Shredding cc debt | Imamother

creditcards

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 12:32 am

watergirl wrote:

I hate to say it. But swimming lessons don’t happen if you can’t afford it without debt. Plumbing is a different story.

My parents said the same and I spent all my camp years sitting in the heat watching my bunkmates swim every day because I couldn't swim. It was definitely a necessity and horrible to be forced to sit in the sun every day, I wasn't allowed to stay indoors.

It also didn't help much for my social status and already damaged self esteem that I was the only one that couldn't swim.

It's in the same category as paying for therapy.

Of course kids who can swim without lessons don't need lessons.

creditcards

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 12:54 am

amother Blushpink wrote:

1 Stop spending on the credit card. Youre losing way more in interest than you're gaining in points
2. Create a strict budget and actually follow it. Throw everything you can at the debt

Creating budgets are useless when you have expenses you can't avoid. I created one on the first month I was married and spent all my time calculating and recalculation, and got me nowhere. If I didn't need to spend, I wouldn't even if I had $5 extra on my budget, and if I needed something hat wasn't on my budget I had to spend for it.

My method is: start out with spending as little as humanly possible. If you see you are able to pay your bills normally after a half a year, you spend a drop more than humanly possible the next half year. If you start seeing that you are going into debt you start again spending only absolute necessity. If you see after a while that you don't have any debt at all and even manage to put away for savings, I would allow myself to spend in order to be comfortable. I never had extra money, but if I did then I would spend for luxuries and help out others.

Many people use credit cards for practical reasons. A trick if you are overspending is to have cards with low credit limits and use only those. It gets declined when it's maxed out and you need to pay it in order to spend more.

amother

Seashell

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 1:09 am

What I've been trying to do lately is to not just pay the minimum, but rather to pay the minimum plus (when I can) the new interest that will be applied. So, for example, if the minimum is $75, but the interest is going to add on another $22 to the balance as soon as the next billing cycle hits, I'll pay that $22 too (for a total of $97 that payment) so at least I'm starting to bring the amount down more consistently.

If I can't do that, I'll at least pay a few bucks over the minimum.

You can also choose one credit card (out of however many you have) and focus on that as the one you will pay off first. It may be the one with the lowest balance, or the one with the highest interest, or some other reason why you'd love to clear that one up first. So for the next however long it takes, you don't spend on that one at all (barring emergencies, and even then only if there's no other choice), and each month you pay extra on that bill. When that one is (eventually) cleared off, you do the same with the next card, etc.

A faster way to do this (if you have good enough credit to do it) is to get a low/no interest card, and use that to pay off a higher interest one. Don't spend on the one you paid off or this new one! Then make the same (higher) payments you would have needed to make on the old card on this new one each month. Because of the low/no interest, the payments will go a lot further in making a dent in your debt. Once the new card is paid off, you can then use the lower interest card to attack the next higher interest one.

(If you can't get another card right now, free loan gemachs can probably help with this too).

amother

Blushpink

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 7:07 am

creditcards wrote:

There's no practical reason to use a credit card over a debit card if you know your bare minimums will be covered. You'll only know where your money is going if you have a budget. Budgets are allowed to evolve each month, I also typically recommend people spend about 2 months of analyzing their finances to figure out what can be cut.

When I was getting out of debt, I made cc payments weekly. I had a spreadsheet of what income was coming in and when and what bills where due that week. I would subtract what absolutely had to come out, another range of amount for groceries, gas etc, and whatever was left besides a $200 buffer, I would through at the credit card.

I also was bH able to have $2-3k in a separate savings account for emergencies so I wouldn't need to touch a credit card to get new tires.

I'm not anti credit card, my husband has a credit card for work and we love the bonuses from it. It's just 10x as hard to get out of debt if you keep building the balance. If your income is less than your expenses, that's a separate conversation with separate solutions because there's no mathematical way to not be in.debt in that situation.

amother

Hibiscus

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 8:14 am

Credit cards don't help bc you'll have to pay it someday and then you are paying so much more.
You can't see credit cards as an option.
If you cant cover necessary expenses you need to figure out a way to earn more. Then.
Cut any unnecessary expence.
Approach your rav for help.
Take tzedaka.
Try to find a gemach/someone to give in interest free loan.
If none of the above are possible you got to go without the necessary thing.
Spending on credit card is kicking the problem down the line. Unless of course you have a plan of a better job down the line. But, then you can get a loan with better interest rates.
Never spend money you don't have on credit cards!

Trademark

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 11:00 am

creditcards wrote:

I never took swimming lessons. Why can't a parent or someone else show them?

As far as I know most people I know learned how to swim that way, without official swimming lessons.

amother

Brass

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 11:20 am

When we had a time that we couldn’t pay our credit cards I basically only used cash, I saw in front of me the amount that can be used and I worked with it. We ate foods that were the least expensive, absolutely no take out, no ordering things online (obviously because that’s not cash) slowly but surely we were able to save enough to pay the cc. We actually didn’t even need to only use cash for that long bH, after we paid off the cards I was able to start using it again.

creditcards

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 11:22 am

amother Blushpink wrote:

Exactly that is the issue, if your expenses are more than the income. You don't need too much math to figure that out. You gotta start asking for handouts.
If you know your basics are covered, it doesn't make a difference what you use debit or credit card. If you need for basics, credit card can be a lifesaver.
That's exactly why I feel budgets are a waste of time. It took me so many hours calculating and recalculation without making much of a difference.
It's like going on diet and measuring each thing you eat to know how much you can eat, or just eating low carb all the time without measuring.

You can always look at your credit card statement at the end of the month and see what you can cut out for next month. (If you wanna know where your money went, I do that very often)
It's the planning out in advance when you have no idea what your expenses will be for the month that gets to me. After the fact, I would go back and check what could have been avoided. Expenses keep changing. It's like trying to guess exactly what you will eat all month in advance and stick to the plan.
Or making your diet plan as you go along and switch things around, based on your weight loss or gain.

Last edited by creditcards on Tue, Jun 27 2023, 11:30 am; edited 1 time in total

creditcards

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 11:45 am

Trademark wrote:

I never took swimming lessons. Why can't a parent or someone else show them?

As far as I know most people I know learned how to swim that way, without official swimming lessons.

Why do some kids need therapy while others not?
Swimming lessons are necessary for kids who can't learn any other way. ( mom can't swim either, many people tried teaching and weren't successful, or kid is terribly afraid of water and needs professional help) Of course if a kid doesn't need it it's not a necessity. Same with therapy. If a kid doesn't need the therapy then paying for it is not a necessity either.
My daughter is 10 and can't swim yet, I tried many ways of teaching her, if she won't learn by next year I will need to give her Swimming lessons.

creditcards

Tue, Jun 27 2023, 11:51 am

amother Hibiscus wrote:

I disagree on that one. It's many times a good solution to use credit card on things that are absolutely necessary and your life depends on it. You gotta think before, if you can't pay it back and you end up going bankrupt (which is an option) if it was worth it. If it's that important then yes use the card. But definitely self discipline comes in here. It's only for real emergencies.