Friday, August 28, 2009

Confessions of a Country Girl part 5

I’ve posted numerous times that I have am trying to better with my money. Well to be honest, so far I have been failing pretty miserably. Every time I think I’m headed in the right direction and I take 2 steps forward…something comes along to knock me off course so I end up taking at least 1 step back. My major problem has been “plastic shopping”….I’ve come to realize that credit cards are more trouble than they are worth. Let me break it down for you…On 4 credit cards I have racked up roughly $3634.24 in debt. That doesn’t even include what I still owe on my car and what I still owe my dad for the money he lent me to get my car fixed last December.

My second major problem is that I currently have the mindset that “I have money…I must spend it.” Unfortunately, I don’t always spend it on the things that I actually need and spend it mostly on things that I really could live without. I am working on changing my mindset but old habits do die hard sometimes.

I have taken steps to try and correct my behavior though. I have recently taken to studying various money saving webpages and blogs on the net, I’ve also started cutting coupons, I’m a BIG TIME reader so I’ve joined paperbackswap.com to get some of the books that I really want to read (it costs me nothing to request books, but if someone requests one of mine all it costs me is postage), I will be starting to utilize my local library more as well. I’ve got more idea’s to but this could be a SUPER long paragraph if I share it all with you.

What I’m asking from you is for you to be my support system I guess. I could really use some “cheerleaders” right now because when I do ALL the math the number just makes me want to vomit. So to keep me honest I will be occasionally issuing myself challenges and I’ll be posting tickers of ALL my debt. Please feel free to share idea’s, suggestions, etc. with me…I’m literally all ears at this point.

2 comments:

Sweet Blessings said...

You are on the right track...day by day is my new motto...just focus on it as one step at a time....You can do it!!! I just know you will!!! I also found once I stopped using plastic it seemed like a had a LOT more money..simply amazing! Sweet blessings!

Unknown said...

2 steps forward 1 step back is still 1 step forward! :)

I'd start with the credit card with the biggest interest rate. Pay it off, and cut it up. Then move on to the next one. Also, stick them somewhere safe at home. If you don't take them with you, you can't be tempted to charge stuff on them. :)