As of December 31st, 2017, I had zero balances on any of my credit cards. Bank, Nordstrom, nothing. The story of how I got to the point of needing to pay off a card is embarrassing but also extremely telling about my personal shopping habits and where I was most vulnerable. The whole exercise was a look into my emotional habits, my dedication to a long-term planning and being disciplined.

Here’s my story about how I had a credit card balance and what was was the tipping point where I had ENOUGH and took care of it.

It started out innocent enough, it always does. I had some moving expenses. I didn’t want to get super low in my checking account and so I put a large Target run on the card that “I’ll just pay off with this paycheck.” And then I thought while I was at it, maybe I should stop in at Loft and see what is on sale this week. Pretty soon, I realized I had $1,000 on my card. Freak. Out.

I grew up in an extremely fiscally responsible home. I had a job when I was young. In college I had one student credit card that had a $500 limit and never went above $200. I don’t know why I decided that when I was moving into my own place I should abandon the practices that my parent ingrained in me. Yes Mom and Dad, you do sometimes know best. (They are probably going to screenshot this)

So it was a classic story. I made payments. Then something would come up to knock the balance up just a little bit and I threw in the towel and bought myself something. Then one day I looked at my account balances and I was just OVER it. Like so, so over it. There was a comma in the balance and that was when I had a get real moment.

My Pay Off My Credit Card Plan

I googled “Should I pay off credit cards or save?” and of course got a million articles. This one was really good in particular. So I decided that instead of splitting say $200 a month between savings and credit card, I would reduce savings to $25 auto-transferred weekly on a Friday and the rest went to paying off a card. This way I was paying off the immediate costs (debt) but still able to put away savings.

Also I had to have a really frank conversation with myself about my priorities. If I didn’t have enough to purchase something without being low in my checking, I didn’t. Do I really *need* that sweater? Probably not. So now I have a firm rule that I have to think about something for 36 hours before I can purchase it.

I downloaded Mint, which has its pros and cons, but it gave me an idea of how completely out of whack my spending was.

I also spent a lot of time looking at my shopping habits. Guess what! I spend more money on Thursday (my favorite day of the week!) on impulse purchases. I don’t carry my credit card with me on Thursdays (oh and never to Target with a credit card).

Speaking of Target. I travel a lot for work (I’ll be gone for two weeks in January) and I started going weeks and then a whole month without Target. I realized that I don’t go to Target because I need something, but rather I needed to get out and a little alone time. So, now I’ve identified when I need this time and tried to find non-spendy ways to divert my own attention. Now when I go to Target I rarely look at clothes and actually consistently leave with only what I went in for.

I didn’t shop for the blog. I bought only what I legitimately needed and loved. Nothing because I thought it would be good for the blog. My Nordstrom card was the real issue when it came to this. It was like free stuff showed up. Until you know, I got that lovely reminder I had an upcoming payment.

Staying Out of Debt

Focus on the feeling of relief –  This is a big deal to me now that I can log into my account and see a zero balance on my card. While I didn’t want to acknowledge how heavily having a balance weighed on me, it’s been lifted and I realize how much it bothered me.

Make your savings twice that of your balance – This was HUGE to me. My subconscious would throw all these worst-case scenarios at me. What if you lose your job? Do you have enough to pay off this card? My focus is now on increasing savings and having an emergency fund AND a savings account. I’m focusing on savings now in 2018.

Honestly the accountability of knowing I was going to write a post about debt is also a thing. While I am not proud that I got caught up in spending too much, I am proud that I paid it off. The knowledge my family would read this. Friends. Enemies. All that jazz. All of it kept me accountable. The feeling of being able to write this is better than whatever I want to purchase.

Seeing my credit score go up monthly. That is worth it alone.

It’s not a super amazing story of how I got out of $50,000 in credit card debt. I didn’t have extreme but to me, this was a very big deal. It took me holding myself accountable. Self-discipline about money hasn’t been as strong as I would like and this was a huge thing that showed me that I CAN do it. I can tackle long-term plans and hold myself accountable.