I’m Not Spending a Penny On My Wife For Christmas, and She’s Going To Love It

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I’m not spending a penny on my wife for Christmas this year, and she’s going to absolutely be thrilled about it. With the holidays approaching, conversations of gift ideas are being had between spouses, family members and friends. My wife and I were having a discussion about tasks that needed to be done yet to prepare for hosting Thanksgiving at our home. She got a little off topic, listing other less Thanksgiving critical tasks she wanted to have done. Sensing I was about to go into my usual speech about prioritization and doing only the things absolutely needing completion by […] Read more »

Applying Agile Principles To Your Finances

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I spent three days last week in a workshop learning advanced concepts of the Agile Methodology. If you’re in software or project management you may have heard of Agile as a methodology in which the requirements to achieve a goal are constantly reevaluated, and course corrections made through incremental and iterative work segments. One of the workshop facilitators stated that she found Agile practices spilling over into her personal life.  As she made that statement, I could feel my eyes roll back into my head. The thought that a project management technique used for complex software development being applied to […] Read more »

Marriage And Finances: Compromise and Delayed Gratification

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My wife is coordinating a ladies night out to take place mid-November. The original plan was for the group of women to start at our home, have dinner at a nearby restaurant, then head downtown to an art activities place to paint and drink wine. Since there will likely be alcohol involved, there was some discussion about safe transportation. My wife began investigating the option of renting a party bus. After talking to several party bus companies and comparing services, options, and prices she gravitated towards one specific services. Even the cheapest service was rather expensive, but my wife was […] Read more »

The Inner Workings of Married People Dates: Coupons, Frugality, and Stealing My Wife’s Roast Beef

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It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and my wife and I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with just each other. We were able to have our first Friday lunch date of the school year last week, but we decided to take advantage of the fact that we had nothing going on this past weekend and have a date night on Friday as well. Our destination was a recently remodeled bowling alley nearby that advertised having bowling lanes, a game room, and laser tag. As I slid into my mini-van seat, I realized I had forgotten something. […] Read more »

Having Money Doesn’t Guarantee A Happy Marriage

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My wife and I have had our share of arguments about money. Especially during the four and a half years that we were paying down our credit card debt and our budget was extremely tight. Like many people, I would frequently think about how much happier I would be if we had more money. It’s hard not to agree with the thought that money could buy happiness now that we have a significant amount of extra funds given we no longer have a huge debt payment each month. I admit that our marriage and life in general seems much easier […] Read more »

Financial Literacy: Communication and Teamwork Are Vital to Success

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  Preface:  Today I’m taking part in the Financial Literacy Awareness Carnival hosted by Shannon at The Heavy Purse.  Once you’ve finished here, click here and check out the list of other great posts by my fellow bloggers also participating in the carnival! Sitting in a chair facing a filled to capacity movie theater, the question that popped into my head was, “How did I get here?” I was one of three customers invited to the headquarters of CareOne Debt Relief Services in Maryland in September of 2012. They were holding an employee recognition event, and wanted to have a […] Read more »

Build Your Budget Foundation

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The foundation of a couple being successful with their finances requires a clearly defined method of budgeting, and frequent, open, and honest communication between the two people involved. Do you have this foundation? Vonnie and I didn’t for the first thirteen years of our marriage. Our budget, and I use that term extremely loosely, consisted of a piece of paper that listed about half of our monthly bills that I folded up and stored in the back of my checkbook folder. Our communication about our finances was non-existent, so it was no wonder that our finances failed miserably. Building a […] Read more »

The Magic Bullet To Combining Finances Successfully

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I knew the minute I finished the sentence that someone would comment on it, and I was right.  In my post last week describing an afternoon at a food and wine event I mentioned that I bought two bottles of BBQ sauce, but not before checking in with my wife first. I wanted my wife’s approval before buying $12 of BBQ sauce. I didn’t expect her to disapprove of the purchase.  As the commenter articulated, it was simply an act of respect.  We are a quad income family (we each have two sources of income), but we choose to combine […] Read more »

A Very Special Valentine’s Day Lesson Taught By My Daughter

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Introduction:  A few days before Valentine’s Day my daughter, Tori, came to me with an idea she had for a gift for Vonnie and me for Valentine’s Day.  I could tell that this meant a lot to her, and her sincerity and creativity impressed me so much that I knew I had to help her make it happen.   Tori has written for Enemy of Debt once before, and did a wonderful job, so I asked her if she would write about the experience to share here.   Please welcome back my daughter for a very special guest post: It was only […] Read more »

Paying Off Debt Will ROCK My Marriage

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“Should we stop and get the ladies flowers?” suggested the friend I was car pooling with as we pulled into town. The beaming smile on her face told me that Vonnie was very appreciative of the bouquet of flowers I brought her after being out of town for a few days. Relationships are hard work. You need to show your love and appreciation on a daily basis, as well as put their needs before your own. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. These are things I do willingly and joyfully without even thinking about them. When you love someone, […] 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 »

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 »

How Does It Feel to Pay Off $100,000 of Debt?

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Last Thursday we made the October payment to our debt management plan. After hanging up the phone, I leaned back in the chair to let the gravity of the payment sink in. To be honest with you, my bottom lip trembled a little bit as tears started to form in the corners of my closed eyelids. With our 52nd payment, the amount of debt that we have repaid through our debt management program has hit the mark of $100,000. Sitting in a conference room at work with the door closed, I couldn’t quite figure out the exact reason behind my […] Read more »

What the Check Engine Light Taught Me about Myself, My Finances, and My Relationship With My Wife

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“I’m not happy with you, by the way,” Vonnie stated in a matter of fact tone. “You can’t keep things from me like that. You know that.” Driving north through Iowa on our way home from St. Louis, the check engine light remained illuminated on the dashboard of our rental car, reminding me of my mistake. It started a few days earlier during our 4 day trip to St. Louis when we had asked the valet at our hotel to retrieve our rental car so we could get some paperwork out of the car. I sat down in the drivers […] Read more »