Financial Peace University

Maybe the phrase "cash only" caught people's attention in yesterday's post. I am writing, of course, assuming that people actually read what I write here. Anyway, as I said, we are a cash only family. Yes, we use our debit card and checks (which are a form of cash) as needed, but you will find no credit cards in our wallets.

Actually truth be told, I do have my church credit card in my wallet for work purchases and Rob has one for his work as well, but we have no personal credit cards on our persons or in our home.

We have not always been a cash family. In fact, until April of this past year I (especially) was an almost exclusive credit only shopper. In all the years we have been married (well, even including my college years prior to being married), we have not paid off our monthly balance maybe two or three times, and that balance only carried over for a month or two each time. I was definitely not taking advantage of credit to buy things I couldn't afford, but I did like the convenience of it.

So why the change? We took the Financial Peace University class presented by Dave Ramsey (via a dvd class) that our church hosted starting in April last spring. The things we learned in the class gave us insights into the advantages of using cash only (even though we were not credit abusers and had no debt -other than our mortgage) as well really helped us focus our spending and do better with saving.

It has been amazing the changes in our spending habits and the balance in our bank accounts. As we didn't have money troubles before, we never fought about money or even really talked about it all that much. We talk about it more now which I'm not sure I like because in a way it feels like money has become more important due to the amount of time we spend talking and planning about our spending and saving. However, it is all constructive conversation and the obvious positive impact this lifestyle is going to have on our future and the future for our children definitely makes it worth it.

There will be more to come on this topic. =)