Emily's list: New faces edition

Since July 2009, I have been doing weekly roundups for CreditCards.com of some of my favorite personal finance blog posts. Through this weekly ritual, I have discovered countless other blogs with endlessly fascinating thoughts and ideas. We are creatures of habit, however, and I often find myself coming back to the same group of wonderful blogs for my roundup.

With the new year just around the corner, my editors and I decided it was time to discover some new faces in the personal finance blogosphere (even if they are just new to me). So please read on to explore some posts about credit, debt and finances from 10 of the best personal blogs I have just recently discovered. Enjoy!

1. Money and Such explains why unhappiness drives us to be more successful, financially and otherwise, but stresses the need for moderation.

2. Bad Money Advice shares his confusion as to why American Express, which traditionally offered travelers checks and charge cards rather than a credit cards, is still in existence.

3. Buyer beware! Realm of Prosperity alerts readers about suspicious terms to beware of when doing your shopping. For example, "up to x percent" means you may not reap any savings at all.

4. The Finance Buff discusses why the philosophy of not buying things that are too expensive can apply to services -- such as credit cards and their interest rates -- not just products.

5. Debt Kid lists 11 hard-to-excuse money mistakes. Most of these would make us roll our eyes. One big doozy: using home equity to pay off your credit card bills, and then running up your credit card debt again.

6. Frugal For Life tells readers about several alternatives for giving gifts to charities; one option, which I had never heard of, is to give a charity gift card.

7. Finance for Youth explains why lists are useful for Santa and how they can really save you money, especially during the holidays. I can attest to this: After making lists of who we needed to buy gifts for, my siblings and I agreed to spend a little less on each other this year so we would have more to go around.

8. Almost all of us have at least once received a gift card we know we will never use. Bargain Babe tells readers about several Web Sites you can use to sell and buy gift cards, most of which are discounted.

9. Modern Gal ponders whether "good debt" really exists, especially when the money owed is for something that will depreciate in value over time.

10. If you know what you're doing, you can use credit cards to your advantage. A Gai Shan Life explains why she is switching credit cards again, and it's all about leveraging reward point programs.