Several years ago I noticed that my credit card bills were fairly high. This wasn’t a big concern, as I pay off the balance every month. But I recalled a time when it never went over $300. I use my card to do almost all my purchasing, so it easily goes over that.
As a test of character, I decided to do my best to make sure my credit card bill was as low as possible for a month. I would still use the card for all the purchases I would normally do, but just try and not do them; No paying cash for things I would normally use the card for. That would be cheating.
At no time was I in financial peril. It was just an experiment. And I’ve proven it is possible for me to do it. In fact I’ve repeated the exercise every so often.
And now it is time again. After all the heavy purchasing I’ve done over the past few months, I need to get some discipline back in my life. For the month of March I will try and be a good shopper and only buy things that I actually need. Costco may provide me an out though; They don’t accept credit cards so I have to pay via debit.
This will also restrict movie nights somewhat, as I’ll be borrowing from friends instead of renting. But I have lots of friends who buy too many DVDs. All in all, this is probably good for me.
Oh, and I checked my old credit card bills. The time I recalled was a lie. I’ve never had a credit card bill below $300, except when I do these vows of poverty.