The Friday Feast ~ the 27th of November

The personal finance community is filled with so many talented writers and truly inspiring people and families who want something much different in life than the traditional plan of buying lots of stuff and retiring in their 60s.  Here is a look at the best of this week's personal finance blogs.

In this episode of Friday Feast: Two Cup House, Our Next Life, The Resume Gap, Unplanned Finance, Band of Savers, Budget And The Beach, Financially Alert, Northern Cheapskate, Daniel Clough, Generation Y Retirement, She Picks Up Pennies, Northern Expenditure, Fervent Finance, Cure Rabbit Ears and PT Money.

Welcome to Friday and the 27th of November and the day after Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a good Turkey Day and is spending Black Friday enjoying their time away from work at home - not shopping!

So, who is thankful this time of year? Yup, we are. So is Claudia and her husband from Two Cup House, who wrote about being thankful for clean clothes and food, shelter and health.

Our Next Life said that they are thankful for so many in our community who help to inspire them to do their very best each and every day, and keeps them coming back to the blogosphere for more.

The guys over at The Resume Gap are thankful for the ability to live in the "best time to ever be alive" in such an opportunity rich country with good health and all kinds of freedom. Now that's the spirit!

Gratitude and thankfulness from Unplanned Finance (link), Northern Expenditure (link), Band of Savers (link), Budget And The Beach (link), Financially Alert (link) as well as so many others.

And, Northern Cheapskate wrote this week about how gratitude can instantly turn everything we have into enough.

My favorite post of the week

My favorite post of the week comes from a dude named Daniel Clough who, like me, ditched his expensive smart phone for something a little more, say, inexpensive - the Nokia 130. Yup, that means he went more hard core than I did when I ditched my expensive $600 phone for my cheap Android.

My favorite line from his blog post: "I feel SO much better. More present. My mind feels less cluttered. I feel more positive and happier. I’m more focused on what I have in front of me." Well done, Daniel!

More from the personal finance community

Along the same lines as my favorite post above, Generation Y Retirement pleads with people to look up from their phones once in a while to truly experience the world around us. We might just start noticing things that we never did before!  :)

She Picks Up Pennies wrote an excellent piece about the difference between "can't" and "won't" in Personal Finance and the importance of shedding the can't mentality.

Also, Northern Expenditure explained this week how they turned unemployment into a game that they could (and did) win.

And Tawcan wrote a nice piece about the "lifestyle of frugality", rather than looking at being frugal as a temporary fad.

Honorable mentions: Fervent Finance wrote about why he doesn't follow his passion full time, Cure Rabbit Ears discussed his accidental real estate success and if you have to buy gifts for the holidays, try these 45 ideas for gifts under $25 from PT Money.

Coming up in the week ahead on ThinkSaveRetire: On Monday, we are going to talk about how making even the smallest changes in your life can add up to something remarkable, and Wednesday I will discuss what happens with Early Retirement goes mainstream.

Also, stay tuned in December when I chronicle a guy's epic 2,200 mile hike that completely changed his perspective on life, turning him and his wife into future early retirees! I am also working on an article that chronicles one couple's journey into a Tiny House.

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