This is our weekly roundup, where we share some interesting posts written by some personal finance bloggers we follow. As always, when we list a post in this roundup we stick with our favorite themes: setting up a budget, household expenses, lower debt, and general personal finance topics that can aid in reaching financial goals. We hope that you enjoy their insights!

Seeting up a Budget and Household Expenses

9 Excuses Why You Haven’t Started A Budget Yet - If you have not started a budget for your household expenses yet, you will most likely find your own excuse in this pretty complete list.

Wine-Tasting: A Frugal Hobby or Not? - This post shows us that deliberately spending money for a particular purpose is not a problem at all. This is what money is for. It’s spending wisely that helps us lead a happy life.

Lower Debt

Get Motivated With A Debt Elimination Roadmap - This roadmap lists the various steps you need to take to lower debt. The blogger got these steps from her own experiences. Taking these steps put her on the journey toward completely eliminating her debt.

Countrywide tried to steal my parents' money - How you can avoid being a victim of mortgage servicing fraud - This post describes how a big corporation tried to take extra money from a customer with whom the customer had mortgage debt. It also gives us tips what to do when you encounter such a problem.

The “Personal” of Personal Finances

How to Build Confidence and Destroy Fear - JD shares his own experiences about getting over one’s fears, something that may be a challenge for each one of us. But, he says, if you get over your fears, you open up new doors in your life that will enrich your life. This idea also applies to our challenges with our personal finances.

Personal Branding Interview: Richard Thaler – Richard Thaler, a pioneer of behavioral finances, shares in this interview why a “nudge” is so important for many of us, especially when it comes down to personal finances.

Miscellaneous

In the event I die - Information for my family – In this post we learn how important it is to share information about our finances with the family. This is especially important in preparation for our own deaths, or the death of our partner, for the surviving partner has to handle all family finances alone. It is a lot easier to do that if the couple keeps an up-to-date list of important financial information, such as insurance policies, bank accounts, etc., and tells the other partner where that list is kept.

How much Free Market can you take? - Manshu gives us an interesting read because he connects a personal experience with a bigger question about the economic system we call “capitalism.” He uses a personal experience to point out that unfettered capitalism may not be such a good solution for each of us individually, or even for us as a society, and states that some regulations have got to be put in place to make a capitalist system work well.