I feel so guilty!

[Anonymous]

I am always responsible with credit.  I have $75k in CLs on 6 cards and only one, Discover, has a balance of $1500.  It's the remnants of a BT and incidental use.  Well, today I bought two new mattress sets and put it on that card.  My daughter and her husband and two kids moved out of my 5 bedroom house so I had 3 empty bedrooms.  I've been frugally decorating two of the rooms.  I made things, painted old furniture and picture frames, sewed pillows, even made two headboards.  I bought the bedding and accessories over the last couple of months on clearance, store closings, etc. 

There was just no way I was going to buy used mattresses.  That just grosses me out.  I got a pretty good deal on a queen set and a twin set at a mattress store.  The queen is a Serta Perfect Sleeper Super Pillow Top that was normally $1399 and I got it for $999.  The twin was normally $270 and I got it for $200.  All told, including tax, I paid under $1300 for both of them.  I got a decent queen because it will go in MY bedroom and the full sized one I am currently using in a queen bedframe is going into the other room.  My daughter and her family will be visiting at Christmas, they moved out of state, and they'll have beds to sleep on.

I can probably pay off the total balance on that card in 3 or 4 months.  So why do I feel so quilty?  I bought something that I couldn't have paid cash right now to buy.

[haulingthescoreup]

Credit, as in briefly carrying a balance, is for situations like this --relatively big-ticket items that you genuinely need, that you know that you can pay off in 3-4 months.

Do realize that if either the BT or previous purchases are at a lower APR than the mattress purchase, your payments will probably go to them, so you'll wind up with some extra interest. Sounds like you already know how that works, though, from your description of the existing $1500 balance.

[Anonymous]

You feel guilty because the thought of carrying debt bothers you on a personal level. I think most of us who PIF feel this way when we carry for a few months for these larger purchases. I feel the same way at the moment I am carrying 1700 for some large routine maintence on my car to be paid off by Febuary. It really does get under my skin just looking at that balance but it was neccessary.

Like the other poster said that is the purpose of credit anyway to make our lives easier. The guilt is good though just means your head is in the right place about debt. You will not become a statistic of credit excess.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys.  It does bother me to have a balance more than I know that I COULD pay off in one payment if I wanted to.  I know that this is one thing that credit is for... short term financing for unexpected expenses. I did transfer $1000 to my savings account this month because I knew I would be making the purchase at some point. It left me a little tight on cash for incidentals for the rest of the month but I can live with that more than I can live with debt that I have trouble paying.

The mattress store offered me 0% financing for 14 months and I thought about it for a few minutes.  I decided that I didn't want to open any new credit accounts.  The Discover card has cash back and my interest rate for purchases is 6.24%.  It's not going to cost me much in interest for a few months and it's more incentive to pay it off and not let it drag on for 14 months. 

One really good note...  My gas & electric bill is only $49 this month!!  The bills for the last few months were $262, $161, $76, and now $49.  With just me living here I'm at work all day, haven't used the heat or air conditioning, don't leave the lights and TV going in several rooms all day, don't use the dish washer for so few dishes, etc.  That's a spare $200 that can go towards paying it off.

[My2cents]

Pam you're OK.  Continue with the good financial moves.  From your fellow forumer My2cents

[Anonymous]

Just breath. You're a good person and this will be done very soon. You've done nothing to harm yourself or anybody else. >pats Pamela on the back and smiles....

[Not_the_Point]

You can always rent the rooms out to strangers after Christmas and make some money off the extra rooms to pay for the new mattresses

[Itsmeagain]

Sure, rent the rooms to strangers so they can trash your new matresses and maybe steal your identity while you're at work . . . . NOT!

Sounds like you are using your credit wisely and the guilt is a good thing, at least for me.  It reminds me of what has happened in the past and I really, really don't want to ever go there again.

Enjoy the new furniture.

[Anonymous]

Whenever it comes up that I live alone in a 5 bedroom house people say to rent out the rooms.  I'm enjoying a clean house for the moment and I have my home office and a sewing room.  Only two rooms left and they're going fast!

I'm thinking about getting a pet.

[Anonymous]

Judicious use of credit is never something to feel guilty about -- you COULD have gone out and charged $5K in new furniture rather than re-cycling stuff you have.  Instead you only charged what you absolutely needed to charge.

I get the 'enjoying having the house to oneself' part... if you can handle any mortgage/taxes/utilities and don't need the extra income (and it is taxed as income)... then don't create a hassle in your life.