Hi guys, as the title says I have fairly poor self control. I don’t want to spend more money than I have, so I’m looking for ways to talk myself out of spending money more.
Background: Me and my boyfriend live in a one bedroom apartment. We usually use rent to balance out the portion of the bills one person pays- for example, I buy all the food, pay the phone bill, and internet and he pays all the utilities. So he pays more in rent than I do to compensate for his share of what I pay.
Income- $2,400/month, paid bi-weekly
Rent- $300 (my share of $920)
Food- $300
Phone- $84
Internet- $60
Insurance- $144
Where I get in trouble is I just got a new credit card, the capital one quicksilver 1% cash back. I just turned 18 last June so I’m extremely inexperienced in the world of credit and how to balance everything. I was doing fine, paying it off every few days and the last month I started a new job where I was no longer two minutes away from my apartment in the small suburban town I live in.
I started eating out more, spending more on gas, especially with the pricing shooting up. I also started cooking at home less with the stress of college exams coming up this week. Next thing I knew I had a balance of $1400 on my cashback card that I didn’t realize had accumulated so fast.
I don’t want this to become a problem that snowballs into a debt I can’t pay off in a few weeks. I’m very compulsive with my spending and my savings account has fluctuated between $2,500-$800 in the last year. I almost don’t want to tap into my current $1,000 just in case something happens. I made a payment of $500 when I got paid last week and haven’t touched the card since I saw what happened.
I guess after my unnecessary explanation, I just want to loop back around to this- how can I keep myself from creating this situation again?
I have poor self control, and talk myself into spending money on food out way too much. It’s my main unnecessary money drain. I love the feeling of having more in my savings, like when I was up to $2,500 last fall I felt so proud of myself and happy when I looked at the account. It was the most I had ever saved. I want that feeling again but giving into food cravings is a demon I struggle to banish.
Thank you for your help!
Edit: I just put that card on my Netflix bill, removed it from everything like Paypal and Amazon, and shredded it. I definitely need to learn the basics of budgeting before I have a credit card. I turned on all purchase notifications, so I'll know if anything was spent and this way I'll have an active credit history and no ability to spend on that card. Thank you everyone for your help.
Submitted May 13, 2021 at 07:30PM by CoffeeKadachi https://ift.tt/3y9YqRC
