Debt Free News From A Debt Free Reader #19

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Happy DEBT FREE FRIDAY everyone!! Christmas is almost here. Are you ready? Will your Christmas be a Debt Free Christmas in 2010? I know someone who will be having a debt free Christmas this year. Dave, the author of I Heart Money. He has a book about how to change your relationship with money so that you can pay off your debt and build assets! Regardless of how it sounds, if you are still in debt you can have a debt free Christmas. That’s right and it’s real simple too. Buy Christmas with money you have! If you use credit […] Read more »

Media Deliberately Tries to Affect Our Personal Finances, so Here’s My Set of Defensive Measures

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Photo Credit: beggs Today we’re getting deeper and deeper into a culture that is influenced by media, but thankfully it’s “selective media.” I don’t mean media that selectively reports things or gives you one side of the story. That’s nothing new at all. What I mean is viewers can be much more selective about what is watched, listened to, and read. With an ever-expanding selection of television programs, radio programs, print publications, and Internet websites, we have more to select from now than ever before. And, changes in the marketplace are reflected as more new choices. Large print media are […] Read more »

Brad & J’s 2010 Christmas Stimulus

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Oh man!! Today didn’t come fast enough for me. I was a little antsy to say the least but the day has come. FINALLY! Last year, J Money and I decided to bring Enemy of Debt and Budgets Are Sexy together for something truly awesome! The economy was broken, unemployment was high, and we wanted to help. Brad & J’s 1st Annual Christmas Stimulus 2009 was born! Last year was awesome! We gave away $150 each and had a great time doing it! Two blogs, two giveaways, two winners, $300! We are extremely happy to announce the second coming. The […] Read more »

Gift Cards & Tipping – What’s Your Opinion?

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Photo Credit: y2bk Gift cards have become increasingly popular year after year! It’s an easy way to send someone you love a nice gift that they can use at their convenience. This post is specifically about gift cards to restaurants, but it’s not about the actual gift card as much as it is about how you tip when you pay with one. Recently we used a $25 gift card for a local restaurant and during this process it got me thinking. Do people generally tip more or less when their bill is reduced because of a gift card? Our meal […] Read more »

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 »