Homecooked meals help keep the budget down
Sounds harsh I know, but seriously why do you think you are in debt? If you really want to get rid of the debt then not only do you need a plan to pay it off that you’ll stick to you also need to quit buying more stuff.
Quite recently my husband and I have gotten ourselves into a bit of credit card debt. Yes I know – I’m a finance blogger (and author) – I should know better.
Ahem.
Well anyway we have. And it’s causing a few sleepless nights for us let me tell you.
The main reason why it’s such a struggle to pay off credit cards is pretty simple: no matter what we seem to earn, we always spend right up to that amount. So when you DO get yourself into a bit of debt and you DON’T change your spending habits then you are not going to get out of it.
For the first few months I kept putting it off and using the usual excuses, “We’ll pay it off once Hubby gets that big cheque he’s waiting on”, or “No problem the stock market will get better soon”.
Er, not quite.
There are two ways to have enough money to pay off your debts: Earn more or spend less.
And since our income wasn’t likely to increase in the next few months it was time to drastically reduce our expenses.
So for one month I just stopped spending. We bought food of course (the kids get cranky when we don’t feed them) but anything that wasn’t a bare bones survival item was off the list.
So did it work? Did not spending for one month help us get out of debt?
Well .. it helped. We certainly made a dent in it, but there is still a long way to go.
But I actually found many more benefits of stopping spending than just saving some extra money. It made me realise just how much we want ‘stuff’ to fill a need.
I know that if I see a moisturising cream that promises a wrinkle free forehead then I’m interested (even though to date I have not found such a miracle cream and likely never will). Or if I see something gorgeous for my house in a magazine then I want to recreate the look in my own home (even though my furniture is perfectly functional).
Why do we think all of this stuff is going to help us become happier? All it really seems to do is make us poorer and more stressed.
Now I’m not saying that you should give up shopping forever (especially as Christmas is just around the corner – the department stores are already putting up their decorations). But perhaps for one month (or even one week) you could try going without anything unnecessary and see how you go.
Right now I have returned to buying a few things here and there although my budget is still very tight and I don’t get quite as much stuff as I used to.
Hopefully I can go back to normal again once this dreaded credit card bill gets wiped out, or perhaps I’ll continue to spend less and more frugally which is probably more likely the case.
Whatever your financial situation is it’s not a bad option to do a spending detox like I have just for the experience.
I’ll keep you posted on the debt situation.
Tracey xx
