This week I didn’t really participate in carnivals as I was getting back into the swing of things. But I did read some interesting posts and I have 2 awesome giveways and a really cool frugal tip for taxes.

First I am giving away 3 copies of Premier turbotax. You must sign up for my RSS or Email feed in the left sidebar, and EMAIL me at livingalmost at gmail dot com the secret word. I will change the secret word every Sunday, so you can enter the drawing up to 3x each. This week’s opportunity is coming to a close, but hurry and try to enter. On 1-25-09 I’ll draw three names for the winners of the three free copies of turbo tax.

However if you don’t win, check out this Free Federal Turbotax edition, not the premier edition but basic. But better yet, a Frugal Tip, is until the end of January 2009, Turbotax is allowing people to call in and ask 1 questoin free to a tax professional. Take advantage of this freebie while it lasts.

I’m also giving away a book called Working Longer, which all you have to do is leave a comment for a chance to win next Wednesday Night. It’s more a historical book about retirement incomes.

Anyway these are the posts I found interesting this week.

• Meg from World of Wealth tells us “Tenant flees in the middle of the night.” To all wannabe landlords, this is a blog you need to be reading. It’s reality about how hard it is to be a landlord. And she’s got a ton of money to fall back on in case of emergency, I can’t imagine being a landlord with barely any safety net.
• Nickel from FiveCentNickel gives us the lowdown on “Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus plan“. We should be following China’s lead and using the stimulus to work on infrastructure, technology, and jobs.
• Ashley at WideOpenWallet asks us about “Budget Percentages“. She says her transportation is expensive. I spend 2.5% of our income on transportation and 2.5% on maintanence of our cars so 5% total maybe. Guess beaters are the way to go.
• Kevin from NoDebtPlans asks if “You should trust Zillow“. I say use it as just another factor in determining what your house is worth. They do tell you what has sold nearby so it does help if you want to run your own numbers.
• MissM asks us “Help I need $153k” because her home is upside doiwn. CA real estate what can I say? It wasn’t even just subprime borrowers but people with good credit! Many people I know just walked away because they lost so much on their homes. They had decent interest rates and put money down but are just walking away to new cities with new jobs! Ouch.
• FMF asks a question from a reader about how to “Refinance their home” when they are upside but not behind.

So I had a good week otherwise. So remember to enter the turbotax and book giveaways! Cheers.