Gary North

June 2, 2009

This article appeared in Redbook. It includes testimonies from wives who have put their household finances back on track. Here is the first one. It's typical.

"Life is more simple, and simple is less stressful." -- Lynnae McCoy

I got a credit card my first week in college and graduated with $4,000 in debt. When I got married, my husband and I would pay down our debt, then charge it back up again. But two years ago, we made a commitment to get out of debt -- we had given our word that we would repay what we owed, and as Christians, we needed to stay true to our word. Then Jim lost his job. With an unemployment check as our only source of income, it was easy to see how quickly our credit card debt could eat up our savings and leave us on the verge of bankruptcy. So I threw our cards into a Tupperware container with water and stuck it in the back of the freezer. I figured if they were hard to get to, I wouldn't be tempted. I even started a blog, beingfrugal.net, to help hold me accountable to our goal of getting out of debt.

She then goes on to explain what they did.