Unplanned Expenses Fund

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We recently had to use up a significant chunk of our unplanned expense fund.  We had a random piece of our roof blow away and, that very same day, my husband’s car battery died. The events occurred a week and a half ago, right smack in the middle of the holiday season. This time of year, we don’t have loads of extra cash lying around. These are the types of issues that personal finance experts reference when recommending emergency funds. Just about everybody has heard of an emergency fund. We all know we are supposed to have at least three […] Read more »

Date Night With Gourmet Meal, Movie, and More for $15?!?!? #ad

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The holidays are a busy time of year, requiring much of our time, energy and money to be consumed with preparations for family gatherings, and shopping for gifts for our loved ones. With all the hustling and bustling of the season my wife and I haven’t had much “us” time. We definitely needed a date night, but with the budget tight due to holiday spending, the funds available for a date night are virtually nonexistent.  But would you believe me if I said I found a way to have a romantic date night complete with gourmet meal and a movie […] Read more »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 12/13

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Like clockwork, it happened again.  The lamp for my LCD TV (which is our family’s primary TV) blew again.  This seems to happen every year right around Christmastime.  I checked my Amazon history, and sure enough the last bulb arrived on 12/23/2012.  These things are supposed to last YEARS – however this TV is known for blowing the bulbs.  At one point they did give owners of the TVs a sum of money to go buy a new TV…but you had to know about the offer and contact them.  We found out about it long after the program had ended.  […] Read more »

My New “Celebrating Financial Freedom” Course!

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Celebrating financial freedom online get out of debt course

If you’ve been following my posts here on EOD for a while now, you may know that I offer a popular Christian get out of debt course that I’ve taught at various venues over the years. The course has always been offered in a physical version with a workbook and CD’s. I’ve been asked many times if I have the course available in an online format, and I’ve always had to say “no”. But not anymore. You Can Win Access to the Course for Free!  (Continue Reading)   You Asked, I’m Making it Happen Over the last few months, I’ve […] Read more »

Debt Free For the Holidays

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Today’s post is a guest post from Jefferson, who writes for the family finance site, See Debt Run. The site began as a place to chronicle a family’s journey out of debt, but has evolved into a place to discuss a whole spectrum of topics around family finance. They discuss everything from saving money on groceries, to how to teach your kids about money, to even how to find out if your co-workers are making more money than you. Last year at this time, my wife and I didn’t get each other anything for Christmas. We didn’t have to. We were […] Read more »

Are Your Holiday Expectations Holding You Hostage?

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Are you stressed out about the holidays? It’s hard not to get stressed out just a little bit this time of year, especially if you’re struggling with your finances. With countless gatherings to attend and gifts to buy for loved ones, this time of year can be very difficult to handle when you’ve been fighting just to pay the bills each month. I read a post recently from a fellow debt relief customer who is in just that kind of situation. She is extremely stressed out because Christmas is getting closer every day, but due to some unexpected expenses, they […] Read more »

Spending Money to Save Money – Promoting Opportunities for Success and Minimizing Risk of Failure

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For those of us focused on saving money, the idea of spending it may seem a bit uncomfortable, especially if our personal finances seem perched on or near the edge. Nevertheless, there are times when spending money now can help us save more money over the longer term. To do this, we need to hone our skills at seeing opportunities and risks; opportunities for success, and the risk of things not going as one might hope. I certainly don’t consider myself to be a pessimist, I rather think of myself as an optimist and a realist, but it seems to me that success generally takes a bit of work, whereas failure can often come along and bite us on the backside with a bit more ease. After all, it’s no effort at all to allow things to happen to us, whereas success requires that we make it happen. In the end, perhaps it’s all a matter of personal perception, but for most of us, we’re eager to welcome success while we tend to cringe at the idea of failure or setbacks. Read more »

Free Student Mobile Plan With With Sprint’s My Way Promotion

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Cell phones have become an important and convenient channel of communication, especially between parents and their children as they become increasingly active away from home.  My son got his first mobile phone about a year ago, and both my wife and I are happy he has it. A very obvious example of why occurred to me recently. Organized chaos is the best way I can describe the scene at my son’s high school as I turned onto the road that approaches the main entrance. This was a new scene for me, as my son usually rides the bus home. Today […] Read more »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 12/6

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A lot of buzz surrounds the weekend after Thanksgiving as the official start to the holiday shopping season.  We did get my daughter’s laptop last weekend, but the bulk of our shopping will be done the next two weekends.  I also see a lot of friends on facebook talk about how close to done (or not) their shopping is.  This always confuses me, because we  actually spend very little time shopping for presents.  Most of the work is done at home.  We make our list of people, the gift(s), and where to purchase them.  At that point it’s just a […] Read more »

We Doubled Our Net Worth and You Can Too!

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Note from Travis:  I’m excited to announce a new addition to TeamEOD!   Steve Stewart, who hails from his home blog of MoneyPlanSOS, will be sharing with us a dose of no-nonsense personal finance once a month.  I’ve been a HUGE fan of Steve for several years, and know that he is an excellent addition to the team.   Please give him a warm EOD Nation welcome by leaving a comment below on his debut post here on Enemy Of Debt! Despite the blame-scream media’s coverage of The Great Recession and all the bad decisions Congress has made, my wife and I […] Read more »

I Slept In On Black Friday…..and STILL Got a Door Buster Deal

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My daughter caught a case of jealousy when her brother purchased his own computer after saving up for the better part of the year. Tired of butting heads with my wife for the use of a computer that contains her SIMS computer game, she decided she wanted her own computer as well. When we started talking about how much one that would serve her needs would cost, and how long it would take her to save up for it, there were tears. A lot of tears. When you’re eleven years old, eight months is an eternity. Daddy heart melt of […] Read more »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 11/29

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Happy Black Friday, EOD Nation!  I slept in until 8:30, which is HUGE for me since I normally get up at 4:30 or 5:00am.  A good night’s sleep feels way better than spending a bunch of money on things I don’t need.  I had a house full of family yesterday and had a fantastic Thanksgiving stuffing my face with food and other goodies and watching football. Speaking of goodies, we had a $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway going on here an Enemy Of Debt the last few weeks, and it closed last night and it’s time to announce the winner: […] Read more »

Performance Check, 30 Day Financial Challenge

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It is time to check in on my 30 day financial challenges. If you have been following along, I decided to utilize the “30 day challenge” concept popular for fitness, for finance. I chose two challenges. The first challenge is something I am familiar with, the five dollar bill challenge. It is pretty simple, every time you find yourself with a five dollar bill; you put it away and do not spend it. Although November is not quite over, I have saved $25 bucks. I am a debit card kind of girl, so I don’t normally carry or transact in […] Read more »

Are You Perfect?

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Like most stereotypical males, I enjoy movies with lots of action and explosions. But I also really enjoy movies that inspire, and cause me to reflect upon the things going on within my own life. I got pulled into just such a movie one night last weekend. It’s one of my all time favorites, and I stayed up way too late to watch the ending. The movie is Friday Night Lights. Note: Before you non-football fans roll your eyes and click away, be patient for just a moment, this post has only a passing reference to football. My favorite part, […] Read more »