So I think I missed exactly what is going on with this Spending Freeze, did we make a pact or something? Anyways, Joel and I have been working on our debt for a while - having Alex set us back a bit and then buying the house did as well with repairs and appliances we needed. So Joel has been better about this than I. I see sales and clothes and want want want and I do well where I'll put it off and put it off and then finally I give in and go on a mini-spree. I gave myself the deadline of Alex's birthday to stop spending and really crack down on our debt.
Well, we received great news today! We were approved for our personal loan from a local lender that will greatly reduce the amount of interest we're paying and will consolidate all but one credit card. This is awesome because we'll be able to pay the amount we were paying in interest right onto the principal and it will be paid off in half the time we were thinking it would take. The f'ed up part of this? My first thought was YAY shopping spree!! Whyyyyyy?! I should just be thrilled that we won't have to worry so much and that we'll be done with all this sooner than expected and THEN I can go on a sweet shopping spree with all the cash we will have.
Re: $$ MM - SF $$
Alex woke up and clicked post before I entered my question!
SO how is this whole spending freeze working on here? I need support!
Stand up for something you believe in.
... and the Warden be scary!
updated 10.03.12
Truth.
I've been thinking about looking into a small personal loan to consolidate our cc debt as well, as it's spread out among several cards. It would be a lot easier to just pay one bill each month, and would save us on interest!
I hear you on automatically wanting to go shopping though. That's my kneejerk reaction any time we get any kind of windfall.
Yeah the personal loan was the way to go for us right now. Our credit scores will take a little hit but we're not going to be making any major purchases for a while so we're good with that. The shopping spree was even harder to put out of my mind when Joel came home with a check for the full amount of the loan which will be divided and deposited into both our accounts to pay off our respective cards. That will be the largest amount either of us have ever had in our accounts at one time and the kicker is there is an "extra" $2k in there because they gave us the full amount we were approved for and not just the amount of the debt so technically we could do whatever with that, but we're being smart and just putting it right back onto the loan. Being adults it weird :-P
Before you do that, look at balance transfers on your current CCs. We get offers all the time for 0% on balance transfers for X period of time. Makes it easier to consolitate everything on to one card and one payment. And it cuts off your interest on the balance for the alloted time.
Nooner's right, we did that to begin with but now all our 0% accounts have ended and there are no offers on the horizon so we went this root instead. Felt really good tonight to "pay off" all my credit cards. It will be great to actually chip away at one account now instead of three! I know it's the same thing but it just feels better and like progress which is nice!