For the past few years, I have sworn off Black Friday. However, I may….repeat MAY brave the Black Friday crowds this year for a very special gift. Jealous of her brother’s new computer, my daughter wants her own laptop. A laptop clocks in at way more than what we would budget for a Christmas present, so we made a deal with her. If she pays for half, we would pitch in the rest as her main Christmas gift. If I can find a laptop for a killer price on Black Friday, I could potentially make a run at it. I […] Read more »
Save Money Using Chippmunk + $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway!
We’re a week away from the official start of the busiest shopping season of the year. Who wants to save some money? Today I’ve got not one, but TWO ways to help you save money during this year’s holiday shopping season. First, I want to introduce you to a new coupon site called Chippmunk. Chippmunk is super cool because it’s an aggregate savings search engine. Whoah, back up, let’s try that again in plain English. It simply means Chippmunk scours the internet for the best deals so you don’t have to. I was playing around with it today and it […] Read more »
Credit Card Companies Think You’re Stupid
Over the weekend I saw a credit card commercial that had me shaking my head. In the commercial, two woman are having lunch at an outdoor restaurant when one woman suggests the others’ friends are simply inviting her to events so they can pay with their credit card and earn credit card rewards points. When the bill comes, woman #1 whips out her credit card and offers to pay. The commercial ends with the two staring at each other, one wondering if she is being used, the other hoping her friend won’t figure it out. Seriously, do credit card companies […] Read more »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 11/15
Friday baby, YEAH! It’s payday and our emergency fund is up…unfortunately so is my weight. I can’t out exercise bad eating habits, I need to remember that. We don’t have any big plans for the weekend, which feels great. I do, however, plan to punish myself for the weight gain with some ass kicking workouts. Maybe I’ll even throw something on the smoker – wait, what’s that about eating better? What do you have going on this weekend? Posts That Make Me Fist Pump Failing To Plan Ahead Destroys Budgets from Frugaling Your credit card is NOT your emergency fund […] Read more »
Warning: The Long Term Effects of Debt Will SHOCK You
Before we enrolled in our debt management plan, many of our credit cards had very high interest rates, some as high as 29.99%. We were making very little progress on the actual balance of our accounts, our payments going mostly to line the pockets of the credit card companies. I know I’ve paid an insane amount of interest to creditors because of our overspending. With the finish line of our debt management plan in sight, I wondered how different my financial picture would look if I had invested that money instead. What I discovered SHOCKED me. Ground Rules First let’s […] Read more »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 11/08
Posts That Make Me Fist Pump What is the Key to Success When Paying off Debt? from Frugal Rules Personal Finance Lessons I Wish I’d Been Taught in School from Blonde on a Budget Debt Payoff Hangover from Budget And the Beach via Debt And The Girl Screw ‘em: Doing What’s Best for You in Your Debt Payoff Journey from The Frugal Farmer How to Flip the Switch and Develop a Budget Mindset from The Heavy Purse Shameless Self Promotion Residual Interest; Why Your Last Payment to a Creditor May Not Close Your Account is my post this week in […] Read more »
How Does It Feel to Pay Off $100,000 of Debt?
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 »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 11/01
It’s accountability Friday, my friends. In last Friday’s roundup I mentioned my desire to have an emergency fund and NOT touch it. In Monday’s post I declared it’s time for me to finally MAN UP and DO IT. Today is the first day of the month which marks the beginning of a new bi-monthly budget cycle for the Pizels. As specified in the post earlier this week, as part of our bill paying / spending plan activity, $100 has been placed into our savings account to begin my challenge to have a $1000 emergency fund by February 28th. Each Friday […] Read more »
Emergency Fund: Time To “Man Up”
I dreamt about finances on Friday night, which was odd for me because my dreams typically revolve around a very different subject matter. I’m almost positive the source of my dream was my increasingly frequent thoughts about the status of our emergency fund, and the fact I mentioned them in my roundup post last Friday. In my dream Vonnie and I were talking to a financial planner who was telling us the same thing I stated in my post on Friday. Each budget period we should set aside a fixed amount of money into our emergency fund and not touch […] Read more »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 10/25
I read quite a few posts this week about emergency funds, one of which gets a fist pump below. It made me think a lot about our emergency fund situation. We build it up a little bit, and then we use it – and not necessarily for an emergency. An emergency fund is the first baby step towards financial freedom. It gives a person the ability to handle those nasty unexpected breakdowns of water heaters and cars and whatever else without affecting your base budget of food, clothes and the necessites of life. But it also provides peace of mind […] Read more »
What the Check Engine Light Taught Me about Myself, My Finances, and My Relationship With My Wife
“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 »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 10/18
It’s Friday, and this post is coming at you courtesy of a cram writing session between sessions at the Financial Blogger Conference in St. Louis! The question you might ask yourself is, “Do Personal Finance Bloggers try to save money even when they’re at a conference?” I think the fact that we crammed so many of us into a taxi van that we were sitting on each others laps just to save a few bucks answers that question. 🙂 Enjoy your weekend! Posts That Make Me Fist Pump What’s Busting Your Budget? from Boomer and Echo Message Monday – Credit […] Read more »
Paying Off Debt With Gazelle Intensity Isn’t Enough
I’ve seen it happen to friends and family. It’s even happened to me. A person loses a large amount of weight very quickly through the use of a very restrictive diet. Unfortunately, as time passes the weight begins to return because the restrictive diet is abandoned. The question commonly asked is why would a person who had so much weight loss success just give up and go back to their old habits, reversing all their progress? To me, the answer is simple: being on a restrictive diet is not real life. Such a program teaches people one thing, to unconditionally […] Read more »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 10/11
Last Sunday, I ran the Twin Cities 10 mile race. It was a beautiful morning, with the temperature in the low 40’s at start time. I also spent a few hours walking through the health and fitness expo on Saturday held at the Excel Energy center coinciding with race packet pickup. I just felt like I was right where I was supposed to be, like I belonged there. Runners are such an incredible group of people that strive to do their very best, while supporting their fellow runners at the same time. I ran the 10 mile course in 1:27:09, […] Read more »