Take a Step Back…Put your Financial Behavior in Check

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Debt is sometimes inevitable, unavoidable, and well a fact of life for many. No matter what your stage of life you may be faced with financial issues. Life can take its toll on your finances; unemployment, an unexpected illness, divorce or a death in the family can send you into a financial tailspin. But sometimes financial issues stem from a cause deeper than the unexpected; the way you think about money. To snap out of bad financial habits it may require some lifestyle and behavioral changes. 10 Financial Principles Dr. Bernard Poduska, author of For Love or Money writes about […] Read more »

Frugal Fun: Geocaching

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My family started a new hobby this weekend and we are totally hooked! Geocaching.  It’s completely free and a total blast.  If you’ve never heard of geocaching it’s a world-wide treasure hunt. You can sign up for free at geocaching.com and there are lists and lists of hidden caches. (The caches are the treasures.) You can search by zip code to find ones near you. Each treasure has coordinates that you can plug into your GPS that will bring you within feet of the cache. Then you have to use your noggin. So far I’ve found three. They were an […] Read more »

Christmas is Coming, Will You Be Ready?

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Here on Enemy of Debt, I have made it a point to get people to think ahead, especially when it comes to Christmas. In 2009, I challenged all of you to have a Debt free Christmas by preparing for it early instead of last minute. Today's post comes from Tyson Morgan and promotes the same idea of being prepared for something that happens every single year. Nope, Christmas is not an "emergency", although far too often, people are putting Christmas on plastic because they failed to properly plan for what's become a MONSTER CONSUMER HOLIDAY. I love sharing different perspectives from different writers, so I hope you enjoy today's post. Will you have a Debt free Christmas in 2011? Read more »

No Eating Out Check-in: How Have You Done?

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Okay folks. I wanted to check in with everyone on the No Eating Out Challenge last week, but got kind of busy so here goes. How are you doing? Are you sticking to your goals of not eating out at all? Some of you, like me, gave yourself a smaller eating out budget; how have you done? I’m almost ashamed to admit I have done lousy. I mean, I’m still doing WAY BETTER than I would on a normal month, but I have really struggled with saying “NO” on a couple of occasions. We said we wanted to eat out […] Read more »

It’s Not a Myth, It’s a Lie; You Don’t Need a Car Payment

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to own and drive a nice car without payments? Wonder no more. It's AWESOME! Imagine driving down the road care-free, except for the road in front of you of course, without having to spend the next 3-6 years paying for it. It's yours. You own it. And the best part is, you didn't have to pay any interest AT ALL. If you lose your job, you know your car will not be repossessed because you failed to make the payments. Ahhh, the good life! 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 »

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 »

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 »

No Restaurant November Update and October Confession

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Photo Credit: Yours Truly It was really fun reading the reactions from people related to this challenge. (responses on other blogs listed below) Until I started reading them I never really considered what I was proposing to be extreme, but apparently it is the equivalent of dangling your child over a balcony. Some adamantly opposed the idea right away, while others admitted it was something they would like to do, but just couldn’t. The rest said let’s do it! That’s what I’m talking about baby! I left a comment on Budgets Are Sexy suggesting that to those who said it […] Read more »

How To Dress Nicely On A Budget

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This is a guest post by David Bakke Photo Credit: beckyjohns7 Up until recently, I always had the luxury of having the majority of my clothes purchased for me, either by my mom when I was younger, my wife when I was “grown up,” and by family and friends during the gift-giving holidays. I know, it sounds like I’m really spoiled or something, but in actuality, all of these close people in my life have always enjoyed shopping for clothes for me. Yup, I’m a pretty fortunate guy! However, my wife got a full-time job two years ago that made […] Read more »

People Need An Excuse To Spend Money, And They’re Eager To Find One

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Do You Justify Your Purchases? What About The Bad Ones? A few weeks ago, I was sitting at home watching some T.V. with my wife, after watching 27 inches of snow fall. We were snowed in the day before, and could barely get around on day 2. It was the top of the hour so there was a news update, and that’s when I heard it. I almost couldn’t believe my ears but my wife confirmed what I thought I heard. We watched a news report that stated people were considering an upgrade to a 4WD vehicle—due to the recent […] Read more »

Enjoy Frugal Entertainment Without Breaking The Bank

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How Do YOU Define Entertainment? Quite frankly, all of us are different as far as what we value in life.  Entertainment to me could bore you out of the room, but what if I had a plan—making my sacrifice very methodical and purposeful? You value what’s more important to you, and make decisions based on the assumption that you will get something out of those decisions—whether it be fun, security, or both. You have to sacrifice something—either in the beginning or later on in life.  NOW or LATER?  Instant gratification or financial security?  Instant gratification now, comes at a cost […] Read more »