A pal of mine once remarked that I was addicted to spending money, that money burns a hole in my pocket. I denied this for years, but I am here today to tell you she was right: I’ve cut out credit cards from my spending cold turkey, and I now have the shakes. That’s right, withdrawl.
The first month on this restricted living on a budget is now over, and I’ve just sent off my last big CC payment. (Netflix bills via CC, so I’ll still be getting a Discover bill monthly, but that’s no big deal). I don’t even carry my CC’s with me; they’re at home in a drawer.
So, today, I’m crusing the internet during lunch and I think…hmm, almost time to buy some race tires for the upcoming autocross season. This launches me through a bonanza of sites designed for impulse purchases: First, my cellphone contract is up next month, so I visited Cingular, Nextel, and T-Mobile looking for other plans and phones. All the plans and phones are $45-$60/month (YIKE!), so I head over to Vonage, gazing longingly at their Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) stuff, where you can make unlimited calls from home for $25/month. Then I’m back over to TireRack looking at other tire solutions for my MINI (drat Whitney’s uncle George, he has me looking @ Michelins!).
I can’t count the number of little piddly things I’ve bought with a credit card on a whim that weren’t “expensive”, but weren’t cheap–a gadget for $70, a set of $40 wiper blades (yeah, that was “Paying the stupid tax”), things off ebay, books off amazon I could just as easily get from the library. I DO love my Ken Onion Chive knife, but it was a definite impulse buy. Likewise, I love my GTO, but that’s the biggest impulse purchase I’ll ever make!
Anyway, the point: I’m off impulse purchases. If I need to buy something online with a CC, I have to get the thing out of the drawer AT HOME to do it. My bank account, my kids’ college funds, and my personal sanity will thank me for it, I’m sure, but right now it’s PAINFUL! :-D