During 2008, my wife and I are tracking how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for November.
This month’s garden update is small. As winter approaches, there’s less for us to do, and all that we harvest are herbs (and those only occasionally). Our major garden task this month was raking leaves. For most people, this is simply yardwork, but for us it’s a chance to work on the vegetable garden.
Last year, we bought a used chipper-shredder. We use it to grind up the many twigs and branches that fall on our property, but in mid-November, we also use it to shred the fallen leaves. With just a few hours work, we were able to create a thick layer of mulch for the vegetable garden, which we placed atop the horse manure our neighbor gave us last month. In late April, I will till all of this stuff into [...]

November was a great month for me. I took huge strides in my life as a “professional” blogger. I made several local television appearances, gave a presentation at the public library, and signed with a literary agent.
I also took steps to make the blog sustainable in the long term. Instead of striving for two posts a day and then feeling like a failure when I missed, I changed my aim for one solid post a day, and a second one if I have time. The net result? Fewer posts (50 as opposed to 58 in October — and probably heading toward 40 per month in the future), but higher quality. And, best of all, more personal satisfaction.
In fact, I’m quite fond of several of November’s articles, including these:

November 3rd: Put your savings on steroids with certificates of deposit
November 6th: The irritation threshold and lifestyle inflation (a guest post from Scott L.)
November 11th: The debt-to-income [...]

Because I love The Cinnamon Bear so much, I post this exact same article every year on the 29th of November. If you have young children — and even if you don’t — I encourage you to listen to these old radio broadcasts with your family.
Holiday traditions don’t have to be expensive. Some of the best traditions don’t cost anything at all.
When I was a boy, Christmas meant The Cinnamon Bear. During the weeks before Christmas, a Portland radio station (KEX) would broadcast a fifteen minute episode of this story every night.
The Cinnamon Bear chronicles the adventures of Judy and Jimmy, and their fantastic trip through Maybeland as they search for the missing Silver Star that belongs atop their Christmas tree.
I loved the cast of characters and the exotic locales: the Root Beer Ocean and the Inkaboos, the Wintergreen Witch, the Looking Glass Valley, the Crazy Quilt Dragon. And, of course, I loved Santa [...]

This is a guest post from my friend Kris, an American writer living in India. She and her husband are in New Delhi to participate in an educational exchange program. The juxtaposition of cultures has been interesting.
When you think of grocery shopping in New Delhi, please don’t imagine your local Safeway or City Market, with aisles wide enough for two pushcarts passing as shoppers stroll, browse, select.
Our grocers — or rather, “departmental store” — is a packed-to-the roof little cubby that requires deft yogic moves just to enter and exit, let alone exploring a row of goods. When it’s time to restock, they open a hatch in the ceiling and toss down from storage the items they need, calling directions back and forth as they go.
Some grocers have no rows at all, but stand at a walk-up counter with all their wares behind them; you request your purchases like ordering at a coffee bar or pharmacy in the U.S. [...]

This is a guest post from Danny Kofke, author of How to Survive (and Perhaps Thrive) on a Teacher’s Salary.
Times are tough. Many are finding it more difficult to stretch their dollars. I know this first-hand because I am a school teacher, and my wife is a stay-at-home mom with our two young daughters.
Despite earning a modest income, we have managed to own all of our possessions (including two cars!) except our house, set aside a six-month emergency fund, and invest so that we are on track to retire as millionaires. We live a financially secure life on a teacher’s salary.
One strategy that has helped us is to use cash to pay for our purchases as much as possible. Here are three reasons I believe that cash is king:
We know where our money is going
I believe that one reason so many people are in financial trouble is that they do not know how much they [...]

This is the second of three posts I’ll be sharing this weekend about personal finance in other countries. While my U.S. readers are spending their Thanksgiving holidays eating turkey, watching football, and visiting with family, it’s the perfect opportunity to perform my annual roundup of personal finance sites from around the world. As usual, if you have a favorite non-U.S. personal finance site, please let us know in the comments.
Canada
For additional Canadian financial sites, check out Canadian Capitalist’s lists of Canadian financial blogs and Canadian financial links.

Four Pillars — “We specialize in investing, real estate, personal finance and even some frugal posts too.”

Canadian Capitalist — “I used to record down my thoughts and observations and actions about credit cards, loans, investing etc. in a spiral-bound notebook. When I discovered blogging, I thought some of this stuff might be interesting to other people.”
Canadian Dream: Free at 45 — “Saving to retire by the age of [...]