Decimating Credit Cards

Loudly proclaiming, “I don’t use credit,” sometimes sets negative wheels in motion, the Devil attacks, and everything breaks. Kind of a ‘what’re ya gonna do now moment?’ Put your money where your mouth is girlfriend.

To me that only means a challenge, a faith walk in action, and I hit the ground running, trying to figure out Plans B, C and D. I’m always in the midst of something, good or bad, and I rarely blog about a situation until I’ve worked it through. Confiding in someone yesterday, she remarked, “Oh, you hadn’t mentioned it again, I wondered if you’d changed your mind.”

Nope. But I have to pray and plan, wait until I’m certain I’ve heard from God, often a difficult concept as I’m literally afraid to accidentally go against God, so often I wait longer than I should, just to be 100% certain, or when in doubt, just don’t do it. Hang back until positive before stepping out in faith - hey, it works for me.

So one thing I’ve been praying and and working towards, might just be a possibility, but in the meantime, as I plunged a very nasty toilet last night, (a metal race car under turds) reluctant to find a plumber, cell phone on the counter as I called Charter No Communications, and argued about a broken cable modem that Daniel later informed me I was unknowingly paying $5 a month to rent, “Mom, you can buy a decent one for $50,”… I still had to help 20 kids get their homework done, nearly all internet research which meant taking turns on Grandpa’s AT&T connection. It took HOURS of running between Grandpa's computer and my printer that had the color cartridge.

Waking up at 5:30, praying that Daniel was warm during his 5:15 a.m. Army PT on campus, I came downstairs to no internet, only half believing that Charter would show up this morning as promised.

Eating my words now because an excellent technician showed up at 9 and fixed everything. (An aside to Daniel - the modem was 6-7 years old, so say 66 months times $5...OUCH...and he said we need two modems to run more than five computers plus he took that other receiver back for me which saved another $5 a month and I can upgrade to 16 speed - we now have 10, right?)

BUT, I’m finally reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and I gotta say, it is MUST READING for every man, woman and child on this planet, as he totally debunks all the bullcrap myths that consumers have been fed by banks and credit companies that have gotten enormously wealthy on middle class debt misery.

I’m going to quote the tar out of this book as I’ve been highlighting nearly everything. Many of my grown kids read this blog and will be shaking their heads at the ‘I told you so,’ tone that they know is sure to come.

Thank GOD my parents brought me up like they did, instilling in me a no debt, live beneath one’s means mentality. This has been easy for me,as I’ve done it my entire life, but I can certainly understand how tough it must be for others. I’m just blessed apparently in this realm.

My mom claims she has no material wants, only a large, full checkbook for security.

A recent commenter, Our Journey, mentioned she’s reading The Millionaire Next Door, another of my very favorite books, another must read as simply put, these folks made their millions by the above philosophy of no debt, live beneath ones means and invest the excess.

Edgar wanted me to cosign on a car a couple of years ago when he had the best job he ever lost. I told him no as I learned from Larry Burkett that cosigning was unbiblical. Thank God as Edgar was soon fired for his own no-shows and tardies and I would have been stuck with his payments. I won’t loan money, I’ll give it with little expectation of repayment as I recently had to do yet again. I won’t give any that I couldn’t afford to lose.

I’ll italicize Dave Ramsey’s points that I’m chewing on today: Winning at money is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent knowledge, these money issues involve a series of prices that must be paid to win. All winners pay a price to win. 90% of people in our culture buy things they can’t afford. 80% of graduating college seniors have credit card debt – before they even have a job. You are where you are right now financially as a sum total of the decisions you’ve made to this point.”

Lily needed a coca-cola and mentos to make her volcano explode, she’d seen last year’s sixth graders do this. Would you believe I didn’t even know what a mentos is?I had to run her to the country grocery store this morning after I drove everyone else to school and see if I could find these two items.

“Hey Cindy,” the cashier chirped when I walked in and I was immediately mortified that I’d soon be seen purchasing a coke. Using good money to buy chemicals, how wasteful. I even had to ask Miss Linda there, where they kept mentos. How embarrassing.

A couple of dollars down the toilet. But it has been the watching pennies that has allowed me to raise so many children, be debt free, put folks through college, own a lot of land, tithe faithfully, and stay within our budget as often as possible - yeah I've made some goober financial mistakes over the years. I fell for the car fleece (lease) once, I've had to make car payments at times and I've used credit cards. I still have credit cards that I plan to decimate, but I haven't used them in a very, very, very long time. I sound self-righteous as crap, but honey this debt-free except the house is a great place to be.

I love, love, love a debit card, that's for sure.