GatewayRedbirds.com

Today marks two years since we have used a credit card. Two years ago we found ourselves with two almost maxed out credit cards and had to make a change. Several things had led to the debt but we couldn't continue down that path. Unfortunately we haven't been able to pay down the cards as fast as we wanted to. My wife recently took a second job so we could get through Christmas without using credit cards and to pay them off faster. The debt and financial troubles have been difficult and trying on our marriage but I'm pretty proud of us for making the decision to quit using them and sticking with it for 2 years.

Good for you. That takes discipline.

Congrats. The fact we made it thru this Christmas without having to use them was a big deal for us.

I know I'm still paying for my wife's poor financial decisions before we met... and for ones while we've been together.

That's huge, man. My wife has a friend who has been through bankruptcy a couple of times, and still cannot stop racking up debt. And the CC companies keep taking her back!!!

Congrats to you! Keep it up!!!

We severely underestimated the cost of having a kid. Coupled with back to back severe droughts. Eating out was, and still continues to be, to big of an expense for us. It's cheaper, healthier, and generally better tasting to eat at home, but it's to easy to eat out when you've both had long days at work and don't want to cook or clean afterwards.

Maybe if you cut back on the milk??



I would only give [expletive] like that to a friend.

That'd be a lot more defensible than us. She made a series of bad financial decisions, and coupled with student loan payments after getting her Masters means I've had to shoulder the load for most of our bills. When her car needed a new transmission, we didn't have the money to pay for repairs, so we took out a credit card. We no longer have the car but I'm still the one paying for it. I feel like sometimes I become boring old Mr. Reliable who she knows is going to do what it takes to keep us afloat, and to that end, I get taken advantage of.

Yes it would. Do buy our milk from Braums which is about $1 cheaper then most places and better anyway.

This time of year is hard also because Christmas gets you out of your saving and not spending mode. We had to do some Christmas returns and exchanges last week and made a few purchases that we probably didn't need to. Got bit by the "but it's on sale" bug. Didn't go crazy but the holiday spending made it easier for us to make additional purchases.