Cause for Celebration!

I've been bad...but I am trying to repent. During all the stressful, surreal, and crazy things that happened last year, I racked up fairly high balances on my two credit cards. I NEVER do that. This is the first time in my ENTIRE life that I have had to pay interest to a credit card. Before this, I ALWAYS paid the balance of the credit cards each month. But I guess I needed some retail therapy after my dad died and I bought too much and couldn't pay the balances. My two credit cards were roughly the same balance, and in January I noticed one card I was paying about $7 in interest, where on the other card I was paying about $35. I couldn't figure that out, so I went searching. After going clicking through several pages online, I found that on my Mastercard I was paying 4% interest, but on my Discover card I was paying 26%! WHAT?!? How can they do that! And to hide the APR from me was just underhanded and sneaky. I set a goal to pay that card off as soon as possible. I didn't want to keep paying them so much money.

I am happy to report....I just made the final payment so now I have a zero balance again. Hip! Hip! Hurray!

Now I need to focus on paying off my other credit card. My side business is starting to pick up again, so I have another small income coming in. I will use that to pay off my Mastercard, then focus on paying off my car. Yikes! I hate, loath, and abominate debt. So now I am doing something about it:

My sister, mom, and I just signed up for a class by Dave Ramsey on how to obtain financial peace. I am really excited about this class. I usually am very frugal and careful with my money, but he should teach me how to save better and invest in my future. Here are the class titles:

- Super Saving
- Relating With Money
- Cash Flow Planning
- Dumping Debt
- Credit Sharks in Suits
- Buyer Beware
- Clause and Effect
- That's Not Good Enough
- Of Mice and Mutual Funds
- From Fruition to Tuition
- Working In Your Strengths
- Real Estate and Mortgages
- The Great Misunderstanding

The classes start this week and last until mid-July (they are not every week). I hope to learn a lot from them. Once I get knowledgable, I'll post some financial tidbits for you to use as well.