I work in a unique mortgage company, Providence Home Mortgage, that is owned by a non-profit housing developer, ICCF (Inner City Christian Federation). I have many co-workers here who are huge Dave Ramsey fans- this is an understatement really!

So, many of my co-workers have gone to a cash only system, destroyed their credit cards, and have taken the approach- if I don't have the money right now, then I won't/can't buy it. For a long time I have struggled with this concept. I have thought- "this sounds logical", but I'm frugal, I don't spend much anyway, I tend to make purchases with a credit card for many reasons- the convenience, the perks, etc. and then pay them off in full most of the time. That's the part that kept sticking with me- most of the time. Over the past few years my husband and I were becoming more comfortable with some non-mortgage debt. It was like when the 5% fixed interest credit cards started coming out, the carrot that was dangled became too sweet, and we bit.

Well, earlier this summer we met with a financial planner who strongly recommended that we do two things:

A) Get that long overdue emergency fund established and

B) Go to a cash or debit system only

I am proud to say that we are well on our way with the emergency fund. After about four short months, we are about 25% to our goal. He made it really easy for us by having it come out of our paychecks directly and through pre-authorized payments from our bank account. The money that comes right out of our checks is really hard to miss because we don't even see it!

The cash and debit system was a bigger struggle. I had to laugh when my husband said, "With using credit cards and giving you the receipts once a month, you only get mad once a month; if I give you receipts daily or weekly you're going to be mad at me all the time." So, we hmmed and hawed for a few months asking ourselves that question, "Will we really spend less by going to cash or debit?". I believe Dave Ramsey suggests going to a true cash system. This was the first concern we really had to weigh out. For us, we decided that cash was not the answer- there are a couple of reasons one of which is that we both work in the inner city and are simply not comfortable having that much cash on our persons. The other factor being that we both feel like if it is in our hand, we may blow it more easily. But we did go to the debit system about one month ago, and I am absolutely floored to report that we have been spending on average 40% less than we had been when we were swiping those cards with deferred billing!

For anyone who has their doubts, I challenge you to give it a try yourself. I can't speak for you, but I can say that business is down for us at least a little bit with all the dramatic changes in the mortgage industry. As you know, we are in a very volatile market. During lean times, it's nice to realize that we can live on less!