I used to live life with credit cards by having some horrible habits. I remember vividly right before a trip with my sister on my 21st birthday, standing in the mall and calling her on the phone. I told her: âIâm going to max out my credit cards because I need new clothes for the trip.â Crazy, right? Two things are wrong, itâs not a need, and I canât afford it if I am putting it on my credit card. I still did it!
I honestly thought that itâs what normal people do. They buy whatever they want, swipe the credit card and pay them off on a monthly payment. Not only was I paying a whopping amount of money on interest rates but I was also not managing my money at all. I had no direction, and no sense of where my money was going.
I would live life sparingly. If I wanted to go out to eat, I would put that on plastic. If I wanted to go shopping that day, just because it was raining and gloomy outside, I would and put it on plastic! I would even travel the world with my plastic and thought that was bringing me true happiness. Basically, I was enjoying life without any limitations.
Change your mindset, today
Then, I realized that I didnât want to be living backwards to pay off items that happened in the past. I wanted to live for the future and plan my purchases with cash. I ran into Dave Ramsey, and his plan through a local church. Just a side note, I donât have an affiliate with his company and I donât get any sales from mentioning him. As a person that doesnât have any credit cards, I believe spreading the word is the best I can do. I remember taking his Financial Peace University course at a local church and the person leading the group asked the class to raise your hand if you donât have a credit card. Out of 60 folks, maybe two raised their hands. I thought they were sooooo weird and crazy!
Chop up those credit cards
Mr. Ramsey explains six baby steps to getting out of debt and chopping up your credit cards is the very first step! I did chop them up – except for one (only because I was not brave enough). I chopped up my Victoriaâs Secret, Banana Republic, Macyâs, Gap, Express, Ann Taylor, A&F, American Eagle, all total up to $8,688. I cringe when I write down that number, because back in the day when I was piled up in credit card debt I thought it was the way of life. I thought that I would never get out of it.
Getting rid of unnecessary habits
The next step I took was looking at my habits and stopping the unnecessary expenses. It is extremely crucial to dive into the tiny expenses too! Did you know that if youâre going out to get coffee every single morning, you are spending over $1,000/year on your tasty coffee habit? How often do you go out to dinner/lunch? You might think, “eehhh itâs only $10 for my lunch” but $10 here and there can easily take you up to $100+ a month! Take a hold of each expense and see if you can cut it out. I dropped my 24Hour gym membership and started working out from home (thank you YouTube!). I dropped the Starbucks runs and the random shopping sprees. Heck, last year alone, I only shopped once for the entire year!
The weird thing is, no one noticed! Instead of going out to eat with friends I would go out to coffee/tea cafes and bring my own tea from home to catch up with my friends. I started to live intentionally, and told my money where to go, instead of living backwards. I basically limited almost everything out of my life to get out of my credit card debt.
Save cash for emergencies
Although I stopped using my WellsFargo credit card, I didnât want to let it go. I had to take a leap of faith and I finally chopped it up. I started to slowly increase my emergency fund, for items that will come up as an emergency. You wonât believe what happened shortly after! I got engaged!! Here I was with little savings and about to get married in less than 8 months. Did I run to open a new credit card and put all my wedding expenses on plastic? NO! My fiancĂ© and I took a second job in the evenings that would pay for all of our wedding expenses. Our wedding costed us a pretty penny, but we didnât borrow any money. We didnât put anything on credit cards, and we started our new life together without any credit card debt!
We started our marriage without any credit card debt. We also postponed our honeymoon by 5 months so we can save up and pay cash for our trip!
Take up a second/third job.
At one point, I was working 3 jobs! I also worked at a bridal boutique shop for my third job on the weekends and didnât tell anyone that I was using that side job to pay for my wedding! I remember the most I ever worked in one week was 72 hours. It was stressful at times, but I did get used to it pretty fast. You get accustomed to your environment, and you tell your mind that you will get through this temporary phase to get out of debt.
You know what else happened when I was working all those crazy hours? I didnât have any time to spend money on anything stupid. I didnât have time to go shopping, I didnât have time to go out to dinners, movies, let alone breathe. Crazy how that happens, but it took me to start working crazy hours to stop my spending habits and readjust my priorities.
This shows that, with consistency, and pure dedication you can accomplish a lot of things in life! When you transition to becoming a minimalist, you will see the clutter of debt in your life and you will want to tackle it immediately. Take up a second, or a third job to get rid of your financial clutter. Hustle your way out of stress. If you have a day job, try to see if you can switch your hours to an earlier shift. Work at restaurants where you can get extra tips. Check your local Craigslist for delivery jobs, car driver jobs, weekend jobs, nanny, dog sitting, anything that you can think of doing! Thereâs a gal that got a side job to pay off her debt walking dogs in Manhattan, and she earned over $100,000 in one year. I think she eventually quit her day job. No matter how much of debt you have, you can do it!
Minimalist living will help
There is quite an interesting correlation between finances and minimalist living. After going through this process I realized that I actually never needed all those unnecessary expenses – even though I can pay cash for them now. No, I donât need to get my nails done at the nail shop every month (I do my own nails!). I actually ended up quitting drinking coffee completely. I started to see that those old habits are not necessary anymore.
Minimalism also means cutting down your expenses and taking control of your finances.
I cleared my credit card debts, and now I can breathe. I embrace my minimalism journey because it gave me freedom from stress and freedom from those monthly payments. Imagine what you can do with all that money that you normally pay on your credit cards, student loans, car payment but now put towards your kids college funds, or cash flow your next vacation, and start giving back more!
Tithing
I give God all the glory and praise for this amazing transformation and my success in paying off credit cards. I truly believe in the power of prayer and know that all things are possible with Jesus. Throughout this process I never stopped tithing monthly. I always gave back to church and other various ways where I saw a need. I get pure satisfaction blessing others and giving God my tithing in honor of what He provided me. Like Mr. Ramsey says, this money is not ours, itâs Godâs and God has given it to us to manage.
Where you are right now, is temporary. Where you are going, is your dream! – Myles Munroe
You live like no one else, so that later you can live and give like no one else. – Dave Ramsey
Happy living!
