Our local NBC affiliate, KY3 ran a story tonight in reference to cash customers getting a cheaper price on gas. Watch or read it here.

When I owned The Lazy Susan, credit cards were a huge drain on our cash flow. About sixty percent of our transactions were credit or debit cards. Each transaction would cost ten cents plus an average of 1.49%. Debit cards only run about 1% while American Express is by far the worse, a non-negotiable 3.5%.

The banks have created a society where small business owners have to accept the cards in order to gain or retain market share. In a business with a 5% margin to start with, these fees can be a nail in the coffin. While credit cards were not the sole reason for our demise; they certainly played a large role, both with my use and acceptance of the same. Larger was the culture of debt that I bought into, created in large part by credit card companies.

I think Dave said this about twenty times today on his show. After today I know exactly what he means. I just finished paying our entire budget for June, and we made it with exactly one penny left over for the top of our debt snowball (we went ahead and carried it over for July).

June has been the hardest month of our six months so far to meet our budget. Between getting our house ready to sell, paying the mortgage and rent, and all my traveling with the Army, it was not easy. Having to bring in over $6800 to make it didn’t help matters either.? As you recall from my post earlier this week, I don’t make that much money.

After my first year of college I came home and worked on a farm for Don Hutcheson each of the next three summers. Many times we found ourselves in seemingly impossible situations; yet Don’s response was always, “It doesn’t matter if it is possible for us to do this, it just has to be done.”

One time Don was on vacation for a couple of days in July and he had told me the priority of work for the week.  While I was plowing on the first day with our only functioning plow at that time, one of the middle three hundred pound shanks broke off.  After helplessly lifting on it for about fifteen minutes, I was ready to give up. It was an impossible situation.  I couldn’t plow a narrower girth because it was a middle shank, and I couldn’t have Don come back three days later with only four hours of work done. So I figured out a way to jury-rig a couple of small hydraulic jacks along with what we called a “cheater bar” for leverage. I lifted and lifted with strength I never knew I had until I was finally able to get the first bolt in. OSHA would have had a heart attack if they would have been watching. Simply put, the facts were irrelevant; I just had to get it done.

June was a lot like that scenario. There were many times I thought I wasn’t going to be able to pull it off. When it came down to it, the facts didn’t matter; I just had to go out and kill it and drag it home. I took advantage of opportunities I won’t have again anytime soon. Thankfully I have a little more structured plan for July, but there is still an element that I have to make happen. I wouldn’t want to be comfortable:-)

This is a concept, or end result if you will, of following Dave’s plan. The thing about this is I have always thought of it in the sense of creating habits and wealth where your children do not repeat the mistakes of your past, and they never have debt.

In our journey to date, it has been exciting to see my children (ages 5 and 3) understand what debt is and how evil it is. They know exactly what a credit card is, and if you find yourself using one in front of us in line, you will know how “naughty” that is. Jeremiah even draws pictures of the things we are going to do when we get out of debt. See them here.

The exciting thing that had never occurred to me was the ability to change the other side of your family tree. When my brother called to tell me he had read The Total Money Makeover in just two days, I knew that he was a changed person. My mom, my sister, and soon my older brother are all on the same route. It is amazing what can happen if you decide not to be normal!

Have you ever gone out to eat and then a couple of hours later regretted spending the money? I’ve been there many times.?What usually follows is more bad spending decisions because of the guilt.

Why does the guilt of one bad decision cause us to make another bad decision? Do we feel that we have lost?  Do we feel like we can never win with our money? Maybe it is just me that used to do this, but thankfully I am over it now.

The bottom line is we have to quit focusing on our previous mistakes,?and concentrate on what we can change. Quit with the bad spending habits today, regardless of what you did for lunch. Focus on the future, and change your family tree!

That is the phone call I received earlier today. Oh how I wish it was the phone call I was making; but it was still exciting to receive!? My brother David called to let me know he had finally read Dave’s book, The Total Money Makeover, and has been following his plan and is debt free except the house.

My mom is also debt free, including her new house that she paid cash for.  She read the book a couple of weeks after the start of my blog, and has assisted in carrying the message to my non-internet family members.  My sister has also read the book, but I need an update on where she is in her process.

I know there are a bunch of you out there that are on your way as well.  A couple of you even comment, and I know who the rest of you are.  Okay, maybe I don’t know exactly who you are, but I know over 1000 different IP addresses that show up every week. Let us all know what you are doing so everyone can be encouraged!