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eaglefeather831 wrote:
We don’t use credit cards either (hence why I cannot buy a Windstone even if I wanted to) but we do have one with a $1000 dollar limit for emergencies. It is almost maxed out right now because we had to survivie on it when we had no income this past month or two. Thank goodness my hubby got his first paycheck today so that we can hopefully catch back up!!
I have my one with a $1000 credit limit. I’d lower it if I could. To, like, $500. That’s all I ever spend on it, on a regular basis anyway. Then Christmas came…. gack… I hope I can scrounge up enough to pay rent! Since moneybags brother (the guy doing Co-op for his engineering program so he’s going to finish university in the green….)isn’t here until after the New Years…. he’s supposed to be transferring money to my account. I need to ask how that’s going… hmmm.
A few bits of information to taste. If they’re not to your liking, spit them back out! 😉
When dealing with agreements for anything… from debt consolidation to mortgages to car loans… read the fine print. Read it and understand it. If more folks did this, they’d be in for FAR less unpleasant surprises in the future.
For example…. if a company wants to penalize you for paying your debt off early (and therefore paying them less in interest) then find another company. There are enough of them out there right now that you can shop around! I know several banks we were looking to get a mortgage with had this policy amongst others– we said thanks but no thanks. I know that’s how they make their money– but damnit if I want to pay off my debt in full ahead of schedule, I don’t want to be penalized for it, so we found a lender that won’t penalize us.Now, onto credit cards…
I consider myself fortunate because I was raised by a poor family that was very thrifty and money-wise. I was taught the importance of not spending money I didn’t have on things I don’t need.
It’s pretty simple! If it’s not an emergency and not an unnecessary purchase, only buy it if you have the money for it in an account somewhere.
Yes… if you have no money and need to get a few groceries or have to pay an electric bill, go for it. That happens to nearly everyone at one point or another- unexpected costs come up and you’re out of money and still need to buy stuff to keep living. There’s no shame in that.
But if you have no money in your (checking) account and know that you won’t have it when it comes time for the ole credit card bill to roll around, it’s time to reconsider purchasing fun stuff that you don’t need.As a result… yeah, I don’t have much fun stuff. I don’t have a cool car or any Windstones outside of the ones I’ve gotten as gifts or trades. Most of my clothes are over 6 or 8 years old. My furniture is all second or third hand. But, I have no debt* (until Thursday when I close on our house, but that’s not credit card debt), and let me tell you that is a huge weight off of my shoulders.
* and yes, I have had a lot of terrible unexpected life turns. I have had enormous sudden bills at times (emergency room visits with no insurance sure do add up) and have had to put things on credit that I knew I couldn’t pay off right away. But the key is that afterward, I didn’t buy anything unnecessary and put all that I could to paying them off, and was able to in a few months.
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