Enemy of Debt: Where Behavior Meets Reality
Motivational Money Management
We are getting ready for our annual family vacation. We've been taking one family vacation a year for the last 5 years. It's a fun tradition for which we save up all year. Here are some ways we keep costs down and fun up. Drive Rock it old school family vacation style and load up the station wagon, or minivan, as the case may be. Sure, gas isn't cheap but it's way cheaper than buying a family's worth of plane tickets. Read more »
I love Thanksgiving! It's my favorite holiday. One of the reasons is that I met my husband on Thanksgiving day in 2003. I had been invited to my roommate's parents house for the holiday. While I was there I met her brother... who is now my husband. But this great holiday was my favorite even before that. I like Thanksgiving because it's low-key. There isn't a huge lead up to the holiday. You don't spend WEEKS before the actual event listening to commercials and promotions so that you are sick of the holiday before it even arrives. Read more »
I love my frugal friends. I love all my friends, of course, but I really love my frugal friends. I love sharing frugal tips and annoyances. But my favorite thing is that they don’t make me feel cheap for avoiding spending money. I was talking to a friend the other day about how to visit Disneyland on the cheap. I live in Phoenix which is a 5 hour drive to Disneyland. This friend just recently moved to Arizona from the East Coast and she’s never been. I was explaining that now that she can drive there it’s really not to [...] Read more »
My family started a new hobby this weekend and we are totally hooked! Geocaching. It’s completely free and a total blast. If you’ve never heard of geocaching it’s a world-wide treasure hunt. You can sign up for free at geocaching.com and there are lists and lists of hidden caches. (The caches are the treasures.) You can search by zip code to find ones near you. Each treasure has coordinates that you can plug into your GPS that will bring you within feet of the cache. Then you have to use your noggin. So far I’ve found three. They were an [...] Read more »
Are you planning a vacation? Everyone looks forward to going on vacation. It’s the time of the year when people can cut loose and enjoy some quality time with friends and family. However, it’s an easy mistake to make to ‘enjoy’ yourself a little too much before you realize upon your return that you’ve spent too much. Being frugal on vacation can be tricky because you don’t want to be watching every last dollar all the time and you’d much rather have a relaxing time creating memories that will last a lifetime. But you can do both and have a [...] Read more »
This is a guest post written by Ross of GoBeRich.com. Photo credit: Cliff1066 So I took a little trip to the mall the other day with my girlfriend and one of her friends. This was my first mistake. My second mistake was thinking I would tag along with them while they shopped for clothes and shoes and that it wouldn’t drive me insane. Needless to say, it did drive me insane, so eventually I set off on my own in search of something to occupy myself with. I first headed to Game Stop, as I have to admit, I’m a [...] Read more »
Photo Credit: thephotagraphymuse This is a guest post written by Pam Greene. Bob was overweight as a child. He continued to gain weight throughout his life until he weighed almost four hundred pounds. When he was in his early 60s, he caught a cold. The cold turned into pneumonia and from there his health took a deathly downward spiral. His kidneys started shutting down. He had congestive heart failure. For a week, he was on death’s door in the intensive care unit in the hospital. Doctors worked feverishly to save his life. Miraculously, they did. Bob never regained his full [...] Read more »
So many people are intimidated by the concept of managing their money. It almost seems as if the very idea that we can be in control of our money is just a made up fairytale that only a few get lucky enough to take advantage of. Many believe that wealth is out of their reach and only something the top money earners get to experience. The myth is that you have to earn a lot to build wealth. I would like to introduce you to a woman who rejected that notion. Her name is Oseola McCarty, and she is a [...] Read more »
Are you SUPER FRUGAL when it comes to everything? Maybe I shouldn’t dirty the word frugal by using it so poorly. Are you SUPER CHEAP when it comes to how you spend every single dime? If so, this post may help you reconsider your cheaper than thou ways. My example may not work for every situation, but it works if you want your nice lawn mower and weed eater to stay in good condition. Just to clarify, frugal to me, means making the best financial decision I can with my money. To get the best bang for my buck. But [...] Read more »
As we enter tax season, there are some relevant questions we should ask ourselves about our intentions concerning how we use our tax refund. If any of you are like I was, before I became the Enemy of Debt, you’ve probably spent a few tax returns before the ink even dried on the paper. Now most “good” financial advisers will tell you to change your withholding so that you are not giving the Government an interest free loan each year, but also to give yourself more of your own money each month. I actually believe the same thing, but have [...] Read more »
Well Christmas has come and gone…again! It was a good one too! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Now is usually the time when people start to come down from their Christmas buzz, and reality begins to set in. You’ve heard of buyer’s remorse right? For those who haven’t, it comes after a major purchase, or minor for some people, when you begin to regret your decision to buy whatever it was that you bought. I’ve experienced it for sure! Let’s just call this Christmas remorse shall we? Christmas remorse?? It almost sounds like a bad word. Who [...] Read more »
Hello and welcome to Enemy of Debt! I founded EOD in April of 2008 in an effort to motivate and inspire financial discipline by focusing on behavior and truth. By teaching personal responsibility, debt free principles, and the importance of planning people can learn how to take control of their finances one step at a time. I want to help! :)
My journey to debt freedom and financial independence began in January of 2008. We became sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck and were finally mad enough to take action. At that time, we did not have any savings, knew very little about budgeting and were buried under $26,076.75 of debt.
In the first two months we were able to throw together our very first emergency fund ever of $2,000. It took us only 18 more months to eliminate the retched debt from our lives and I can proudly say we never plan to borrow another dime ever again, for any reason.Read more
