Welcome to the Independence Day Edition of the Carnival of Money Stories!

Editor's Picks:

*Jacq Jolie from Single Mom, Rich Mom wonders if she did the right or wrong thing by not charging her son rent in Charging adult kids rent – to do or not to do? Mr. A and I debated charging AJ rent and decided we should. After reading Jacq's story, I'm glad we did.

*Amanda L. Grossman presents When Being Cheap Upfront Costs Big Bucks in the End posted at Frugal Confessions. Amanda tried to save some money but instead spent a lot more when her car got towed. When I first read this story, it made me feel panicked just to read, and determined to never make the same mistake.

*Squirrelers tells us a quite a money saving scary story in Squirreling Gone Wild #10 – People Serving Spoiled Food to Save Money. Also don't miss the other Squirreling Gone Wild stories, I laughed out loud at Starlight, Starbright.

Susan Howe from Get Rich Slowly submitted an experience by Adam Baker: Calculating Your Life-Time Income. After looking over the amount of money Adam and his wife Courtney have made over the years, Adam realizes they didn't know where half of it had gone.

Simon Zehn at Realm of Prosperity tells us How I Overcame My Fear of Investing. A money experience beginning when he was in college, through to current where he tells us why he is no longer afraid.

Adam from Money Relationship tells us Perfection Doesn’t Exist. Adam's money experience has been that he tries to be a perfectionist and he's going to change that by setting attainable goals and rewarding himself once in a while.

Frugal Dad shares The Things Money Can't Buy, and a Few Things It Can where he tells us about a doctor who lived a modest lifestyle so that he could spend his money traveling to do mission medical services, and why he (Frugal Dad) spent his twenties in a dead end job.

Austin Morgan presents Update on My Lending Club Investments posted at Foreigner's Finances. Austin can't invest in a Roth IRA while working in Japan so he's chosen to invest in Lending Club and tells us about his experience.

Jeff at Sustainable Life Blog writes A Break Up Letter to his credit cards reminiscing over eight years of credit card charges.

Joe Plemon from Personal Finance By The Book shares this experience on How to Get Personal Finance Taught in a Public High School.

Kristina from DINKS Finance shares her experience shopping for auto insurance in My Insurance Nightmare.

Money Ning shares Three Frugal Recipes Everyone Can Enjoy with reminiscing about his Grandma who threw out her leftover bread every evening and bought a new loaf every day.

Len Penzo from Len Penzo dot Com tells us how he and his family spent money on vacation in Dear Diary: What I Did On My Summer Vacation.

vh from Funny about Money shares Motivating People around Us: Six Ways to Better Customer Service. Did you ever hear that saying you can catch more flies with honey? Well, being nice to those providing us customer service can save us money since they'll be more inclined to hear us and want to make us happy.

Next week the Carnival travels to The Suburban Dollar. Please go here to submit your money stories and experiences. Please remember when submitting, just because your post has the word “money” in it does not make it a money story or experience.