Credit card debt

Michelle Singletary has a regular blog/column in the Washington Post. While I am not saying anyone should subscribe to the newsletter she talks about, her column Sunday has some useful tips on paying down credit card debt that I thought some of my readers might appreciate.

Month old coffee?

Someone wise once told me never to “charge” anything I wouldn’t have left to show for it when the bill came. As a result, I don’t put food on credit. Instead I buy with debit. Whenever I go to the grocery store, it is always on debit. Same goes for when I buy newspapers or magazines or go to the movies. Our Netflix account is with debit.

There is something about paying for something you have long since consumed or thrown away. It’s galling and if you start to think of expenditures this way, you will be amazed at how quickly your credit card will go down.

Coffee at Starbucks? Will I really enjoy it a month later? (No.) So, do I have the money in my debit account to pay for it now? Yes, ok. No, then don’t get it.

Almost all our necessary expenditures, including homeowners insurance, food, clothes, etc. are paid for on debit. The one exception to this is gas for the car, because I heard gas stations will put a hold on the account for more than the value of gas if its hooked up to debit, so we use credit there. Using this rule of thumb went a long way in helping us keep our credit expenditures low.