There is an author named Dave Ramsey who has been a great help to us financially. How book is The Total Money Makeover. He says that using cash fires the same neurons in your brain as being in pain. Its true! Take 20 to the store and you will put back things you would have gotten on your credit card. Even though we too used to credit everything and pay off the balance, we now have envelopes with spending, restaurants, clothes and play. Every two weeks we put in the same amount we used to charge for theses things, and now we usually have money left over at the end of the two weeks. We use the "leftovers" for things we want but don't need (bought an iPad, etc.) Still charge gas, big purchases, etc. Works for us! And we have airline miles, too, from the bigger purchases, so spending extra just to get miles doesn't make sense to us.
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