There are whole groups of people who have embraced the idea of 'free'...none more so than personal finance bloggers and their followers.

I subscribe to three blogs (Money Saving Mom, Northern Cheapskate, and Bargain Briana) if only for their tips on getting free stuff (iced mochas at McDonalds and free Redbox rental on Mondays, for examples!).

And anytime I put the word 'free' in a blog post, hits go way up. And I'm pretty sure that other bloggers have the same experience.

In the Boston Globe (June 28, 2009) was an interesting article called 'The Future Of Free'. Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, recently wrote a book called "Free: The Future of a Radical Price". The premise:

Those of you in the Northeast (and even elsewhere) may have noticed it's been raining for about a month.

Here in Maine, we had our wetest June on record, and today for the first time, we all saw blue sky. Needless to say, people were pretty happy and it felt like we were all caught up in the sappiness of a Disney movie. It made me think about being grateful for things we normally take forgranted.

Some cool things from around the internet this week:

Money Saving Links

Not Driving Your Less-Frugal Friends Crazy (Wisebread)
I feel like such a putz when I can't join my friends for breakfast out, but Wisebread addresses the issue of watching spending without making friends feel bad about theirs.

My friend Jessica and I had breakfast the other day when she passed me this book across the table.

"You have to read this!" she said.

So I started reading it Thursday, and I couldn't stop. The first line of the book:

The book is written by Simon Doonan, who is the creative director at Barneys New York and instantly becomes the reader's fabulous gay best friend with his knowledge and his tone, respectively.

I seemed to giggle every four or five pages, which went between ridiculous stories, sound advice, and interviews of fellow "eccentric glamour"ous people.

Happy Monday!

As the long weekend approaches, I'm getting ready to head northward to my hometown of Fort Kent for a wedding and some family time.

I've been doing some fun reading as usual, sadly more than I ever have time to highlight on this blog. That's why I'm excited to be on Digg now. So I will try to give props to cool articles I don't get to write about on the blog on my Digg account (breakingeven), or you can navigate to it in my menu on the left.

In the meantime, some money saving links, money making links, and fun links for your pleasure.

Money Saving Links

Kacie at Sense To Save reminded me of free weekends this summer at national parks. This month: July 18 and 19.

I like getting sent a book to review once in awhile. It makes me feel important and usually gets me back on a reading kick again.

Alexis (a favorite book publicist of mine) is working with author Mary Anne Comaroto and thought I might enjoy her latest book "Hindsight: What You Need To Know Before You Drop Your Drawers!"

Are you sure this has to do with money? I asked tentatively. Alexis assured me there was at least some connection so I told her to send it along.

Ok you ready to see the cover? (Warning: It's a little shocking and this is coming from someone who has been described as 'a little crazy'.)

We all have things that scare the bejeezus out of us: paying down debt, confronting problems in a personal relationship, changing careers. (I know, a lot of them have to do with money, don't they?)

I've been pretty fearful that the uncertainty of my life recently. I know this career change was the right thing to do but like everything in life, there is no guarantee my business will work. And fear has made me a bit of insomniac for about a week.

I was reading a book this week that was supposed to help me with my business but in the end, also helped me with my anxiety.

The book is called "Sacred Cows Make The Best Burgers: Paradigm-Busting Strategies For Developing Change-Ready People and Organizations" by Robert Kriegel and David Brandt. On the surface, it really didn't seem like a business book but working in a relatively new field, I find I spend as much time selling the idea of internet marketing as selling the idea of working with me. Getting people to change not only how they see things and their reactions to changes seems like a pretty applicable skill. (Plus what a smarty sounding book title, right?)

I love periodicals probably as much as I love blogs. When I have a doctor's appointment, I sometimes go early so I can catch up on my reading.

But no medical appointment is necessary now; the inn has plenty of magazines for me to peruse, including some restaurant and lodging trade publications not carried by my doctor or my dentist.

One restaurant magazine, Santé had a feature article in their May issue called "Sarah's: Succeeding In Tough Times." Sarah and Bernard Bouissou own Bernard's Restaurant in Ridgefield Connecticut. It's an upscale place with great food that was doing well until the recession hit.