There are two defining moments in our financial past that I wish I could "do-over". They both involve our credit cards (or "cheetahs" as Dave Ramsey calls them) and despite knowing what a bad idea it all was, I still managed to get us in a mess.
The first moment was when we signed up for our first real credit card. I had a store card that I didn't use very often and while I occasionally carried a balance, it wouldn't be for long. However when I convinced myself and Caleb that we needed the actual bank card for building our credit and of course, emergencies, I started us on a path of debt that is killing our monthly budget.
The second moment took place in July of 2008...I had been working for the bank for about a year and in that year we had attacked the debt on the aforementioned credit card. We had the stupid thing down to a $300 balance and were so close to paying it off. But for some reason something in me hit a snag that July. My "gazelle" behavior suddenly stopped and I let the cheetah catch up.
It all started innocently enough, we bought a wedding gift for a friend of ours when we were short on cash, then I found out I was pregnant. We didn't have a huge food budget and I told myself that I needed to buy a bunch of healthy food ... so I dropped $200 in one shopping trip using the card. From there it just spiraled out of control.
Looking back I could just shoot myself. When I dwell on it, it's almost maddening because I KNEW credit cards were bad. I had read and listened to enough of Dave Ramsey even at that point, that I knew his thoughts on the darn things. Yet I still let us get sucked in. I still managed to get us into 11k in credit card debt on two different credit cards.
My goal in this blog is to create not only accountability for my family and myself but also to keep my head in the game. If I get distracted I know I wont keep up the behavior we need to conquer this. Stay tuned, my next post will be about or mortgage and how we managed to do everything Dave Ramsey says not to do.
Eh, hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
I'm right there with you! We have paid "stupid tax" so many times it makes my head spin. And guess what...we're back in it! GRRR. I feel like a goober. Keeping each other accountable??? :)
ReplyDelete