Debt Snowball Method: Highest Interest Vs Lowest Balance

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Photo Credit: walknboston Are you looking to pay your debt off by using the debt snowball method? In the personal finance world there are differing opinions as to which way to do this. It’s the great debate. Do you pay off the lowest balance first or start with the lowest interest rate? Personally, I believe that the debt snowball method you choose completely depends on your specific situation and attitude about your debt. If you need that extra push to stay motivated, it might be better for you to pay the debt with the lowest balance first. Psychologically, you will […] Read more »

Final Results: No Restaurants Equal Big Savings

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Photo Credit: scott.eyre Well November has come and gone! As most of you already know, I wanted to challenge myself — and you — to commit to not eating out at any restaurants at all for the month of November. So I started the No Restaurants in November Challenge. Some were excited, some were pessimistic, and some even questioned the reality of doing such a thing. While I definitely consider it to be more realistic than some claim, I still see how different lifestyles could make it more difficult for someone to accomplish this. With that said, I say anything […] Read more »

5 DIY Ideas Not Worth Doing Yourself

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This is a guest post written by Isabella York. When we moved into our current house, the ugly and ripped linoleum in the kitchen immediately jumped out at me as an item that just had to go. I have no idea how old it was, but it had obviously seen decades of foot traffic, kitchen spills and dirt. Every morning I would make my morning coffee and look at the ugly linoleum floor that was just begging to be replaced. I’ve always been my own handy person. It just didn’t seem to make sense to pay someone to do a […] Read more »

TEST POST: Feed Summary to Full Text

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As many of you know, and some have even complained about, Enemy of Debt’s feed publishes the summary and not the full text. I know this has been a pain and I want to thank all of you for your continued patience as I have struggled to fix this problem. I may have good news! This post will either confirm that or leave me clueless as to why my feed is showing as a summary. I have tried everything possible. According to WordPress it should publish full text. According to the options I know about on feedburner, it is supposed […] Read more »

10 Reasons to Avoid Shopping on Black Friday

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Photo Credit: denipet If there’s something I hate worse than debt when it comes to money, it’s a frenzied shopping spree instigated by the companies to give you a false sense of savings. That’s right I said it. I HATE Black Friday and all that it stands for! I can think of 100,000 better uses of my time as well as my money than camping out in tents the night before the doors open, and then participating in the human version of Running of the Bulls. People need an excuse to spend money and the stores have given them Black […] Read more »

22 Days of No Restaurants in November

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Photo Credit: Eboli The “Normal” Justification Routine Cue Dream Sequence I’ve been up since 6 a.m. My 1 year old had a rough night due to teething and the day has not been much better. I completed some of the work I needed to do for today but there is so much more to do. I couldn’t keep the kids inside all day while I typed away and it was such a nice day so I took them out to play at the park. We played Frisbee, Downhill Racer, played at the park, then went home and helped Isaac work […] Read more »

Debt Free News From A Debt Free Reader #18

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If you act responsibly and understand that it's up to you to secure your own future, you can have the fun you want without all the stress that comes with running up debt to do so! I recently met some folks who were down on their luck, but it wasn't their luck that was keeping them down, it was their attitude about their situation that was doing the most damage. They seemed to have given up and were ready to accept that life would always be this way for them. NOT TRUE! Don't believe that for one second if you find yourself in similar circumstances. Read more »

Shocking News: Two Weeks of No Restaurants and I’m Still Alive

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Two weeks without a single bite at a restaurant…Yippeee! No delivery. No fast food. No buffets. To be honest with you, this has been much easier than I expected. The rest of this month is going to be even easier. At this point I am wondering why something like this would be considered extreme and unrealistic to so many. Hard maybe, but extreme? Come on. Is making yourself exercise extreme? Is eating right extreme? I think not, although I admit that there is a degree of difficulty in doing any of the above. 😉 Still I find that it’s no […] Read more »

Being Financially Responsible Means You’re a Lame, Dorky, Geek?

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Hi, my name is Brad Chaffee, and I am a lame, dorky, geek! The new Toyota Highlander commercial really gets under my skin. Have you seen it? Not only are they trying to make anyone who doesn’t drive a “cool” new car feel like losers, but they’re using a kid to do it. Some may see this as “just a commercial”, but let me remind those naive enough to believe that these commercials are powerless of something. There’s a reason why they spend TONS OF MONEY to air them. THEY WORK! I know that for the families that feel it […] Read more »

Bloggers: The Frugal Premium WordPress Theme is 30% Off!

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For some, this review won’t mean much, but to those of you who operate a blog, this premium WordPress theme is absolutely awesome. Not only is it the most comprehensive, user-friendly theme for WordPress I have found, it was developed by Eric Hamm of Charlottesville. (where I live) Anyone familiar with WordPress, knows that the theme you choose is absolutely key. Some themes do this, some themes do that, and if you want them to do anything special you have to know css and php code, and where to insert it to make it happen. Learning code is the equivalent […] Read more »

No Restaurant November Update and October Confession

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Photo Credit: Yours Truly It was really fun reading the reactions from people related to this challenge. (responses on other blogs listed below) Until I started reading them I never really considered what I was proposing to be extreme, but apparently it is the equivalent of dangling your child over a balcony. Some adamantly opposed the idea right away, while others admitted it was something they would like to do, but just couldn’t. The rest said let’s do it! That’s what I’m talking about baby! I left a comment on Budgets Are Sexy suggesting that to those who said it […] Read more »

Debt Free News From A Debt Free Reader #17

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Welcome to another Debt Free Friday! I absolutely love doing this series! I hope it inspires you or someone you know to eliminate some debt. Today’s debt free story comes from a friend of mine, and one of the very first Canadian blogs I ever started reading. He has excellent advice that apply to Canadians but also great personal finance advice in general. We may disagree on the issue of “good debt vs bad debt”, but that’s small potatoes if you ask me. 🙂 “Tom Drake is the owner and head writer of Canadian Finance Blog. Tom has paid off […] Read more »

A Blogger’s Dream to Help Others is Coming True

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Howdy folks! Welcome to day two of my No Restaurants in November Challenge! (Have you taken the plunge yet? Join me and many others!) One of the many reasons there could be for wanting to save a little money — the topic for today’s post is definitely one of them. Giving….. Do you do enough of it? We don’t. Don’t misunderstand. We do give, but it’s not nearly as much as we want to give. When I think of all the orphans, widow’s, single mothers and the poor and unfortunate others out there, I know that what I do is […] Read more »

No Restaurants in November Challenge

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Is your budget brutally pounded by your inability to stay away from the restaurants? Of all the things my wife and I have changed about our financial habits, dining out seems to be our current addiction of addictions. We did fine while we were jazzed and intense about getting out of debt, but ever since, we have been haunted by this ghost of convenience. Read more »