Well when I got out of college, I immediately had an amazingly well paid job. This was huge for an independent young girl. I lived by myself so I turned to shopping out of boredom but I am sure that having to wear a Catholic school uniform for 12 years of my life had something to do with that in addition to being college poor. I was finally able to afford what I wanted. So, I went out and bought, bought, bought. In the beginning, I would use a card then pay it off. Then came a change in my job. My boss had to make me a salary employee and drop my pay in order to stay working with him. I took the pay decrease so that I can get my year experience but that took a toll on my wallet. Now, I couldn't pay off what was on the card and I couldn't and didn't stop the shopping. So you guessed it, my debt grew and grew. In trying to make some changes, I took out a loan to consolidate and pay off the high interest cards but then fell into the credit card trap again when I had to buy a new bed. Believe me when I say that I needed a new bed. For two years I was sleeping on a twin mattress that had a majority of the springs sticking through the mattress. Now, I didn't need the exact bed and mattress that I bought but that is another story.
Anyway, before I got married I knew I had to make some changes in my financial status. Definitely did not want that as a burden to my hubby so we both worked together to kill our debts and not create anything new. We saved up a lot of money for the wedding and was able to not use any credit to pay for items (Yay us!). After the wedding, I worked hard in paying off my personal debt. I didn't get to save much but I have been able to start killing my unnecessary debt. So since then, I paid off that stinkin loan and two credit cards. So today I only have two more credit cards and my student loan. I can't tell you how great it feels to get rid of the crappy cc debt that I had incurred. I just wish I knew then what I know now. I would have been able to save more money for this house we will be buying in the next few months.
I have definitely learned quite a few lessons from this whole experience and am really excited for the future hence why I had to share my story. So the countdown is on to being credit card debt free! Wish me luck!
Have any of you had a smiliar experience? Are you working on being debt free or at least credit card debt free?
Good for you! It's so exciting to be rid of a major debt! Hubs just finished paying off his student loan last month and it's so great to have that debt gone, plus have some money freed up to go towards other debt.
ReplyDeletethat's great especially since you can now teach your baby girl about being financially savvy. :D congrats on getting a house soon too. we don't have any debt but we are far away from getting a house. i just graduated and i need to find a job before we seriously begin considering getting a house.
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