Should You Buy Points to Lower Your Mortgage Rate?

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With interest rates at the lowest they’ve been in most of our adult lives it’s a pretty tempting time to buy or refinance your mortgage. One option you often have when negotiating a home loan is whether or not to buy points. What are points? Points are basically pre-paid interest. You will pay 1% of the loan amount to bring down the rate by .125%. So if you are financing $150,000 you will pay $1,500 for one point. The lower your interest rate the lower your payment will be and you will pay the less interest over the course of […] Read more »

Debt is Not the Answer

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A few weeks ago on my site I talked about my husband's estimated dental bill. We had saved up for a year to get ready for this upcoming bill. However the estimated bill was quite more than I expected. It was more than my wildest dreams. $33,000. Needless to say that is more than we can afford right now. Maybe ever. I was talking to someone who will remain nameless about this situation. I was explaining how that's just a crazy amount of money and that there's no way we can possibly afford that. I was saying that we are going to spend $3,000 this year and then see where we stand. How we can only do what we can do. I mean, really what else can be done? We are going to have to just do it little by little over time. He might have to go without getting every single thing that needs to be done. I hate it, but I mean what else can we do except our best? "Can't you take out a loan?" they said. I was so shocked! Especially since this person knows me very well. Me? A loan? I didn't know what to say? Read more »

Do You Have Frugal Friends?

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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 »

Frugal Fun: Geocaching

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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 »

The Debt Snowball Calculator

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If you are trying to get out of debt and you’re savvy enough to be reading personal finance blogs then you’ve probably heard of “The Debt Snowball“.  I’m sure Brad has you all well aware it. If not, I’ll explain it really quickly. A debt snowball is when you line up all your debts and the organize them from smallest balance to largest balance. You make the minimum payments on all debts except the one with the smallest balance. On the debt with the smallest balance you pay the minimum payment plus every single extra dollar you can get your hands […] Read more »

Hello Enemy of Debt Readers

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Hello Enemy of Debt readers!! I’m so excited to be a contributor of this site. I’m really looking forward to getting to know all of you. So I thought I’d start off by telling you a little about myself. My name is Ashley. I’m a work-at-home mother of two. My littlest one is starting Kindergarten this year, which when that happens it will be the first time in 10 years that I don’t have a kid at home with me. I’m kinda freaking out about that. I better see my productivity go through the roof! If not, I’ll have no […] Read more »