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Saving Success Stories: Crazykelly
The Way Things
Used to Be
I used to drop off my oldest daughter off at
preschool, and my younger daughter and I would
zoom off to places like Walmart, Target, TJMaxx
or Old Navy. I finish up in time to pick her up
with bags in the back and wonder why we were
livin' so lean.
I had a moment of clarity a few
weeks ago about our money and how all these
years of only "kind of knowing" what was really
going on was getting us nowhere.
The Lightbulb Moment
A few months ago we were driving
around on fumes until the next payday. It was a
Tuesday night and about 7pm my husband called
me, furious. He was over five hours away on
business and couldn't check into the hotel due
to our credit card being declined. It's
not that I wasn't paying the credit card, I just
wasn't paying the correct amount on it. The
balance kept growing but because I wasn't paying
attention, he reached his limit which resulted
in our credit card denial.
After that fiasco ( I had to call
a family member for the first time ever and ask
for them to cover the bill) I swore that
was it; and it was. Funny thing is, the
next day it was payday and we had a very large
check.
What I've Done To
Pay Down Debt:
Gotten rid of Netflix
Cancelled the newspaper
Cancelled the lawn boy
Cancelled Chemlawn
Stopped going to fast food to "keep the girls
awake" before nap
Stopped turning in my dvds late to the library
Stopped going to Target each week
Stopped garage saling every weekend (taking
$20-40 each time)
Started using up what I have in my kitchen -
same holds true for what's in my freezer
My New Outlook
This new financial outlook is like a diet or
rehab. At first it's hard (hard not to find a
reason to go and buy stuff)
but now, since I've seemed to have gotten over
the hump, I walked around Walmart today and had
no desire to get anything. I'm hell bent on
using what I have. The Target clearance
stuff is just annoyance for me now. I really see
now that the end cap stuff that is always there
- and stuff I fall for is just clutter in my
home and is rarely used.
I am so crazed about paying down my credit card
debt that every time I "find" money (consigning,
rolled coin, returns) I immediately go to the
bank, deposit the money then call the credit
card company and make a payment. Before I was
making a smaller payment each month, now I make
a larger payment and call in little payments all
the time.
I still catch myself when I drop off my daughter
at school; I get in my car and think, "Hmmm
where can we go?" and run though a list of
choices. Then I remind myself:
#1 We don't need anything
#2 We don't need any more junky clearance and
#3 Grow up!
I'm so disgusted in how we've handled our money
and when I look back at the past 6 months and
see all the receipt totals for the grocery
store, Walmart, Target it sickens me.
Now that I've stopped shopping cold turkey, I'm
not going to any of those places. It's an
interesting problem: I realize I have nothing to
do! Not literally; yes I have loads of laundry
and cleaning to get done, but I suddenly had all
this extra time on my hands that I used to fill
with shopping. Now I go to the gym with my
daughter or stay home and actually get to some
of the chores I never thought I had time for.
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