Overall September was an awesome month. We paid off the credit card and I received my tax refund. We did go out for breakfast to celebrate that win but I will say it was an overwhelming slap in the face when I got another letter, a week later, from CRA that they're reviewing some medical bills submitted with my 2016 taxes. We're praying about that and just trying to stay calm as we wait for more news on that front.
I feel like my feet are on more solid ground now that the credit card has been paid off and its back to zero. It's the one debt bill, out of all of our bills, that just use to bug me night after night lying in bed when I reviewed our debts. It's not fun to have to keep paying for items that were bought a year ago; no matter how important they were when we bought them.
So, I got a little curious about how much interest we have paid since May of 2016 when we began to get serious about getting out of debt. Unfortunately, we didn't even know about Dave Ramsey's Baby Step Plan until December, but starting his plan January 2017 made a huge difference in how we paid down debt, however, I digress.
While sitting down to write this blog post I took a moment and reviewed all the credit card bills from May 2016 until September 2017 adding up the interest as I went. My guess was we had racked up $700 and Chris' guess was $1,200 of interest. Boy, we were both wrong! $1,682.24!
Can you imagine? That's just free money! Free money to the credit card company for what, letting us borrow money we don't really even have? Holy shitake mushrooms!!! Never again! Our credit card should only be used if we already have the money and pay it off immediately after use! (Some online purchases still cannot be transacted by Visa Debit and so we've decided to keep the credit card for very specific purchases.) It was a big shock.... but so eye-opening..... It really taught us what we're putting our money towards really should be for the benefit of God and His plan for our lives, not for a company's benefit and promotion to just get us deeper and deeper into debt.
Thank God.... Thank God for Dave Ramsey's plan and all his eye-opening and insightful logic.
Think about it the next time you use your credit to buy someone a "nice little gift" or a book you really want. Pay cash! Pay cash or wait until you can pay cash. That good friend would rather spend time with you than get that nice little gift you so carefully picked out for them. That book you want to read may be available at the library. (I always look at the library first)
Somethings are worth buying, yes, I completely agree with you but do not buy it with a credit card! I urge you to be smarter than me. Yes, I'm dumb. I'm very dumb. I will admit it. Admit it with both shame and without shame. Shame that I did it, and without shame that I will no longer do it ever again. But now that you know that getting out of debt can be done, be smarter than I was and stop using your credit card like it's free money! Please...just think on it... No judgment here.... I just want you to do better than I ever did. I want you to win at this.... for God and for your family...
I love you guys... pray for you often and only hope you gain a little more knowledge about budgeting. :) Chris and I talk about what we want to teach our children (yes, we're still praying for them!) and we hope that we can teach them the value of hard work and budgeting. ]I can only imagine what it'll be like when my kid gets that lesson before she or he even gets a credit card application in the mail during their college years. God willing they do this thing called life better than we will ever do...
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