In case you missed it yesterday I have decided to split up my Weekly Goals, Round Up and Carnivals post into two posts from now on. Welcome to the second one!
I hope by splitting these up to give more attention to each of them. If you aren’t a huge fan of finding new blogs and posts to read please come back Monday for our regularly scheduled programming.
Random Thoughts
Yesterday I was at a gas station convenience store picking up a 32oz 69 cent soft drink and I was shocked by what was going on in front of me. A man was cashing in his lottery tickets which is pretty normal at these locations. What shocked me though was what he bought. He bought $100 in PowerBall tickets and $50 of Florida Lottery tickets. To his credit he did use his $9 of winnings to bring the total down to $141 but my jaw was on the floor. I hope he wins or this was a one time thing but I’m thinking it is a pretty normal occurrence for him.
I’ve seen people drop similar amounts of money on scratch off tickets but never seen someone spend that much on the actual lottery. I’m sure it happens every day but the odds of winning are so small you’re basically giving your money away. I do buy a scratch off ticket every now and then but it is purely for the entertainment value and I don’t expect to win. Anyway, that was my crazy experience of the week.
Have you had any crazy experiences this week?
Round Up
Here are my five favorite posts from this past week.
Funancials got engaged this week! Congrats and best wishes to you and your fiancee.
Thousandaire finished paying off $33,850 in student loan debt! Big congrats to you as well. I’m sure that felt great!
PT Money discussed taking time off of work when your culture doesn’t support it. This can be rough but I am a huge believer in taking time off work that you have earned. You don’t want to burn out but if you’ll be looked down upon for taking time off it can be hard to balance.
Yakezie wrote about what to do after a pay cut. I’ve never been through this one myself but I’d have some pretty upset feelings over it. What would you do in their case?
Budgets are Sexy calculated the ultimate cost of his child so far. I’ll be interested to see him keep this up until the kid turns 18 and see how he compares to the official numbers that come out every year.
This week I wrote a guest post at So Over Debt about How Personal Finance is Like a Fish Tank. If you haven’t read it yet I highly encourage you to check it out!
Carnivals
Below are all of the carnivals that I was put in this week that I could find or got ping backs on. If you hosted a carnival that I was included in this week and I missed it please let me know and I’ll add it below!
Festival of Frugality and Young and Thrifty’s Weekend Ramblings included my post I Got a Crazy Deal: Samsung Galaxy Skyrocket.
Carnival of Money Pros included my post Buying a Dryer – Consider Clearance and Open Box Items.
An accountant by day and blogger by night, Lance is the owner of this site. 
I know what you mean about the lottery thing; I recently ‘spoke’ to someone who was sharing that they have rather large debt and saying that they will still spend $40 per month on the lottery. Mad!
maria@moneyprinciple recently posted..Principled Money Posts #18: Bella Roma edition
Great reads! I think I played the lottery (California) about a dozen times. I think I only won a couple bucks twice. Paid $12, won $4, but still loser! That is why I don’t play!
I feel so stressed when I see folks “investing” outrageous sums of money in lottery tickets. It’s so distressing!!! I’m tempted to give them a financial lecture, but clearly, that’s inappropriate
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Barbara Friedberg recently posted..THE SECRET TO HANDLING AN UNEVEN CASH FLOW