http://deathbyplastic.com Eliminate Debt and Reclaim Your Financial Freedom Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:33:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you aren't reading Get Rich Slowly everyday, you should be. J.D. is one of the best and most consistent personal finance bloggers I've ever read. His latest post, How to Fight the Urge to Splurge, lists several ways to avoid the temptations to spend money that surround us all ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2007/04/18/how-to-fight-the-urge-to-splurge/ Some people are great about keeping up with a budget. I've heard of people who categorize and track every expense down to the penny. They know exactly where all of their money is going. This is great if you're that kind of person. Unfortunately, I just can't live ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/09/21/how-to-eliminate-debt-without-a-budget/ Yesterday's post was inspired by the Lists Group Writing Project at ProBlogger.net. Darren asked for "list posts" from his readers and he received 301 of them. As a service to my readers, I decided to go through his list and pick out any posts that I thought might be relevant. ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/08/18/top-10-personal-finance-lists/ Sometimes it seems like eating together is the only social activity we experience any more. The weekend trip to some restaurant is almost a ritual among friends and family. Just because you're trying to cut back and pay off your bills doesn't mean you have to give this up. Here ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/08/17/10-easy-ways-to-save-money-in-restaurants/ This is a very timely post for me, since I've been sick for over a week now. Luckily I didn't miss any work this time, but it has happened before. Bad things happen to good people. It's important that you prepare now. The most common excuse for carrying ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/06/22/dealing-with-emergencies/ I always thought that credit cards were created by the devil to empty our wallets and ruin our lives. It turns out I was wrong. There's a great post today on Get Rich Slowly, that talks about a PBS documentary from 2004 called Secret History of the Credit Card. I'm not ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/06/12/secret-history-of-the-credit-card/ I paid off a credit card tonight. I didn't transfer part of the balance to another card and then pay off the rest. I paid it all off. In cash. I just completed the online bill payment for almost $900 and it felt great. It has taken ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/06/10/im-sorry-capital-one/ How many times did your heart beat last year? Chances are you don't know the answer to this question. Why not? Because you don't have to think about it. Your heart keeps on beating whether you remember to do it or not. How much money did you invest ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/06/08/forget-about-saving/ I almost broke my own first rule of debt elimination last weekend. It happened at the Apple Store. A shiny new MacBook was just screaming "Buy Me!" I went through all of my usual excuses: "I'm getting a raise soon that will cover the increased payment." ... maybe. "I'll be ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/06/06/avoid-the-impulse-buy/ This is the last part of the plan. So far you've committed yourself to never charging again, and you've calculated your monthly income and expenses. Now let's talk about ways to increase your income. For most people this is a pretty hard thing to do. You're probably already ... http://deathbyplastic.com/2006/06/05/eliminating-debt-the-three-lists/