internet voting. Argh. And once more, I’m asking for your help.

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