Why Growing Green Cents?

I have been debating for quite a while whether or not I should start a new blog. I already write Adventures in Library Land and am a contributor to Rage in the Page. I can barely keep up with those, so why add yet another?

I am absolutely fascinated by personal finance and by the Green movement. I have posted a few personal finance posts on Adventures, but that made me feel guilty. Not that I have many readers, but Adventures was started with the intent of writing primarily about libraries, and I have finally decided that it is best to keep it that way (perhaps my readership will even increase once I focus that one a bit more).

But should I really start another blog? I am, and have always been, a writer. I have kept way too many journals over the past 15 years (give or take), I always studied by writing things down, I keep pages and pages of ideas all over the place (finally trying to confine them to a single folder at work, at least). I just write. A lot.

Additionally, while my fascination with these topics naturally makes me feel others should find them interesting, I would also argue that sharing what I know, what I am discovering, and what methods I have tried is worthwhile for other reasons. Personal finance is something that is never taught in any formalized setting yet each of us needs to manage his/her own finances. Additionally, the Green movement is garnering more and more attention given the concern over global warming, high oil prices, rising food costs... the list is endless.

Thus the decision to bite the bullet and start a new blog.

Which led to the great blog title debate. What to call it? How to find a title that reflects both personal finance and Green (two topics which honestly do overlap a considerable amount, as I hope this blog will demonstrate). And the more difficult, how to find one that isn't already taken! On Friday, after a very late night brainstorming session, I came up with Green Cents, which covers both parts, and is also a fun play on words: cents/sense, "green" = the Green movement and the slang term for US money (which is becoming a slight misnomer - the new $5 incorporates some lovely purple).

But alas, it was taken on Blogger - by someone who has never even used it, no less! Plus, there was the Google Search worry that this title was also being taken by a rather more prominent set of blogs (one I'd never heard of, but would assume has decent readership).

Not willing to give up the Green Cents idea entirely, I schemed ways to keep it with a minor addition. Thus, Growing Green Cents was born. A Google search yields zero results for those three words as an exact phrase (wow. Either I'm really lucky or my title makes no sense...). Plus, it allows me to tie in yet another love - growing plants (which, admittedly, I was going to sneak in under the "green" thing anyway, because most plants are green, after all, right? It can also be a cheap hobby and good for the environment).

So I give you Growing Green Cents. For all things personal finance-, Green-, and plant-related.