The Friday Feast ~ the 26th of February

The personal finance community is filled with so many talented writers and inspiring families in search of something better out of life than the traditional society-approved plan of buying lots of stuff and retiring in your 60s if you're lucky.

Here is a look at the best of this week's personal finance blogs.

In this episode of Friday Feast: Financially Integrated, 1500 Days, Slowly Sipping Coffee, The Dollar Stretcher, Debt Free Guys, Mad FIentist, Adam Chudy, Go Curry Cracker, Retirement Savvy and Living A FI.

Happy Friday once again everyone. My wife's birthday was yesterday, and we spent a total of $5 on gifts. Instead of giving her a card, I went back through my photos and printed out a nice 8x10 of the two of us adventuring in New Mexico last year and wrote a personalized message on the back - yup, all sappy and stuff. Low-cost, meaningful birthday gifts rock!

Last week, I mentioned that we might be making a huge purchase in the very near future. Tomorrow we are heading up to the Phoenix area and will be looking to put an offer on a new-to-us Airstream RV. The process...is rolling!

Now, on to the blogs!

How many out there have an ego? Financially Integrated talked about the impact that egos have on your success in life.

1500 Days asks readers an interesting question: If you had to stay in a tiny home built on top of a huge rock in the middle of a lake without any Internet access, would you do it for $100,000?

Also, don't you dare call these Coffee Sippers cheap. Rather, they simply prefer not to overbuy.

My favorite post of the week

"Once your emergency fund starts growing, treat it like a friend," wrote The Dollar Stretcher in my favorite post of the month. This one talks about keeping (or getting) your emergency fund up to snuff!

How am I supposed to create an emergency fund when there's no money left at the end of the month? If you're asking yourself that question, you might be doing it wrong.

More from the personal finance community

How 'bout them savings? The Debt Free Guys talk about the 10 things they've done that contribute the most to saving cash.

Oh, and the Mad FIentist just applied to be an astronaut. How strangely awesome is that?

What's on your Stop Doing list? If you're Adam Chudy, you probably want more sleep and to stop looking at your phone so much.

Honorable mentions: Go Curry Cracker takes a bite out of Betterment, Retirement Savvy chats about minimalism, and lastly, Living A FI lets it all flow out in a personal blog post.

Photo of the week

Here is a photo that I shot of Saguaro National Park outside of Tucson, AZ on a warm and sunny 85-degree day in early February.

Coming up in the week ahead on ThinkSaveRetire: On Monday I am going to talk about the "what if" scenarios of early retirement and address some of the common concerns we hear thrown our way about full time travel and early retirement. On Wednesday, I'm going to have a little fun and discuss the difference between FU money and FU, money (note the comma). Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, and cheers to another financially productive week ahead!