Welcome to the forum!
They say admitting you have a problem is a great first step.
Let me tell you a secret, come here, move in close, I could be killed for what I am about to tell you, Ok listen:
Unless you are that .001% of the US population that is ultra rich, I mean Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Paris Hilton swimming pool filled with money delivered every day rich...you have a budget, and for the most part you try to stick to it.
You can clear $300,000 a year but if you spend $400,000 you are still screwed.
You need to change your attitude about money and how you handle it, use it, earn it save it and most importantly spend it. I am not sure if you are married and if you are you will need to get her on board but you need to:
I am serious when I say this is go buy a notebook. a small,spiral, fit in your pocket one, and every penny you spend that leaves your hands needs to be accounted for. Dieters do this a lot and it works- especially if you can stick to it.
Quit using credit or debit when you can, just take out a fixed amount from the bank and use that for a week. (No ATM transactions, you trend to spend more and may be charged fees and credit/debit causes many people to spend more)
Every McDonalds Coffee, Redbox rental, grocery run, newspaper, Bagel, Turnpike Toll, vending machine soda-write it down. large and small big tall, and bill payments, you wriet the check or th epayment comes out of yo account righ **bleep** down.
Every Sunday transpose it all to a master list.
After thirty days take a good hard look at it really look at it.
See where your money goes.
I firmly believe that anyone who has not taken a good hard fearless look at their monthly finances is frittering away hundreds of dollars.
So see where it goes.
You may be surprised to see that the $3.85 you spend on coffee daily is actually $77.00 a month And that you spend $11.00 a day eating out or ordering lunch in when if you packed it you would only spend $4.00 or even less assuming leftovers (11-4=7. 7*5*4.=140 a month)
And thats free hard after tax income if yo compar eit to what you have normally been spending and what you are now saving.
Stopping both for a month would pay off a credit card in full.
Just because you make a hundred K a year does not mean you should not have a budget and know what you are spending. And if you have spent money before under the belief you make enough and should be able to do X______, you are probably still also overspending every day in other areas:
be it eating out alone with family or whatever, ordering pizza instead of buying frozen, not shopping aggressively, having all the cable channels you never watch, both a blockbuster and netflix subsription, One stop shopping at a grocery store instead of comparison shopping between several stores(which usually adds 30% to what you spend,) phone service you do not use/need, not shopping around insurance, not shopping prescriptions, picking up the check for the group, not exploring quality generics,(wal mart mouthwash vs Listerine $3.00 a bottle)
Shopping with a grocery list and limiting shopping trips, along with buying what you eat and eating what you buy (vs throwing it away) is said to save an average family $25-$60 a week in unnecessary spending.
I say you could probably come up with $500 a month minimum in savings/extra money and use that to pay your cards down.
I live alone and save over 300 that way.
EDITED CAUSE SOMEDAYS I HAVE BAD SPELLING, BUT THIS WAS HORRIBLE.
Message Edited by usmc58555 on 08-29-2009 12:30 PM
