Debt Reduction 101

Dear Holiday Inn in Spearfish – I am very sorry that I left about a half-inch of mud in the bottom of the bathtub last night … here’s the story: My family and I left Mitchell, S.D., at about 9 a.m. on Wednesday and after a couple of various adventures (more about the 5-cent coffee, [...]

The last time I was on vacation with my mom and dad in South Dakota, I was 18 years old, getting ready for my freshman year of college and had spent most of the summer living on my own in my brother’s old house. There was no such thing as Facebook, there was no Twitter [...]

A couple weeks ago I was composing an email to my dear buddy Chuck when I noticed something odd at the top of my message. In Gmail, I have three different email addresses – a personal one, one for my personal blog and one for DR101. I can differentiate what address I’m sending a message [...]

On my second day off of this glorious week, I’m content to sip coffee, read and react to the various articles I’m finding on the Internet. ABC News has this article about how work friendships suffer when one team member is laid off and the rest retain their employment. (The other article that caught my [...]

In honor of my birthday, I took today and tomorrow off from work … even though I woke up at the same time that I usually do, it’s awesome to just sit unshowered, drinking coffee and hanging out with my hubby who also decided to take today off. So some good news … I made [...]

OK – first and foremost – I have to get this out there … I really like my birthday. I have no reason not to like my birthday, because I don’t mind getting old. In fact, I relish the idea that I become wiser and better every day that I’m walking, breathing, sleeping and eating. [...]

“I’ve learnt that if you’re not desperate for the money and you’re not in debt, you have more freedom of choice.” – Viggo Mortensen For anyone who has lived under a rock since 2001 when the first “Lord of the Rings” movie came out, Viggo Mortensen is not an economist or a self-help guru. He [...]

Let me wax nostalgically for a second here … first and foremost, I’ve been getting a glimpse of what it will be like to be debt free through Sadie Morris’s blog, which you can find here. But as I inch closer to my goal, I find myself frequently dreaming about what life is going to [...]

I don’t get Vanity Fair anymore, but when I had a subscription, one of my favorite pieces was “The Proust Questionnaire” featured at the back of the issue. Every month, they would talk to some luminary and ask them these questions. I did this because I always loved how random the questions were. So if [...]

Until Hubby has his permanent, full-time job or I win the lottery, our hands are kind of tied when it comes to some of the major house improvements that we want to make. And I’ll be honest – it’s kind of defeating to both of us at times to wait to exchange our fugly green [...]