Today I’m caving into peer pressure and doing a BudgetsAreSexy “Best of ’09” edition. I know it’s a little late, but it’s not like I follow the rules anyways :) We’ve got a lot of new readers on the site, and I think it would be cool to dive in and see what the most read stories were last year. A great way to catch up and get to know each other, eh?

Below are the Top 10 most visited posts from 2009 – with a few swapped out like my “about” page and some of the other navigation links up there. Half of these were on my top list too, but a few surprised me. Here’s what we’ve got:

1. Confessions of an Online Poker Player – Definitely one of the most buzz-worthy articles since this blog has started. Only problem being, it wasn’t written by ME! Haha…if you were around back in August, you’ll remember this was a post a friend of mine did for us so we could get a behind the scenes look on what it’s REALLY like playing poker as a living.

2. How much do you pay for car insurance? – A cool post where I explore the average costs of car insurance, along with a our own. Even more interesting though are everybody’s comments and amounts THEY pay too. Including a crazy friend of mine who blows through $1600 every 6 months!

3. The awesomest compilation of weird & crazy jobs – And also one of my very first media mentions! I asked around the internets for people’s craziest jobs they’ve done, and then combined them with mine for an all out fun & entertaining article.

4. Living the Minimalist Lifestyle – Is it possible? – This was by far one of my personal favorites of ’09 :) I remember being so in the mood to write it, and then having fun drawing up the little diagram too. I still haven’t quite mastered the minimalist lifestyle (or even to the half-way mark) but I continue to work at it a little each month and one day it’ll all come together.

5. 20 Black Friday tips on Wacky Wednesday – I thought about taking this one out since it’s seasonally focused, but after re-reading it you could really apply most of these tips to just about *any* shopping trip.

6. Net Worth Updates – This is something that’s REALLY kept me going. We don’t get a chance to talk about money so openly in our daily lives, so it’s nice (at least for me) to throw it all out here and get some real-number discussions going. It may hold me back from going un-anonymous, but I think it’s truly the piece that holds everything together. All the how-to’s and ways to save are awesome, but this is the one place where you can see whether I put my money where my mouth is – literally ;)

7. Where, oh where, does our $exy money go? – Similar to my net worth statuses, this is another post dedicated to all you voyeurs out there! haha…It’s also the one that can make you feel better if you’re not spending the roughly $6,000 a month we are. Or at least what we were last January. I’ll have to redo this again soon to see how much we’ve changed.

8. Blogger Showdown #1: J.D. Roth vs. Trent Hamm – This one surprises me….I knew the start of this series got popular, but in the Top 10? I’ll take it! It’s good to know you all enjoy these as we’re about to drop another Blogger Showdown tomorrow – woohoo!

9. Ahhhh! We can’t refinance our 1st mortgage :( – This was one of those rare times I just lost it and decided to rant…there’s not many things that get me riled up like this, but I had to let it out so I could move on ;)

10. To combine, or not to combine finances? How the married do it – I get into how the Mrs. and I handle our finances, along with some of the reasons behind it. And I’ll give you a hint – we like to keep a little independence. Or what I like to call, some “do whatever the hell you want” money!