how do I NOT use my card?

[Anonymous]

I do my finances every Friday. When I started, it took me 2 hours the first couple of times.

4 months later it takes about 15 minutes. I go through 3 credit cards, 7 student loans, 2 bank accounts, and my cash on hand, every Friday.

Every Friday I know down to the penny this very simple equation: bank account balances + Cash - Credit cards = X

If x is $5k or greater and I'm not near 29% utilization, then it's okay to use the cards. If not, I need to layoff on purchases.

Basically, $5k is $0 to me and 29% of my CL is my max.

Those are my rules and I'm sticking to them. I can easily PIF 29% of my CL each month. Plus, CRAs set that as a max usage point before they ding my credit score.

I go a little deeper, myself. But that is the jist of how use my cards.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I do my finances every Friday. When I started, it took me 2 hours the first couple of times.

4 months later it takes about 15 minutes. I go through 3 credit cards, 7 student loans, 2 bank accounts, and my cash on hand, every Friday.

Every Friday I know down to the penny this very simple equation: bank account balances + Cash - Credit cards = X

If x is $5k or greater and I'm not near 29% utilization, then it's okay to use the cards. If not, I need to layoff on purchases.

Basically, $5k is $0 to me and 29% of my CL is my max.

Those are my rules and I'm sticking to them. I can easily PIF 29% of my CL each month. Plus, CRAs set that as a max usage point before they ding my credit score.

I go a little deeper, myself. But that is the jist of how use my cards.

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This is awesome ... we're not there yet, but that's where I want us to be. Thanks for sharing that

[Anonymous]

Wow that is perfection, thanks for sharing, very informative