Credit Cards

It was 18 months ago that Matt and I completely cut up all of our credit cards. We have some open credit lines that we are paying off, but we no longer have the cards to use to buy things. (Well, that's not entirely true, we do have a Sears card, we used this to buy our appliances in the fall, we have a 0% interest on those items as long as we pay them off by the due date.)

This has been the hardest thing ever! I don't mean the actual, physical act of cutting them up. I know that freaks some people out a lot. But, after I lost my job, we assumed I'd get a new job fairly quickly, when that didn't happen and I was getting farther and farther along in my pregnancy, we made as many cuts and changes as we could; pulled Garrett from daycare, switched our Internet and satellite plans, stopped eating out, changed auto insurance, etc. Anything I could think to call on and try and reduce our monthly budget on, I did. But, the honest truth is, we bought this house based on 2 incomes and both our cars too, so going to one income was a huge stretch for us.

Cutting up the credit cards seemed like the only other way to cut any extra spending, if we can't pay cash, we can't buy it. Sounds simple enough right?!?! Except for the fact that we always had/have just barely enough to cover all of our bills, so there was/is never any extra to buy things. I cannot have a bad day and run out and buy a new pair of shoes, the kids need new clothes, nope, can't charge it, I need new shoes, clothes, etc, nope, cannot just charge it and pay for it later. How many of you do that?!?! I bet a lot. It's easy, I "need" this and I'll just pay for it next month, etc.

It is SO hard, especially with a baby, who has a lot of needs. Some how, we are managing though. Don't ask me how, I don't know. The first huge help was the ladies at church, through the diaper drive they did, and a small baby shower i had, I had enough diapers for 6 months! I nursed Payton until she was 6 months and then the Dr's office kept me stocked with samples of formula, I never once bought a can of formula. And tons and tons of hand me downs, all for Payton. Poor Garrett, he's the same size as all our friends kids, so no hand me downs. Thankfully, he still fits into most of his clothes, so we get by and buy him just a couple new things each season.

I know it drives Matt nuts, he loves to shop, probably more then I do, and he just can't. Sometimes we break down and just have to buy things, he needs clothes for work, I had the same shorts going on 4 years, I had lost weight, nothing fit, and then my sandals broke. I mean sometimes you just have to buy things.

Last night we went to the mall, I saw SO many things I wanted, but I came home with a pair of $15 flip flops, that's all we spent. It is so hard. I wish we were in a different place financially, but we aren't. Some day, that's what we keep telling ourselves, someday, it'll be better. We'll probably never go back to using credit cards, but maybe someday we won't be so tight on cash and we can go shopping if/when we want to.