Average credit card debt per household is creeping over $16,000. With sky-high interest rates, simply making your minimum payment every month is no easy task.
We get it. And we’ve been there.
You’re drowning in debt and you don’t see a way out. But we’re hear to tell you there IS a life after debt and you CAN get out of it – probably more easily than you think!
Here are three ways to pay off credit card debt fast.
This week, we are switching from only using our debit cards to only using a credit card. Some of you may think we’re crazy and that we’ll wind up in debt.
My husband and I have always been debit users. Don’t spend what you don’t have, right? We would use our credit cards for booking hotel rooms and other large expenses, or if we didn’t have money in our checking account. We paid them off every month, but we viewed the credit cards as “for emergency and big expenses only.”
So, when my husband brought up using credit cards for every single purchase, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t freak out a little. He mentioned the idea to me a few months ago, and I’m finally ready to make the switch. Here are three reasons why I agreed to only use a credit card from here on out.
This is the main reason we are switching from debit to credit – cash back. We are getting the BankAmericard Cash Rewards Credit Card. Just for signing up, you get $100 cash back if you spend $500 in the first 90 days. For expenses, you get 3 percent cash back on gas (which we spend a lot on), 2 percent back at grocery stores, and 1 percent back on everything else.
Right now, we are kind of a mess with our banks and cards. We both bank at Bank of America (joined account), I have a Chase checking and savings, we have an online savings account, John has a credit card through Capital One, and I have a credit card through Chase. With one card that we use for everything, our lives will be simplified.
We use Mint right now to track our expenses, and while that’s great, there are so many categories and it takes a few days to update. If we only have one credit card that we’re making purchases with, it’ll be super easy to track and monitor our daily, weekly and monthly spending.
The fear of overspending on the card is why I’ve waited so long to make the switch. I’ve overspent on credit cards in the past, and certainly didn’t want to make a habit of it and wind up in trouble. The way we’re getting around this is simple – we are paying the credit card off daily.
So, in other words, if we can’t pay it our purchases off that day, we aren’t buying them. It’ll basically be the same as using our debit cards, except we’ll be earning cash back on every single purchase.
Keeping today’s post short and sweet, as I’m preparing for my very first book launch tomorrow! You can pre-order it today or just wait until tomorrow to make the purchase, if you’re interested. I’m also in the process of launching a brand new blog that will be my new brand and business. I’ll still be blogging here, too, but this new blog completely encompasses who I am. I can’t wait to share more details with you! (For those that buy my book, my new domain is in there. For those that don’t purchase my book, I’ll be sharing my new site within a month!)
Do you use a debit card or a credit card for everyday purchases? Why or why not?!
Have your bills recently increased and you’re wondering how you’re going to make ends meet? Though it’s good to be working our way OUT of debt, sometimes life happens and we end up getting more into debt or our bills increase for some other reasons (such as sending your little one to preschool or dance class).
In the past year since moving from Arizona to North Carolina, our bills have increased significantly. Our mortgage has more than doubled, our utility bills are higher thanks to said mortgage, and we’ve added full-time daycare for our girls to the mix now that I’m back to working full-time. Between those three things, it’s safe to say our bills have increased well over $2,000 per month.
Today, I wanted to share what you can do when your bills increase, whether it’s by $100 per month or thousands per month, like us.
We recently purchased a house – a big, beautiful home in an awesome neighborhood with an incredible lot. We by no means maxed out our budget, but this was at the very high end of what we wanted to spend. We’ve been here roughly two weeks now, and I can honestly say that this was a great decision for our family.
When we first moved to Charlotte, our goal was to downsize and simplify our lives. All the talk nowadays seems to be on downsizing and living simply. Trust me, I can get on board with that and understand why people want less bills, less stuff and less to take care of. In just our two weekends here, we’ve been swamped with errands and chores. But honestly? I like that! I still relax, but I kind of enjoy the fast-paced lifestyle of working FT, freelancing on the side, being a mom and wife, taking care of the house and more. I’m never bored, and that is a huge blessing!
Hi everyone!
So, big news over here: WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!! Not just any house, this is our dream home. Interesting story actually – it went on the market about 5 months ago and we found it when we were driving through a neighborhood one night (it’s our favorite neighborhood) on our way home from Publix. I had John stop the car so I could get out and take a picture. I LOVED this house. I even sent the photo off to a few friends and family members saying, “Check out this house! It’s my dream home in my dream neighborhood!”
Of course, at the time, John and I were both working for ourselves. We weren’t shopping for a house as we knew it would be another good 1 1/2 years before we could get a loan. Obviously by then, the house would be sold.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that we recently moved into a rather large rental home. With a bigger house comes higher utility bills. I obviously knew this going in but when you’re actually paying the bill, it stings a little harder.
Last month, we slightly decreased our outrageous utility bills – including water, gas and electric. When we first moved in, our electric bill was $197. Last month, it was $117 which seemed like a big drop, but really we just didn’t have to pay the activation fee and the cycle was shorter.
Hello friends! It’s been about a week since I’ve blogged and I’ve missed it. Unfortunately for me, when freelancing gets busy I tend to forget about my blog. In all reality, I should put my blog first no matter what, since I hope to one day earn a full-time income from it. But since I don’t currently make much money blogging (I just made my first $100!), it’s easy to focus on the work that I’m getting paid to do and not blog instead of doing both, like I should be doing.
I took on a big project that involved writing 50 articles! I finished it in about 8 days, but between my regular freelance work and a few other miscellaneous side projects, I was swamped last week. It looks like this week will be a little more low-key, so plan on at least 2-3 posts from me đŸ™‚
Since moving into a larger home, I have been worried about what our utilities were going to be. Well, after receiving our gas bill last week and our electric bill over the weekend, it’s safe to say we will be cutting back immensely this month.
Our gas bill was $167, our electric bill was $196 and our water bill was $48.
Let’s break it down…
January was a cold month here in NC, especially for us considering we are from AZ. We decided to put our thermostat at 70 degrees and adjust as needed depending on that first bill. This may surprise some of you, but I’m actually OK with the $167 gas bill. John and I decided if it was more than $200, we would turn it down but since it’s $167, we’re keeping it at 70 degrees. I know I’m a wimp…but I’m FREEZING even though to most people 70 is probably warm. I definitely plan on lowering the thermostat next winter once we’ve adjusted a bit to the colder climate. In comparison, our electric bill in AZ over the summer months was $250-$300 keeping it 80-81 degrees in a 1700 sq ft house. It’s all relative…
If I’m being completely honest, I don’t really follow a budget. Now, that’s not to say I don’t know where my money goes, don’t save and spend frivolously. In fact, I do the opposite of all of those things. But an actual budget? I’ve just never really taken the time to create it and follow it. It seems too time-consuming and stressful, and I personally like my method of managing money. It’s allowed us to save, move across the country, invest and work for ourselves. Not to say not having a budget is for everyone, but here’s why I don’t follow one and what exactly I do instead.
To keep track of how we’re doing financially and how we’re increasing our net worth, it only makes sense to list out our fixed expenses for the month. Last month, you saw we only brought in $1,885. If this keeps up, we will be broke before we know it (it won’t…we moved from Arizona to North Carolina at the end of August and my husband was out of work for the month of September).
Total monthly bills: $2,052
I’m not going to list out our variable bills because, well, they vary each month and I don’t see the point. While my husband and I do tell our money where to go each month, I don’t like to use the term “budget.” I’ll do a post on this, but our philosophy is we buy what we need and anything else we think about and see if we can afford it. I’m not going to budget $80 a month towards entertainment, because most months I don’t want to spend that much on entertainment. I’m also not going to budget $100 for diapers, because if we need more diapers before the month is over…we’re buying them! Those are a need and we will get those no matter what.
Instead of budgeting $500 for food, why not meal plan, cook at home as often as possible, buy items on sale and use coupons?…all the time. That’s what I do and it works great. Some months I’m sure I spend a bit more and others a bit less, but overall it evens out. We also only buy what we want to eat within that week. I hate stocking up on food, because most likely it will just sit in the freezer for months before getting thrown out.
Assuming we need $3,000 per month to live, that means I would like our income to get to $4,500 a month to allow us to save and invest. Since John’s income goal for October is $3,000 and mine is $1,700, this is very realistic for us right now.
Readers: How much do your monthly fixed bills cost you?