The $100 Extra Income Challenge

Written by on · 25 Comments

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you’ve already thought about what you want to accomplish in 2012 with your finances. Are you going to get out of debt in 2012? Regardless of what your financial goals are for this year I want to kick things off with a challenge. When it comes to managing money successfully people have more excuses than they have solutions. Whether it be saving for a rainy day, paying off debt or building retirement there’s always an excuse as to why we can’t do this or that. Usually those excuses have to do with income so […] Read more »

End of the Year Inspiration for a Successful 2012

Written by on · 3 Comments

Generally I publish an end of year glance at the passing year as well as offer up my goals for the new year. Today I’m going to do something different. If you are looking for a great year in review post Ashley shared her goals for 2012 a few days ago. I didn’t want to be redundant so I wanted to add to what she put together by inspiring you to really think about what you want your 2012 to look like. This inspiration is as much for me as it is for you, because let’s face it, most of […] Read more »

Living the Life We Want Because of Debt Freedom

Written by on · 10 Comments

I have a sneaky suspicion that most people underestimate the power of debt freedom. The benefits of paying your debt off are enormous. The changes we have been able to make because of our debt freedom have been both surprising and very exciting. It was surprising because although I knew getting out of debt would be awesome and beneficial I hardly expected for it to change our lives the way it has. We recently began looking at how we could further mold our life into one that best fits our wants and desires. That’s the inspiration for me finally writing […] Read more »

Christmas Stimulus Winners and My Top 15 Most Favorite Resolutions

Written by on · Leave a Comment

Another Christmas Stimulus in the books! 🙂 Something else that I noticed was that we have lots and lots of weddings in 2012! Congratulations to all of you either getting married or that have a child getting married! Lots of love in 2012! 😀 I can’t tell you just how much I enjoyed reading all of your financial resolutions for 2012! Some of you even helped me add a couple more to my list!I liked them so much in fact that I decided to share my 15 most favorite resolutions! Not only that I decided to choose my favorite resolution […] Read more »

12 Months of Christmas Debt (The Song)

Written by on · 7 Comments

On the first day of Christmas my habits gave to me: One Empty Wallet On the second day of Christmas my habits gave to me: Two-hundred Sales And one empty wallet. On the third day of Christmas my habits gave to me: Three Reasons to Shop Two-hundred Sales And One Empty Wallet. On the fourth day of Christmas my habits gave to me: Four Credit Offers Three Reasons to Shop Two-hundred Sales and One Empty Wallet. On the fifth day of Christmas my habits gave to me: Five New Credit Cards Four Credit Offers Three Reasons to Shop Two-hundred Sales […] Read more »

Brad & J’s 2011 $300 Christmas Stimulus

Written by on · 192 Comments

Guess who’s back with my very favorite giveaway of the year? Remember back in 2009 & 2010 when J Money from Budgets Are Sexy and Enemy of Debt joined forces to bring you our Christmas Stimulus Giveaway. Well we’re here for a third year in a row with $300 worth of cash money to give away to our favorite people — YOU THE READER! That’s right, this is when we dig into our own pockets to show our appreciation for all of you! No sponsors here, just two guys who enjoy what we do and want to say THANK YOU […] Read more »

No Restaurants in November 2011 – Final Results

Written by on · 22 Comments

Hello everyone. First let me apologize to you all for the delay in getting this post up. Last week was a beast of a week and Friday was probably the most insane day of them all. My wife went back to work after 3 great months of maternity leave. 🙁 We did learn some things and feel very blessed to have been able to share that time together. For starters it inspired and motivated us to develop a plan to bring my wife home so we’re both stay-at-home parents. My wife is a great nurse and loves her job but […] Read more »

No Restaurants in November 2011 Update and a New Challenge

Written by on · 18 Comments

Well the month has almost come and gone and I cant say I’ve really missed going out to eat all that much. For the most part it has given our family extra time in the kitchen to bond. My wife and I have tag teamed the meals as well as taken turns cooking meals individually. When it’s time to do dishes Isaac has enthusiastically helped clear the table and load the dishwasher. So we have saved money but also created a fine little helper in the process. Isaac helped in more ways than one too. We really only had a […] Read more »

The Worst Day of my Entire Life

Written by on · 21 Comments

As I sat on the park bench watching other families laugh and play, I couldn’t help but feel resentment. That was supposed to be me and my family, but recent events would clearly make that impossible. How could my wife do this to me? What did she do? Only the worst thing a wife could do to her passionate husband dedicated to ridding the world of debt that’s all. I checked the mail and found out that my wife racked up almost $2,000 on a credit card she had been hiding from me for over a year. Imagine the look on my face – THE Enemy of Debt – as I peeled open the envelope to reveal such news. We’ve been through so much together financially and I thought we were on the same team. It was only four years ago that we pledged to eradicate our debt together once and for all. At that time we were like everyone else -- broke, living paycheck to paycheck, and seriously on edge about our finances. Read more »

19 Important Questions to Ask Yourself When Shopping on Black Friday

Written by on · 3 Comments

Hello all! Are you ready for Thanksgiving? If you’ve been a reader for more than a year you probably know I hate Black Friday. There are many reasons for this and I won’t go into it again but I really have a problem with what the Christmas season has become. Really what we have let it become but I digress. Gobble up your turkey and say bye to your family because you have early sales to hit up! (Yes, this is sarcasm.) This year I wanted to provide a checklist of questions to ask yourself to make sure you are […] Read more »

The $500 Winner in the Kill Your Debt Giveaway is…

Written by on · 3 Comments

3 loooooooong weeks ago I posted the Kill Off Your Debt $500 giveaway. Hopefully you entered to win! If not, keep your eyes peeled open for my next giveaway in December. Then I will be co-hosting the 3rd annual Brad & J’s Christmas Stimulus 2011, where we show our appreciation for all of you. The giveaway went great and it was really fun to read all of the great things you would do once you’re debt free. Thank you all for participating!! After 533 entries — including 19 blog post entries and approximately 144 tweets — a winner has been […] Read more »

Vote for my Article in the Impulse Save Turkey Talks Writing Contest!

Written by on · Leave a Comment

I entered a writing contest over at Impulse Save. The rules were simple. Write about my financial journey — the good, the bad, or the ugly — and then share why I’m thankful for where I am today. I’ve told my story so many times in so many places so I decided to try and be a little more creative telling it this time around.I would absolutely love to hear if you loved it or hated it — all opinions are welcome! 😀 I hope you like it ENJOY! Read this excerpt: As I sat on the park bench watching […] Read more »

Last Chance at Winning $500

Written by on · Leave a Comment

Today is your very last chance to enter this giveaway. Comments will be closed at midnight tonight! Click the banner and read the instructions to make sure your entry counts! P.S. I have really enjoyed reading the comments to see all of the different things you would do if you were debt free. The point was to get you to dream about all the things you would do but I hope it doesn’t stop there. I hope you all make those dreams a reality! Good Luck! 😀 Read more »

No Restaurants in November 2011 – Do You Have a Checklist?

Written by on · 21 Comments

Hello guys and gals! So here we are two weeks after starting my “insane” challenge of avoiding restaurants for the entire month of November. I’m excited to see where each of you are and how you’ve managed to do so far. It’s been fun no? LOL I have done perfectly so far but surprisingly had a hard time last week. It wasn’t even because I “wanted” to eat out. It was more of what I referred to in my last post where I talked about not planning meals and being out and about around meal time. Needless to say I […] Read more »