This might be a bit of a who cares post, but then again, you may be interested in what this blogger reads when not blogging. Although these aren’t ‘frugal’ or personal finance books, some of these are a pretty darn good read, so if you’re looking for a book, then here are a few suggestions.

My selection is limited to what is held in our public library, so not exactly the latest and greatest NY Times best sellers, but the library has a pretty good collection and these are some of the best read this year in no particular order:

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Best wishes to you for the New Year, I hope that you have a great year.

Thanks to everyone who visits the site, and thanks a million to those of you who leave comments, I love hearing from you, it makes my day.

I hope that you enjoy the festive season and that the New Year brings prosperity and happiness.

This year is the first year that I won’t be spending Christmas with my own family and I’m a bit upset about that. While I have a second family now whom I love and who have their own traditions, there’s nothing like the traditions that you grow up with.

Despite the heat of Summer and my mum threatening that “if it’s hot this year I’m not cooking”, we always have a full roast at home. In fact, our Christmas day tradition pretty much revolves around eating and enjoying food.

We start the day with ham and eggs on toast. The ham is real ham, cured by a butcher friend, served on with homemade bread with poached fresh free range eggs from another friend and some good old Aussie mustard.

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You may have noticed the little addition of the signup box in the sidebar. Well, January will see the inaugural Frugal and Thriving Newsletter. It will be once a month, and it will be free.

I’m pretty excited about the newsletter and also a little nervous. I have big plans for the newsletter content, it will include all sorts of useful tips and resources that don’t make it to the blog. And I’ll be asking you for your feedback as to what you want to see in the newsletter and on the blog.

If you would like to make some suggestions for the blog now, I would love you to leave them in the comments below.

To find out more, visit the signup information page. I hope that you find it a valuable and interesting resource.

I’m changing the site a bit today, so sorry if it looks a bit mish-mashed for a while. I had intended to do a full new site design launch but I’m stuck on some PHP and Javascript problems so I’m doing this redesign in a few stages while I learn more about programming.

I would love to hear your feedback about the new colours. Also any site problems. I have only tested in Firefox and IE7, so if you use other browsers and stuff on the site doesn’t look good, let me know and I’ll endeavour to fix it. Be gentle, I’m very slowly teaching myself web programming, so site design isn’t my forte.

I began reading The Little Book of Big Savings by Ellie Kay with high expectations. We’re pretty frugal, but you can never stop learning, and our budget can still do with some massaging. The book claimed to save me $1,200 per month after all. Maybe having high expectations was the problem, because I was pretty disappointed by this book and what it has to offer.

The book looks at twelve key areas of spending and gives a list of tips on how to reduce your spending in each area. It covers:

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You may have heard the recent news that we are all suffering from green fatigue. Reader’s Digest did a survey that revealed we’re switching off to eco advice, and despite many of us believing that we should be doing more ‘green’ things, that belief isn’t translating into taking action.

The recently published Green Made Easy: The Everyday Guide for Transitioning to a Green Lifestyle by Chris Prelitz presents a solution to our eco overload. And the book begins by busting the myths about being ‘green’ including the disillusioning belief that small changes don’t matter. We underestimate the cumulative effect of many small changes that we each make over time and the cumulative effect of millions of people making small changes.

This book definitely lives up to it’s title. It’s a handy reference that cuts through all the overwhelming info that’s out there and makes ‘green’ choices so simple. You don’t need to drive a hybrid car to be green, this book provides ways to be green across all aspects of our daily lives.

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Think and Grow Rich was originally published in 1937 by Napolean Hill. If you’re familiar with The Secret, then you’ll have some idea of what Think and Grow Rich is all about. It’s the original ‘secret’ revealed. I admit that when I read the author state that he was about to reveal “the secret” to getting rich but only to those who were ready to receive it, my cynicism metre went through the roof. Obviously, I’m not ready to receive.

But in every book there is “wrapped a pure nugget of truth”, and Think and Grow Rich is no exception. There are some really strange concepts in this book that I was quite sceptical about, but amongst them were many ideas that ringed true and worth taking the time to consider.

It is a timely book to read, the book was written just coming out of the great depression, and the author saw it as a time of opportunity and change. It made me think that today is a time of great opportunity as our current adversities give us the impetus we need to create great change for the better.

The first important distinction to make about the book is that it’s a motivational book, not a personal finance book. The author isn’t just talking about financial riches, but also spiritual, mental and material riches. Unlike our regular understanding of ‘success’ that is measured by material possessions, the author measures success through happiness. If you have obtained your goals and you’re happy then you have ‘succeeded’ regardless of the material possessions you have accumulated.

So how do we grow rich? The book goes through 13 steps that one needs to be successful.

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I’m planning some changes for the website in the next month or two. How quickly it gets done will depend on my web programming skills (which aren’t that good!) I’m also working hard on the eBook, so I might be posting a little less frequently for a while.

If there are any changes that you would like to see, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.