Last night's Financial Peace University class was on getting a better deal when you're out shopping. Dave talks about how almost every other country in the world barters for items. We are one of the few countries that almost always pays retail.

We have a son that is always bartering for things. He's very good at it and he's only 18! I, on the other hand, am like Sharon Ramsey and find it embarrassing. I'd rather pay full price than try to talk someone down. I don't "do" conflict. ;-)

How about you? Do you bargain for prices? What items do you barter for?

Last Thursday President Obama proclaimed April to be Financial Literacy Month to encourage Americans to learn more about personal finance. Heaven knows the country certainly needs it! It seems to be a topic that has been overlooked in education for far too long.

Pennsylvania libraries have started an initiative called "Libraries and 21st Century Literacies". The five areas of concentration are basic, information, civic and social, health and financial literacies. I was thrilled to see financial literacy included in there. That is where my passion lies. I'd love to see every library in the state offer some kind of financial literacy class to the public, whether it be Financial Peace University or some other program. The last two FPUs I've taught have been in libraries.

I don't think we've realized until the past few years how little we know about personal finance. I do believe we're starting to wake up as a country though and realize that it's important to teach our children about personal finance so that they can better shape their future. I want to do all I can to teach younger generations how to manage their money so that they do not need to go through the same mistakes that we did.

What financial mistakes have you made that you'd warn others against?

Tonight is the insurance lesson for my newest FPU class. I always dread this lesson because, though it's a great lesson, it makes me cry every time. The story at the end of the young man providing for his family is just too sad. You'd think that since I've seen this lesson many times that I would become immune to it. Not so. I always warn the class ahead of time that it will be a sad one and that I will provide Kleenex.

One of the members mentioned last week that she's really been looking forward to this lesson because she has insurance, but has no idea if it's what she actually needs or not. How many of us are like that? I know I was!

Our journey out of debt began in December of 2008 when I asked for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University home kit for Christmas. My husband begrudgingly agreed to sit down each week and go through the lessons with me.

I had been trying to work Dave's plan on my own and was making progress, but not as quickly as I would have liked. DH was agreeable to it as long as he didn't have to be involved too much.

It only took a few minutes of the first lesson for DH to realize that this was not your typical, boring personal finance program. He enjoyed Dave's teaching. He laughed at Dave's jokes. He even did his homework!

At that point our debt repayment accelerated. We started out with over $7,200 in credit card debt, $9,800 in a 2nd mortgage and over $14,000 for a car loan.

DH worked a LOT of overtime in order to pay the debt off as fast as we could. It was really rewarding to see those balances go down when all we'd been doing was watching our debt amount go up for years!

We now are facilitators for Financial Peace University and enjoy watching others change their lives as they regain hope that there is life after debt!