I didn’t lose any weight this week, but I didn’t gain either. Not bad for a week that featured New Year’s Eve AND my 40th birthday. I have some added incentive and motivation now, however. I’ve teamed up with another blogger in a bit of a weight loss competition. He’s going to announce on his blog tomorrow, so I’ll let him go first – then I’ll give more details next week and we’ll do some cross linking. I’m sure you’ll all cheer me on to victory! Time to get down to our Friday business. The new year is off to […] Read more »
My New Decade Resolution: Paying Off My Mortgage Early
As another year comes to a close, people will reflect upon their successes and failures of the past year. They will also look forward to 2014 and set goals for what they hope to accomplish in the new year. Having turned 40 over the weekend, I’m taking a bigger picture approach. I started reflecting on my life in terms of decades. I spent my entire twenties and half of my thirties being financially irresponsible racking up $109,000 of credit card debt. The second half of my thirties was spent recovering, paying off that debt through the help of a debt […] Read more »
I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 12/27
Well, it’s finally arrived. Tomorrow is my birthday. My 40th birthday. The 40th birthday is traditionally when a person gets all that “over the hill” bullshit. The thing is, I don’t feel old. I’m in great physical shape, I like to have my fun, AND we’re just over two months away from being done with our debt management program. My 40th year on earth will be a new beginning, a new chapter of my life free from the shackles of debt and poor spending habits. For me, life really does begin at 40. Now, let’s get down to business. Get […] Read more »
Why Cash Only Weekend Spending ROCKS!
Hearing colorful language coming from our home office, my wife stormed in to find out what was going on. I was reconciling our checking account, and even though it had only been a few days since I had last done it, I couldn’t make the numbers come out right. Between Christmas shopping, and being out of town for extended family gatherings quite a few transactions had posted, and I was obviously making a mistake somewhere. The arithmetic error was quickly found and fixed, but in the process I found something that could not be corrected as easily. We had spent […] Read more »
I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 12/20
We’re leaving town for the weekend for our usual holiday tour of Minnesota, but will be back home for Christmas Eve and Day. We’re getting together with our neighbors for Christmas Eve dinner, and have planned something special. We’re all chipping in and having prime rib and king crab legs. I’ve never made prime rib, so I’m looking forward to the challenge. It’s going to cost each family a bit of funds, but it’s going to be an awesome meal, and Christmas Eve is a special occasion. This is the sort of splurging that I can get into. The only […] Read more »
Date Night With Gourmet Meal, Movie, and More for $15?!?!? #ad
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
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 »
Debt Free For the Holidays
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?
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 »
Free Student Mobile Plan With With Sprint’s My Way Promotion
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
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 »
I Slept In On Black Friday…..and STILL Got a Door Buster Deal
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
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 »
Are You Perfect?
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 »