Why? Why is my philosophy: No Credit Needed. Well, I’ll tell ya!

1. I want to possess things, not be possessed by things.
2. I want to be free from the burden of owing money.
3. I want to pass “wealth” down to my children, not “debt”.
4. I want to be that one person in a thousand who pays for everything they have, up front, without the hassle, bother, and potential disaster of using credit.
5. I want to turn to my “relatives” and say…(better keep that to myself).
6. I want to go to bed every night, knowing that if I do not wake, my children and my wife are going to be just fine.
7. I want to be able to give money to others.
8. I want my children to grow up in a home where money IS NOT the primary topic of conversation.
9. I want to retire early, so that I can enjoy my family and my friends.
10. I believe that God intends for his people to be free, and debt creates a barrier to that freedom. The borrower is surely slave to the lender. I don’t want to be a slave anymore.

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Hey, check out this site: Missing Money . I found it while checking out other blogs, and I put my name in, just for fun. Guess what, I was owed 150 bucks from a job I had in Florida 10 years ago. Yay. The site will link you to whatever state agency is in charge of holding onto and distributing unaccounted for money. Best of all, it’s FREE!

Update:  I was reading the post and I realized that I never wrote about the job that I had in Florida.  I worked at McDonald’s for 10 weeks while on a “missions trip”.  I left the job a week early and never received my final paycheck.  So, 10 years later, while searching the above mentioned website, I was surprised to learn that the state of Florida was holding a check for me.

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Okay, here are the latest facts. I still owe a total of 8,589.30 in debt. This is for 2 autos and 1 credit card. In order to reach my goal of being debt free by 10-10-2005, I will need to pay almost exactly 100 dollars a DAY towards my debt. I really, really want to reach my goal, but that it is 3000 dollars a month. Hmmm…we only bring home about 4100. This means that I must intensify my efforts. Find things to sell. Get re-focused. I am really, really proud of myself. We have had 2 hospitalizations and 2 major car expenses that have totaled almost 2600 dollars, and we have not used any credit AT ALL to finance these things. So, can I do it? Can I manage 100 dollars a day. Well, I will certainly try. I will keep you posted.

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Okay, I spend a ton of time searching the web for bargains. I visit sites like fatwallet.com, bargainshare.com, xpbargains.com and dealnews.com. These sites have tons of great links for bargains, deals, freestuff, and forums for sharing money-saving ideas. However, here are a few things that I have done recently to save money on monthly, on-going expenses.

Unlimited long distance for 23.99 from MCI. This is a rarely publicized deal that gives me unlimited in and out of state long distance for less than 30 dollars (with taxes a fees). In fact, I am not sure if MCI even has this plan. Last I checked they offered a similar plan for 27.99. Still, a great deal.

Visa check-card bonus points. With all of the bonus points associated with credit cards, its great to find a place where I get points for using my check-card (debit card.) You get points when you use your card LIKE a credit card (without punching in your pin number.) Just hit CREDIT when you use your card, and you can sign just like a credit card. Great little program. Check it out.

Awesome DSL service from our little local company. 1 meg speed for less than 50 bucks a month, fixed for the next 12 months. We live in a VERY rural area, and very few people here have DSL. I was paying almost 70 bucks for 512mb, and now I get twice the speed for 20 bucks less. YAY.

Cotton States auto insurance. I have been with Cotton States and my local agent for 15 years. I get great insurance on 3 relatively new cars for less than 1200 bucks a year. Their service and support is so good, I never even shop around. Oh yeah, I had a ticket 2 years ago, and my premiums were never adjusted upwards. Great Company! (Find a local agent…)

Using a local mom-and-pop garage to buy my gas and have my oil changed. Sure, they charge a little more to fill your tank, but they wash your windows, check your tire pressure, etc. I once ran out of gas, and our local guy came, brought me 5 bucks worth of gas, and didn’t even charge me. It pays to be loyal to your local folks.

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Wow, it’s been awhile. Sorry for the delay in posting, I have been gone to various camps with kids from our church, and have been out of touch with the “real” world. It is during hectic times like this that I am so glad for auto-bill-pay services from our bank and auto-drafts for other bills. In the past, being gone for 10 days would have led to me coming home to a pile of bills to take care of and a mass of confusion figuring out due-dates and catching up. Now, all of my financial “doings” are taken care of with online-bill-pay and auto drafts. I can easily balance my check books and check on my savings and investing. If you are not using the online-bill-pay functions of your bank, get to it now.

Quick debt-reduction update. I now owe less than 3 Thousand dollars TOTAL on the three autos we own. It has been well over 15 years since I owed less than 3 Thousand dollars in auto debt. I borrowed to pay for my first car when I was 17, and have been in car debt ever since. It is going to feel wonderful come October 1 when I do not owe anyone anything on the cars we are driving. Cool.

Back with much more tomorrow… Oh yeah, on a sad note, something got into our chicken pen and killed all of our chickens. I must re-think my chicken pen designs.

Brighter note… I have lost 5 pounds of the 40 I want to lose. I am doing mostly low-gly carbs and proteins, and walking 4 miles everyday.

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