Cash is KING Baby!!

I loved reading this article yesterday. It was so exciting to read that:

About 71% of consumers plan to use cash or debit cards as their primary payment method when buying holiday gifts this year, the highest level since 2005, according to a National Retail Federation survey scheduled for release today. Another survey, by San Antonio-based financial services firm USAA, found that two-thirds of consumers plan to use cash more often for holiday gifts this year than in 2008.

It’s interesting that there are about 9 pages of comments on this and some that adamantly disagree with this plan of cash only. I’m not here to argue credit cards vs. cash – because we each have our own opinion and experiences. I can only use my own experience and our life which has dramatically changed (for the better) over the past 11 months. But THIS gets me so excited when I see my family, friends, and those I love taking back control of their lives – because believe it or not, finances can negatively and postively (yes, it’s true) affect multiple other areas of your life. So to see our economy switching gears and thinking differently about money – that’s exciting to me.

As you know, we’ve been focused hard core on paying down debt this year. We’re definitely not perfect, that’s for sure. We’ve had months where at the end of the month I am frustrated at some of our decisions – but that’s where R comes in and reminds me that we are doing well, we’ve come far. I still have my freak out moments because we have set a goal of being debt free except the house by January 31st, 2010 (oh dear, now it’s written down publicly – accountability anyone?).  We’re closer – but so far away it seems when I look at the calendar and realize we have 2 months to get this taken care of!

Regardless of whether we hit our goal on time or later (which irks me to think about because I am so competitive – even with myself) – I am proud of us this year. I think about our marriage and how far we’ve come – the parents we are, heck we even made it through another season of college football without any major screaming matches! That’s impressive

Okay – this is random, the whole point was to get excited about consumers using cash instead of credit cards!