Why I Hate Credit Cards: Hotel Incidental Policy

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I hate credit cards with a passion. The more I walk through life trying not to use them, the more I hate them. My family and I drove to Florida late last week, which gave me the opportunity to find yet another reason to despise them. No matter how much I want to pay with cash, or at least with my debit card so the money comes immediately out of my checking account, businesses seem insistent in pushing me to use the demon plastic. As my wife and I planned our trip, we carefully budgeted our spending for each day. […] Read more »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 3/28

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Greetings from Bloomington, Illinois!  My family and I are at the end of our first day of driving down to Florida (from Minnesota) for a family Spring Break Vacation.  It’s our first vacation since we exited our DMP.  Sounds like a blog post in the making, huh? I’m sitting at the desk in our hotel room, it’s almost midnight, and the rest of my family is sleeping.  But I had to dig into all my favorite blogs and get my fist pumps ready for ya’ all.  That’s the kind of love I have for the EOD nation. Before we get […] Read more »

No Contract Cell Phone Plans Exposed! Are They Really Better?

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No contract mobile phone plans have become all the rage as of late.  I even tried one through a blogging opportunity last year and was actually quite impressed.  Apparently, no contract providers have gotten the attention of the major carriers, as they have begun to offer no contract plans of their own.  I received an email from my carrier outlining their no contract plan last Friday. We’re currently under a two year contract with ATT&T, and for my family of four plus two extended family members to all have smart phones sharing a 10GB data plan we pay $309 a […] Read more »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 3/21

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This weekend I’ve got one of my favorite neighborhood activities on tap – Poker Night!  There is a group of about 8 of us (not everyone can make it all the time) that get together once a month to play Texas Hold ‘Em.  I usually buy in with $20 worth of chips, and play until it’s gone, or until midnight whichever comes first.  Whether I win a few bucks, lose it all, or somewhere in between, it’s always a fun and inexpensive night with the guys. It’s so much fun that it makes me wanna fist pump, which coincidentally is […] 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 »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 3/14

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Happy Friday, EOD Nation – I hope your week was as great as mine! The Pizel family is doing something that we haven’t done for awhile, and it’s long overdue:  We’re all going in to get our eyes checked.    That means new glasses for Vonnie and contacts for Tristan.  Last time we went, Tori was told she no longer needed glasses, which made her very excited.  The odd thing is, just recently she dug out her old glasses and has been wearing them just for fun because she likes how she looks in them. Kind of a head scratcher, don’t […] 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 »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 3/7

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Earlier this week I signed my son up for High School Spring baseball.  First, it made me pause for a minute and think about how fast he’s growing up .  I started to think about the shenanigans I was involved in when I was 15……then I wanted to stop thinking about that, and quickly.  Second, it made me think about how when I signed up for sports in high school the process involved showing up at a meeting and getting the practice schedule.  Signing him up for baseball required a payment of $160.  Yikes.  I hope he makes the team, […] Read more »

First Budget Post Debt Management Plan: How Did Our Spending Change?

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My wife and I sat down last Friday to go over our budget and spending plan for the weekend, just like we always do.  Except this time the numbers looked very different. March is the first month in over four and a half years that we don’t have to make a payment to our debt management program.  More accurately, this is the first time in seventeen years of marriage that a significant percentage of our monthly income isn’t going towards credit card payments. That feels freakishly awesome. I made my usual income and bill statement for the month and looked […] Read more »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 2/28

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My employer announced another round of layoffs yesterday.  Thankfully I am still employed, although it did have me thinking again about how fragile our finances are.  Even though we are making strides to improve our overall financial picture, if I lost my job as a software engineer, we’d be pretty screwed. I guess all I can do is keep making those improvements, and continue to be the best engineer I can be, constantly learning and growing as I go. The whole situation has me in a bit of a funk, so my fist pumps may not be as forceful as […] Read more »

Is This The Year I Pay Someone To Do My Taxes?

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I’ve paid a tax professional to do my taxes only once.  It was the first tax season after getting married, and I wanted to make sure they were done correctly.  I remember sitting across the desk from a woman at a branch of a big name tax preparation company answering questions.  After a better part of an hour, I noticed that she wasn’t just entering the information into a form on the computer, but the software was actually prompting her which questions to ask.  I shared my observation with Vonnie on our way home, stating that I could have done […] Read more »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 2/21

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We had a major snow storm hit Minnesota (and surrounding states) yesterday, with a blizzard warning still in effect as I write this.  Ten inches of wet, heavy snow was dumped on us over the last twenty four hours.  It’s not  record breaking, but it is a major storm.  Some surrounding neighborhoods lost power, but thankfully we did not.  It’s times like this that I’m extremely thankful for a home to keep me warm and safe.   As an added positive, being stuck at home gives me time to catch up on my blog post reading, such as my favorite posts […] 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 »

I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 2/14

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Happy Valentine’s Day, EOD Nation!  I had plans in place for Valentine’s day, but yesterday Vonnie initiated a conversation saying that she didn’t want us to make a big deal out of it.  We agreed that after she got off work at 12:30 (she doesn’t work at her afternoon job on Fridays) we would simply go out to lunch at her favorite restaurant.  We haven’t been there for awhile, as it’s a little pricey, and thought it would be a nice change of pace.  Plus, since it’s lunch it likely won’t be very busy.    No complaints from me, I hope […] Read more »