My blog about trying to set up a Facebook app to allow my friends to share my Citi ThankYou rewards points was featured in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by Diva in Debt.

My friend says, "No Thanks," to request to share information on Citi's ThankYou Point Sharing app. Reaping the benefits of Citi's new rewards sharing program may not be as easy as it appears. Arm twisting may be necessary if none of my friends have that rewards card or any rewards points to share with me.

And who among my friends is going to be want give up their hard-earned rewards so that I can buy a tent or go on a cruise?

My friend was conned out of $4,000 from a man she met on an online dating website. Sadly, the Better Business Bureau reports that 2011 was an active year for scam artists.

Four years ago today, the Taking Charge blog posted its first entry.

I blogged about my daughter, a middle-schooler at the time, who was discovering the convenience of plastic payment cards.

She was a newbie at the school and had not yet gotten her school ID card, which also doubles as the lunch payment card. So, she pulled out cash at the lunch counter and slowed the whole line down. Lesson learned: Plastic is faster and doesn't anger the folks in line behind you.

That was four years ago. The payment card world has changed dramatically since then.

My blog about my reluctance to share personal information when signing up for a bone marrow donation program was selected for the 328th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.

It sounded like a harmless request this past weekend: Sign up to be a bone marrow donor to potentially help people who need life-saving transplants.

I was among tens of thousands of people who packed in to a popular live music festival (Austin City Limits) held in Austin, Texas, each year. I had just arrived and was walking the perimeter of the festival, stopping in at different vendor booths. At one booth, a smiling man approached me asking if I'd like to sign up to be in a database of potential bone marrow donors. Ok, I said, walking under the canopy.

I was willing to give up my bone marrow -- a process that can be extremely painful -- but not my personal information.

A headline from Michigan caught my eye this morning: "101-year-old Detroit woman evicted in foreclosure."

The Associated Press article detailed the plight of Texana Hollis and her son, Warren. Sheriff's deputies went to the home she has lived in for nearly six decades and put the woman and her two adult sons (ages 66 and 69) out. Warren Hollis told WXYZ-TV that he hadn't paid the mortgage in several years and ignored eviction notices.

If you're going to do that, think about the collateral damage that you may be causing to people who depend you on -- an elderly parent who lives with you, your children or spouse. They would face the embarrassment and disruption caused by a "surprise" eviction or a civil judgment for a delinquent credit card bill.

Last week's blog about a local discount gas purchase program that doesn't offer reloadable gift cards was selected for the Carnival of Personal Finance's 326th blog carnival.

Canadian Dream, the blog host, recognized the Taking Charge blog for its savings message. Although a Texas grocery store chain is sponsoring a promotion to sell gas for 11 cents less than the market price, the store doesn't provide reloadable gift cards to use for the purchase. Instead, customers must obtain new cards -- and throw the old ones away -- each time they exhaust the funds loaded on to a card. We wonder why the cards aren't reloadable to save the environment.

When I filled my car up with gas recently, I saved 11 cents per gallon off the current market price by using a retail store gift card.

That's a good deal.

Several retailers around the country are offering similar deals to drive traffic to their stores. It's apparently working as family budgets are being stretched more and more with the bad economy.

I applaud them. But can they make them reloadable for it's easier on the environment?

Does legendary pro athlete Bo Jackson know banking? A recent profile on LostLettermen.com reveals the 48-year-old former NFL and MLB player is a co-owner and director at a small community bank in suburban Chicago.

What he does bring to the table is his popularity and marketing appeal as a pitchman. The bank's website features a prominent picture of Jackson. Smart move.

It's risky business opening a bank in the kind of economic climate we have today. Banks larger than Burr Ridge fail every week. But then, they don't know Bo!

I got an expected but still surprising reminder this week of the South Florida vacation I took a month ago. It was a $7 charge on my credit card for tolls on the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike.

Rental car companies should warn customers that automated toll plazas may be encountered in a city and that those charges, plus administrative fees from both the toll collector and the rental car company, will be billed to the credit card. Had I been given a heads up by the car company, I would have taken steps to avoid the toll road. There are alternative routes that take longer but avoid the tolls.

How much are you spending on back-to-school supplies or clothes for your children this year?

I haven't set up a budget, but being the frugal mom that I am, I'm hoping it's as little as possible. My teenage daughter, however, may have different thoughts about this.

With her, cost is often an afterthought. A Capital One survey released this week found teens and parents have vastly different views of how much school supplies cost. Only 41 percent of the teens surveyed said they expect their parents to spend more than $100 shopping for school, but 68 percent of parents expect they will spend more than $100. To me, that says teens often don't have a clue about how much things cost today.

It's Day 1 for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- the new federal agency charged with watching out for consumers when it comes to credit cards and other financial products.

Starting today, consumer complaints about credit cards will be collected by a single government agency -- rather than a hodgepodge of regulators that existed before.

Help us kick the tires on this new complaint system. If you have filed a complaint, let us know how it went. Was the form easy to understand? Did you experience any technical difficulties on the website?

What is the value of good credit? If you're like the majority of Americans who rely on having good credit scores to help smooth the way when you buy a car, get a mortgage or apply for other types of loans, a high credit score is vitally important.

A conversation with someone at a dinner party over the weekend and recent comments from a friend makes me wonder whether the number of people who don't value good credit is growing.

For a small and maybe growing number of people like him, maintaining good credit does not make good sense.

I told him I thought he was definitely in the minority in the country because the rest of us (me included) want to be able to borrow if we need it. Since I'm not independently wealthy with my own unlimited stash of cash, I have to rely on banks to finance big-ticket items. Those banks use credit ratings to weed out the good versus bad credit risks among us. I don't make the rules, but I'm forced to play by them because I'm not wealthy.

I can thank my mother for helping me become the tightwad that I am today. I'm not alone.

As a new CreditCards.com poll shows, the family member identified the most for influencing our financial habits and money management prowess is dear ol' Mom. The poll of 1,004 adults found that more than a quarter (26 percent) chose mom as the chief influencer of their money handling skills. Dad was second with 21 percent.

Have you seen the latest teen shopping video? No, it's not a public service announcement of the "This is your brain on drugs" genre. It's more like, "This is your financial future on overload."

"Going to the Mall," a song and video by artists School Gyrls (yes, that's how they spell it), is a three-minute glamorization of excessive spending. It features five girls dressed in school girl plaid skirts who happily talk about their shopping excursions to the mall.

It's reminiscent of the "haul videos" that have become popular on YouTube. They feature young shoppers, most often females, who are showing off their latest purchases and any bargains they've bagged.

My blog exploring the likelihood that frugality and saving habits are here to stay made the New Year's edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.

This week's personal finance host, Sustainable Personal Finance, chose several blogs that look toward key decisions about taxes, investing and work that consumers will have to make in 2011.

It's worth a look.

Will 2011 be the year of living frugally?

Or will the buy-it-now and get-the-latest-gadget trend continue? There is much disagreement about whether Americans have really changed their thinking about frugality and spending.

Of course, some people are being forced to change their ways -- because they lost their jobs or they've gotten in way over their heads in debt. Some economic watchers say once the economy roars back and unemployment declines, many of those who turned frugal will revert to their old spending habits. Others argue that the 2008 Wall Street crisis gave us such a wake-up call and created so much mistrust of the global financial system that we won't soon forget it.

There's evidence on both sides of the argument.

Less than a month after its debut, the Kardashian Kard may be kaput. Kanned, Kanceled. Klipped. Kremated.

The prepaid debit card featured high upfront fees ($59.95 for six months or $99.95 for a year-long membership) and was heavily marketed to teens and young professionals. Consumer groups warned teens, their parents and young adults not to be swayed by the card's hip promoters, celebrity sisters Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian.

Consumers Union, the nonprofit owners of Consumer Reports magazine, even started a campaign asking consumers to sign e-cards urging the Kardashians to take their names off the prepaid card.

It looks like they've done just that.

Our blog about the potential pitfalls of the new Kardashian Kard prepaid card was selected for this week's Carnival of Personal Finance.

Hosted by Sweating The Big Stuff, the 284th edition of the personal finance carnival featured a Thanksgiving theme.Categories included The Turkey, Football, Family, Shopping and the Wishbone.

The Kardashian blog reports the growing concerns, expressed by Consumers Union and others, about the prepaid card. Critics say they worry that impressionable young people will sign up for the card, which is marketed by celebrity sisters Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian to teens and young professionals.

It's one thing to be hip and cool, but don't let the cool thing of the moment lead you to make bad money decisions.

That's the message behind a warning issued today by a leading consumer advocacy group about the Kardashian Kard, a new prepaid debit card being marketed to teens and young adults. As its name implies, the card is backed by the Kardashian sisters, Kim, Kourtney and Khloe, the stars of the E! cable network reality series about their lavish lifestyles, "Keeping up with the Kardashians."

Last week, when the Kardashian trio announced they were lending their names and celebrity to a new prepaid debit card, the general reaction from smart money watchers was: Keep away.

Last week's blog about getting your annual flu shot at a pharmacy rather than going to your primary care physician was selected for the weekly Carnival of Personal Finance.

Flu season is upon us and you or a loved one might be rolling up your sleeves to get the annual vaccination against the influenza virus.

Here's my question for you: How are you paying for it?

If you have health insurance coverage through your employer, you might think you're doing the right thing if you go to your doctor's office for the shot. But are you?

Thanks to Consumerism Commentary for including my recent blog post in the 281st edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. This week's theme: Halloween candy.

My blog about the Federal Reserve's makeover of the consumer credit card agreement website was included in the "credit card and debt" category. As the blog points out, the Fed made some good changes, but there is still work to be done to help consumers find their own credit contracts on the Fed's site.

It looks like regulators at the Federal Reserve Board were listening when consumer groups and others lambasted a new database of credit card agreements that debuted in May 2010.

Five months after its less-than-stellar debut, the database has had a quiet makeover.But don't get your hopes up too quickly.

I still can't find my individual credit card agreement on the Fed's site. I searched in vain for my Citi Forward card agreement. No luck for me on that one, but others may have better luck, depending on the issuer and how many of their contracts are posted on the Fed's site.

How often do you write checks these days?

A growing number of people have given up check writing as electronic, plastic and online payment methods have expanded. That's why I'm a bit puzzled by a new campaign called: "Stand up for your right to write checks."

A press release about the campaign quotes the results of a telephone poll of 1,005 adults conducted July 17-21, 2010. More than a third of respondents (38 percent) said they would consider walking out of or not returning to a restaurant or business that refused to accept checks for payment. Three out of four people (75 percent) said they should have the freedom to pay at stores or restaurants with whatever method they choose -- check, credit card, debit card or cash.

But check writing is on a steady decline in the United States -- has been for two decades. Who's really upset about places that don't take checks?