If you're new here, you may want to learn what this site is about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Aside from Bacon Salt, I don’t usually call attention to the advertising at Get Rich Slowly. However, for the next two weeks there will be a couple of ads in the sidebar that deserve an explanation.

The first is labelled “8 secrets your credit card company doesn’t want you to know”. I think it looks a little scammy, but I assure you it’s not. When this ad first appeared in February, I checked out the link myself. It actually leads to a free report about credit cards from personal finance gurus Ken and Daria Dolan. If that’s something that might interest you, then check it out. (I was paid a flat rate for the ad, so clicking on it isn’t going to boost my income.)

The second ad is for Mokuhankan fine quality woodblock prints. Reader Dave Bull e-mailed me last fall after my review of Don Lancaster’s The Incredible Secret Money Machine. Bull makes a living from producing hand-made woodblock prints, which is pretty much right in line with Lancaster’s philosophy. I love this idea, and offered to run an ad for Bull’s art from time-to-time.

One last thing before we get to the links: A couple of readers have asked recently how they can best support me financially. Click on ads? Subscribe to the feed? To understand how blog income works, check out a recent mailbag at The Simple Dollar. In short, please do not click on ads just to be “be nice”. If something interests you, then be all means explore it. But clicking to help me may actually do more harm than good in the long run. The best way you can help is to keep reading, and to keep contributing fantastic comments and story suggestions. (Linking to posts and submitting stories to social networking sites are also helpful.)

Whew! That’s a lot about advertising. How about some personal finance links?

In the current issue of Newsweek, there’s a brief blurb about The Wine Trials, a book that lists 100 cheap wines that beat more expensive wines in blind taste-tests. One of my favorites — a $10 bottle of Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut — outscored a $150 bottle of Dom Perignon. (But I like the Domaine Ste. Michelle Blanc de Noirs even better.) On a related note, a recent Stanford University study demonstrated that price changes the way people perceive wine.

At Smart Spending, Donna Freedman outlines a day in the life of the frugal. “Not everyone can or will take frugality to such an extreme,” she writes. “But even a few steps…can add up surprisingly fast. Frugal hacks start to feel normal. Paying full price starts to feel irritating.”

On Sunday, AncientPC left a comment linking to an interesting New York Times article. Apparently, even at megastores, hagglers are finding that no price is set in stone. “Savvy consumers, empowered by the Internet and encouraged by a slowing economy, are finding that they can dicker on prices, not just on clearance items or big-ticket products like televisions but also on lower-cost goods like cameras, audio speakers, couches, rugs and even clothing.” Absolutely fascinating.

Finally, Five Cent Nickel recently posted the lazy cheapskate’s guide to saving the planet. If you’re concerned about the environment, there are a number of small ways to make a difference. Adopt some of these and work your way up to bigger steps. (And don’t forget: the number one way to save the environment is to buy less stuff.)

One final note: I’ve tried all three flavors of Bacon Salt now. The peppered version is by far my favorite. The hickory is also good. The regular Bacon Salt is okay, but isn’t as good as its brethren.