Dream with me for a moment. Imagine a world where banks pay you for the use of your money. You're excited when interest rates go up because that means that you get paid a better percentage. Now come back to the present.

I s this your life? Or are you in the complete opposite realm? Is the balance in your credit card statement higher than your check registry? The above dream senerio that I mentioned isn't some made up fantasy from another planet - it's a reality for many people - myself included. That's why my family doesn't use credit cards. We want to earn interest, not pay it. With a little discipline you can turn the interest game around into your favor.

I know, I know, you use your credit card for all those "rewards". Yeah, right, wink wink, I get it. My wife and I were in the trap for awhile with the rewards. We were very good at paying our credit cards in full every month and so we told ourselves that we were using our CC like a debit card. We got really excited when the card we were using sent us checks for groceries ever few months. We were in heaven! Until we sat down and looked at the numbers.

We had been trying to budget for a number of months, but honestly we were only giving it half hearted attempts. We'd figure out a budget, then after a couple of months we'd remember to look at it again. Or we'd monitor our budget and then realize that we were going over and would shrug it off and just keep spending. Because it was so easy to just swipe the card we kept going over budget. We thought we'd fix the problem by switching to debit cards, because to us it meant more of a big deal if we knew the money was coming straight from our banking account - no joy.

It wasn't until we cut up our cards (we kept the Debit card for needed online purchases and that's it) and started using strictly cash that we were able to stick to our budget. You tend to think a little more when you have to hand over the actual paper - and when the money gets low you really start thinking. It's miraculous though, all the sudden we are sticking to our budget. You know the crazy thing is? We're really enjoying it! We've turned it into a game to find more ways to save so we can stay well within budget.

I've heard the response before that credit cards are a good thing and that if you just use a little bit of discipline they can be a great tool. According to the American Bankers Association the average family carries $8,000 in credit card debt! I think we're past the 'use a little bit of discipline' bit. Credit cards have become a social norm. The social norm has become being broke. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be broke. I guess I'm just not normal.