Debt?

In an effort to put myself to sleep last night, I opened Redbook to an article title 'Life After Debt'. It was really quite interesting and focused on four women and their desire to no longer be dependent on credit cards and to live a debt free/cash only life. I liked this article because it wasn't about paying off your mortgage and car payments (which overwhelms me completely) but it was about a lifestyle of living within your means.

Tod and I have paid off our credit cards and use only a gas card each month (paid off each month, too). We occasionally put other items on the credit cards but only for convenience and we pay it off asap. It took a VERY VERY long time to get to this point and it is still terrifying to me that we might end up deeply in credit card debt. The only exception we will consider is the 12 months same as cash option and that is because it leaves our savings alone and we can avoid finance charges and pay the item off within a specified time. It has worked very well for us at least 4 times.

(this is from the article) Please people, do not use freecredit report.com. It’s not free. Use annualcreditreport.com instead.

Anyway... this article had a link to a blog and some books that are supposed to be great reads and first steps for those of us not using credit cards or payment plans in our daily lives.

http://www.beingfrugal.net/
Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
The Complete Cheapskate by Mary Hunt