How do I prevent iCloud from taking over my contact list?

I had a long list of contacts in my phone, and for some reason iCloud took them out of my phone, and now they show in my phone as an iCloud list of contacts. I dislike iCloud with a passion, since I don't backup my phone and iPad to my laptops, and also I backup my laptops and iMac to hard drives. I ended up restoring my phone from my laptop (not from iCloud), and my contacts reappeared as they should, but as soon as I responded to a notice to sign-in to complete restoring the apps in my phone, my contacts again changed to an iCloud list! Not only that, but now my phone shows my wife's name as being "my card," and when I tap on "my card" one of my contacts appears instead of my wife's card. I have never had so much trouble with any of my iPhones!!!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]