Here is the first instalment of my series on blogging about blogging. I find the blogging process both interesting and revealing. Hopefully you will too! Enjoy.

Part 1: The Art of the PF Blog
Is it just me or have PF blogs suddenly become fashionable since the credit crunch?  It seems like a lot of people wish that they had spent more time talking (or blogging) candidly about their personal finances before Black Monday, and are now jumping on the wagon. Not that I’m complaining – the more the merrier!

Like most Personal Finance bloggers, I spent months addicted to reading PF blogs before I could muster up the courage to write one.  We all know what a faux pas it can be to speak about personal finances in the real world.  It used to be that if I found myself in a conversation about money I would change the topic as quickly as possible.

However, when I discovered the world of PF blogs, I was delighted to find the taboo associated with talking about personal finances turned upside down.  Some of the first PF bloggers I encountered had amassed credit card and loan amounts that I didn’t even think were possible.  But more than anything, I was amazed at the willingness and honesty with which they wrote about their financial blunders.  I was really surprised how willing people were to air their dirty laundry without worrying about being judged as flighty or irresponsible.  And inspired by all the things it was possible to learn from others’ mistakes.

Before I knew it, I was becoming more personally invested in several bloggers’ debt repayments and savings progress.  Slowly but surely, I realized that it was not simply anonymity that encouraged these bloggers to write so candidly – it was also about the sense of community that developed around the blogs, the comments, and the discourse that evolved as a result.

As I should have expected, it didn’t take long until I joined the commentators, chose a pseudonym (‘FruGal’, of course), and began airing my own financial concerns as honestly as I had ever done.  I’m thankful that my background as a personal finance writer gives me a unique insight into how regular people encounter financial stress.  Yet it wasn’t until I started commenting on other’s blogs that I confronted my own monetary misgivings; and began to apply what I was learning to my own finances.  What followed was therefore inevitable – suddenly blogging became the perfect anecdote to years of ignoring haphazard spending and a scant personal savings.

Little did I know that the impending credit crunch would renew the way that we talk about money in the real world.  No doubt, this gives PF blogs in general a new and exciting sense of purpose – talking about personal finances in an honest and open way is vital to responsible spending!

Though I’ve only been FruGal for less than 6 months, I feel strongly that it is not simply a coincidence that so many PF blogs exist today.  I think that people tend to blog in the first place because of the general lack of openness in talking about personal finances – that is, the ability to express misgivings and missteps about financial choices.  I totally respect and understand why one would keep their personal finances, well, personal, but what is so great about PF blogging is that it gives the reformed spender a space to talk honestly about his or her spending habits.  After all, how are we supposed to learn to spend responsibly if we are discouraged from talking about spending in the first place?

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