Went into work this morning, but had such a bad headache and watery eyes from allergies I came back home early. Took more allergy pills and took a nap and the headache eventually went away about 3:00 pm.

Bad day for eating out. Everyone has budget areas where they struggle and eating out is definitely mine. Went to Sonic for lunch and spent $7.93 then my mom called and wanted to go out to dinner before we walked so went to Rosie's Dinner and spent $10.00. Paid for that two ways, it was so hot and Iwas so full it was miserable to walk tonight. We only walked 50 min today.

Total spent this month so far = $240.81

Verified my ING Account was activated today and transfered some money to the account. Also got my $30 bonus which will go in my Extra Fund for my Canada trip.

I finished listening to the Three Fates by Nora Roberts on the way home from work. Very good book. It's a Romance. She's one of my favorite authors. Always tells a great story, with good characters and good dialog.

I also finished reading Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey. I agree with his general premise that everyone would be better off without debt, however, I have a hard time with his tone. That I know what's right for everyone and if you don't agree you're stupid tone. Drives me nuts. He thinks everyone should have no debt including their house and I think that's a great goal to strive for, however, I have decided not to pay my house off just yet because I think it makes more financial sense to invest the money where I get a better return than the 4.5% interest I pay on my house. And that's before the tax break, so I'm really only paying 3.15% interest.

The other area where I disagree is he thinks it's stupid for anyone to use credit cards. His presumption is that people who use credit cards, even when they pay them off in full each month, spend more than people who use cash. I know that's not true in my case because I charge almost everything on credit cards and I stick to my budget so I know I'm not spending more than I planned. Also I use rebate credit cards which return some of the money back to me for using them to pay for things, so I actually come out ahead using credit cards over paying cash.

I have three credit cards that I use depending on what I'm buying. None of the cards have annual fees and they are all paid in full every month. The first card is used for all gas, grocery and drugstore purchases. The card gives a 5% rebate on all purchases made at these type of stores. I've received $80 in rebates from this card in the last year, just for doing my normal shopping.

The next credit card is one that pays 1% back on everything you purchase. It also pays 3% for all purchases made at Media Play or Sam Goody's where I shop at least once a month. I have several of my monthly bills charged to this card to get the 1% rebate and so I don't have to pay out postage to pay the bill. I find this a convenient way to track my spending and I've gotten $120 rebated back on this credit card in the last year.

My third credit card is a Discover card and they have various promotions each month that pay a % back. They pay back up to 1% on all purchases and then they have a promotion that might pay 5% on restaurant charges or like this month gas and tourist attractions. So for this month all my gas purchases will go on this card. Once you get $20 in rebates built up you can convert the money to gift cards up to double the amount depending on the reward you want. I usually exchange my $20 cash for a $25 gift card at Borders. I've gotten 3 $25 Borders gift cards in the last year from this card.

So just by buying the things I would buy anyways, but using the reward cards I've made $275 in the last year alone. So I guess he can call me stupid, but I've got $275 more than I would have following his advice.