December 7, 2012 by

Friday Link Love, Running Barefoot & Debt

No new content today, but you can check out my post over at Making Sense of Cents for tips on avoiding lifestyle inflation.

I’m really starting to like my Friday link love posts. It’s one of the times of the week when I can let loose and just write about my life without having any sort of theme or topic or layout.  If I want to put a dancing pug in my Friday post, I don’t have to somehow try and link it to personal finance.

forgifs.com

Yesterday I tried out barefoot running for the first time. I tried it because I’ve been reading a lot lately about how running in bare feet can be beneficial to reducing injury rates. I have a terrible running injury that threatens to take me out every time I ramp up training, and I’ve never been able to get rid of it. I’m hoping doing a little bare foot running on the treadmill this winter will help keep it at bay. The downside is my calves are killing me today! I guess it’s understandable that the foot strike dynamic changes when running shoes are removed, so different muscles get used, causing leg pain. All I’m going to say is that I’m glad today is a rest day.

On the debt side of things, I’ve calculated using my handy dandy excel spreadsheet that I’m $122 in extra payments away from finishing up 2012 with under 20k of debt. I’m not sure why I’ve honed in on this number, but I’m really itching to see my overall debt level tick under that 20k mark before New Years. Hopefully I can make it happen! I’m on such a tight budget that I can’t borrow from any of my accounts and funnel money into debt payment, and since it’s Christmas it’s not like I can just take my discretionary income and put it towards debt – I need that for things like rum and eggnog.

So we’ll see, hopefully I have another freakish month of high side income, that’d be nice!

Blog Posts I Loved

Cait at Blonde on a Budget had a lovely night out courtesy of ING and has resolved to redouble her charity efforts.

Jason at Work Save Live presents a lovely gift guide for husbands with suggestions at every price level.

On the flip side, Emily at One Smart Dollar presents her own gift guide for wives or girlfriends.

Kathleen over a Frugal Portland reported that her net worth is up over 250% this year! Way to go girl!

Jessica at Mo Money Mo Houses bought a scale, which I think is a great step towards a healthy lifesyle.

Daisy at When Life Gives You Lemons talk about how to get in the Christmas spirit frugally.

Jeremy from Modest Money delivers another stellar blogging tips post where he talks about optimizing images for your blog.

Bloggers That Loved Me

Here are some blogs that mentioned My Alternate Life last week, thanks guys!

Square Pennies
Freedom Thirty Five Blog
Grocery Alerts
Budget and the Beach
Canadian Budget Binder
L Bee and the Money Tree

Top Social Sharers

These bloggers did a great job sharing my posts this week. Thanks guys!

Living Debt Free Rocks
Modest Money
Frugal Rules
Work Save Live
Outlier Model

Have a good weekend!

  • Jason @ WorkSaveLive

    LOL! That pug is hilarious. Thanks a ton for the link love and I hope you have a fantabulous weekend!

  • http://www.onesmartdollar.com/ Sean @ One Smart Dollar

    Thanks a lot for the mention Jordann. Have an awesome weekend.

  • http://twitter.com/SenseofCents Michelle

    I love Link Love posts also! I love reading personal posts and what everyone is doing.

  • http://twitter.com/Lbeemoneytree Lauren Bee

    Of course I love you! Yay!

  • John S @ Frugal Rules

    That dog is hysterical! Have a great weekend.

  • http://twitter.com/Liquid_Independ Liquid_Independence

    Haha, we both have pugs on our blogs today （＾－＾） They’re so cute. When running without shoes do you try to land on the balls of your feet? You can probably try to land with the foot nearly horizontal, so you don’t work your calves too much (~_~) Good luck with your $20K debt goal. Thanks for the share.

    • http://my-alternate-life.com/ Jordann

      I try and run the most comfortable way, which means the balls of my feet. I think my calves will get better once I get used to this new way of running.

  • http://twitter.com/GrlRedBalloon Katie Collins

    I’m not a barefoot runner, but I’ve talked to a lot of people who switched from regular tennis shoes to the Fivefingers. That initial soreness is totally normal because, like you said, your legs are using muscles that just weren’t needed while running with padded shoes. Your body will adjust, but it’ll take time. (The people I’ve talked to said about 2-3 weeks, but I’m sure it’s different for everyone.)

    Love the pug gif!

    • http://my-alternate-life.com/ Jordann

      That’s what I’ve heard too, until then, I’m going to ease into it. As crazy as it sounds though, I’m already seeing a difference in my overall lack of soreness from old injuries.

  • http://twitter.com/blondeonabudget Cait Flanders

    Thank you so much for sharing my post, Jordann! Maybe it’ll help get another donation or two :) have a great weekend!

  • http://www.momoneymohouses.com/ Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses

    Thanks for the mention! That GIF is amazing!

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