My New “Celebrating Financial Freedom” Course!

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Celebrating financial freedom online get out of debt course

If you’ve been following my posts here on EOD for a while now, you may know that I offer a popular Christian get out of debt course that I’ve taught at various venues over the years. The course has always been offered in a physical version with a workbook and CD’s. I’ve been asked many times if I have the course available in an online format, and I’ve always had to say “no”. But not anymore. You Can Win Access to the Course for Free!  (Continue Reading)   You Asked, I’m Making it Happen Over the last few months, I’ve […] Read more »

Getting the Average American Out of Debt

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[Guest author today, Graham from MoneyStepper.com] Getting out of debt isn’t easy. But, as many inspirations in the personal finance blogosphere have proven, it’s achievable. And when it is achieved, boy does it feel good!! We see hundreds of figures every year on “The Average American” and that they are in a position of debt like never seen before. Well, today, we are going to get this average American, let’s call him Tay (“The Average Yank”), out of debt for good in under 3 years, with relative ease! The Average American’s figures To help Tay, we need to know a […] Read more »

Credit Card Companies Think You’re Stupid

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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 »

Challenge Accepted!

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So in my last blog I challenged everyone to come up with a financial savings strategy that I could execute as a 30 day financial challenge in November. So I chose two to try this month…I know such an over achiever.  I am trying Ali’s suggestion from the comments, to take the equivalent amount spent on non-essential items and place in a savings jar. I am also going rogue and trying an idea that I did last year and putting every single five dollar bill in a savings jar. With six days into the month I have saved $10.00 from […] Read more »

Waiting For An Emergency Will Cost You Money

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I looked down at the dashboard and noticed all the lights on the dash were flickering. Suddenly the radio cut out, and turned back on. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest when it happened a second time. When the radio came back on again, it was accompanied by a “ding” and several warning lights on the dash board which remained illuminated. Not exactly something you want to happen while driving in rush hour traffic. We carefully drove to my brother-in-law’s house, as we discussed our course of action. We knew the battery was due to be replaced, […] Read more »

Earned an A+ in fun and a C- for my Budget: Vacation Report Card

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I am back from vacation. This trip was perfect; from the house we rented to the weather, everything about this trip gets an A+. My family has not had many opportunities to spend quality time together being spread out across the country.  I know that my brothers feel the same way I do about how amazing this experience was for all of our children and it was pretty awesome for my Mom too. BUT Our vacation budget took a bit of a beating.  Although we did not completely break the bank, there were several key lapses in judgment where spending […] Read more »

5 Personal Finances Blogs I Recommend to Our Customers

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In my role as Social Media Manager, I wind up conversing with all kinds of people looking for information about debt. Some of these folks have already enrolled in CareOne debt relief plans; some are just looking for resources to do it on their own. I like to send a variety of resources to people to help them find their way with personal finance.  Although we have a ton of proprietary resources available through CareOne, I have found that the personal finance blogging community provides a constant stream of new content that can make the whole debt thing feel less […] Read more »

Ostriches and Finances Don’t Mix

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An Ostrich is a large, flightless bird native to Africa which many people believe will bury it’s head in the sand when it senses danger. As the story goes, the ostrich thinks that it is completely safe if it cannot see the pending threat. It hopes that when it finally raises it’s head back above the ground, the threat will be gone, and everything would be ok.  Not very intelligent. Yet in the past I’d insist upon doing the exact same thing with my finances. I wouldn’t pay attention to how much I was spending, completely ignoring financial danger. I […] Read more »

This is Why Your Budget Isn’t Working

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how do you budget

  A few months ago, I wrote a few articles about how to budget.  But only recently, I realized that there was something I left out of those articles. I discovered that when I speak to people about their finances and how to make a budget, there is inevitable that person that tells me, “I tried to do a budget, but it just didn’t work for me”. When they express that to me, they seriously believe that doing a written budget just doesn’t work and that there has to be a better way of doing things.  But there is one […] Read more »

“No More Frivolous Spending!”

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I have a confession to make…It’s been over a year since I tracked my household’s expenses. Yes I know better, yes that is horrible, and yes unfortunately, it’s the truth. My boyfriend and I have been living together for about a year and a half. Prior to his “moving in” we tracked both of our expenses and built a household budget that was fair and worked for both of us. We haven’t looked at it since. In fact, I pay all of our household bills and manage the finances for his business. He has NO idea where his money is […] Read more »

Done Living Paycheck to Paycheck? It’s Up to Us!

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Vonnie and I had made quick work of reviewing and revising our spending plan for the remainder of the month, so we started work on our finances for the first half of November. “I think we should put something in savings,” she said. I was caught off guard and surprised when Vonnie said these words. Not because she said them, but because I knew it was possible. For so many years, it has been so different. We’ve been living paycheck to paycheck for our entire marriage, and up until we enrolled in our debt management plan we supplemented our income […] Read more »

I Dare You to Move

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I just finished moving for the fifth time in five years. Not only is moving not fun, it’s expensive! I have moved for various reasons over this time frame, divorce, a brief second marriage and a crazy landlord. People move for many other reasons, a change in jobs, to be closer to family, the list goes on and on. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 17 percent of the U.S. population moves each year. The reality is moving is just part of life’s adventures and whether you do it once in your life or twenty times there are ways you […] Read more »

It Takes Two To Make a Budget Succeed

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Couples argue. Vonnie and I are no different. After a week vacation in Kentucky and the following weekend out of town for my class reunion, we needed to do a serious budget scrub. I knew we had exceeded our original budget for both activities, and I began to outline just how much. I  hadn’t done a good job of keeping track of, or communicating to my wife during that two week period as to when the over spending had occurred, and by how much. I just kept thinking to myself, we don’t have anything planned the second half of the […] Read more »

Hidden Costs of Vacations and How to Minimize Them

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hidden costs traveling

Recently I went on an amazing vacation. It was a 5 day cruise with stops in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas and Key West, Florida. (It also had my favorite band of all time on it!) A large portion of it was a gift from a friend but I was still responsible for some expenses and I set a budget early to deal with them. However, I realized very quickly that there were a number of expenses that I did not account for when I was making plans. Most of us budget for vacations and we plan for travel expenses, hotels, […] Read more »