Welcome to the 145th Carnival of Debt Reduction: Summer Solstice Edition! If this is your first time visiting Squawkfox, welcome! Check out my best stuff under Top Squawks and be sure to get free Email Updates or free RSS Updates in your reader.

Today’s theme centers around the sweet Summer Solstice, where June 20th marked the first day of summer for Northern Hemisphere dwellers. The Summer Solstice is an especially warm and wonderful time since it’s the longest day of the year in terms of daylight hours. If you live on a farm like I do, then the Solstice is a sure fire day to harvest hay.

The Summer Solstice is also a wonderful time to consider reducing your debt burden. The sun is warm, the flowers are blooming, and the day brings a promise of positivity. The bloggers in this edition have poured their hearts into helping you reduce debt, so do enjoy their wise warm summery words!

Editor’s Picks: Bumblebees

Summer sunflowers attract busy bumblebees. The sunflower is the brightest flower in my garden and attracts the hardest working bees. It takes a lot of work to reduce debt. Many would be wise to follow the flight of the bumblebee to reach the sweet goal of debt-free success. Oh Honey!

• TooSmart, a newer blogger, writes a poignant piece in Payroll Advance: Hitting Rock Bottom. If you ever wanted to know how bad payday loans can happen to good people, then give this heart-felt account a read. Find out how TooSmart is getting a handle on reducing his payday loan debt.

• Ryan Suenaga at Uncommon Cents makes perfect cents in Basics: Debt Reduction. Ryan offers a simple plan to tackle your debt burden.

• Hayden Tompkins at Persistent Illusion doesn’t want debt to diminish your life’s purpose or passion and suggests 10 Ways to Save Your Money! One of Hayden’s debt busting methods is to “try eating at Chateau du Your House!”

Beautiful Butterflies: Life Changes

Metamorphosis is a process of change. Going from indebtedness to a state of debt freedom can involve a series of steps, much like the metamorphosis of a butterfly. These bloggers are looking to make personal, emotional, and financial life changes to become debt free.

• Blunt Money does some sleuthing in Unmasking the Debt Lifestyle.
  She wants you to recognize “the extent that debt is intertwined with your life.”

• MoneyNing is not about to splurge his way towards debt in Patience Will Keep Us from Spending Unnecessary Money. It’s amazing how delaying instant gratification can keep you instantly out of debt.

• Free Money Finance outlines The Eight Warning Signs of Debt Problems and wants you to consider three of the “most violated ones.”

• PT at Prime Time Money wants you to shed sadness in 10 Reasons Why You Would Be Happier if You Were Debt Free.

• Mike Leonard at Until Debt Do Us Part wants you to avoid analysis paralysis in In Debt? Get Your Emotions Out! Get over them and get on with it! Too much worry and not enough action doesn’t help when reducing debt.

Gone Fishing: Credit Card Debt

Grab a boat and drop a lure. Fishing is a super summery activity with the promise of a midsummer’s night fishtastic feast. These bloggers wake up early, cast a line, and drop a hook hoping to make a catch. Reeling in credit card debt just takes the right bait.

• Michael Geoffrey at Debt Smackdown wants you to learn How To Make An Extra $50 Payment On Your Credit Card This Month. “Just making the minimum payments fails to help with reducing credit card debt,” he says.

• Rosalind Welch at Real Life Debt teaches her kids about credit card debt in Instead of talking to your kids about credit cards, become Visa! Rosalind gives her kids credit cards! Read the results.

Gone Biking: Paying Down Debt

Summer is a sensational time to take your bike for a spin. I’ve put thousands of miles on my bike over the summer months contemplating how to reach the debt-free finish line. Every pedal stroke and wheel revolution gets you closer in the reducing debt race. These bloggers have buns of steel and thighs of thunder. They know how to crank out the miles to finish strong by paying down their debt!

• Laura at Green Panda Treehouse is thrilled ’cause We Got Our Economic Stimulus Check! She’s paying down debt with her economic stimulus check and shows how you can reduce debt too!

• Pete at Bible Money Matters studies hard in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University: Dumping Debt. It may be summer time but Pete is looking to conquer the dreaded debt snowball!

• Ryan Healy at Debt Reduction Formula reviews his Outstanding Debt as of June 2008. Making a list and checking it twice is an awesome method for dwindling debt.

Making Hay: It’s a Bumpy Ride

Making hay is not a glamorous task. Being a former city girl I can say first hand that sitting on a tractor and mowing acres of allergy inducing hay is snot ideal. By the end of the day my a$$ is sore and my head is stuffed. Getting out of debt is sometimes like making hay - it’s a bumpy ride, but someone’s got to do it. These bloggers are trying to make the best of a debtful situation.

• Brice Hogan at Financial Zip shows you How to Radically Save Money by cutting out debt growing expenses like smoking. Giving up cigarettes may also save your life.

• Ryan Taylor at Millionaire Money Habits advocates reducing debt using financial tools with care in Mint Review - How Secure is it?

• Silicon Valley Blogger at The Digerati Life looks into The Pros and Cons of Going Into Foreclosure. “This may not be the traditional way to reduce debt, but it’s one way to resolve a debt problem,” she says.

Summer Solstice Conclusions

Reducing debt and becoming debt free is very possible. I retired my own debt over 7 years ago and have been growing my summer savings every since. If you enjoy the Summer Solstice and follow the flight of the bumblebee, go though metamorphosis like a butterfly, go fishing and use the right bait, crank out the miles like on a bike, and endure the bumpy ride as though making hay then you too can reduce debt and enjoy the sunshine!

I hope you enjoyed the 145th Carnival of Debt Reduction: Summer Solstice Edition! The next host for the Carnival of Debt Reduction will be announced soon, don’t forget to submit for next week!