by Tricia
I’ve been on a big “Get Rid of Stuff and Organize Our Life” kick lately. One benefit of this kick is that I have located many of our past credit card statements. It has been very interesting because I’ve realized a few things:
1.) My credit card didn’t increase my credit limit as quickly as I thought they did. I always thought they were quick to increase the limits when I was near the limit. In fact, in the beginning it took them a while before my very first credit limit increase. Once I get all the data assembled, I’ll have more on that.
2.) We spent a decent amount of money after we purchased our house. I knew we spent some to buy carpet and some furnishings. But my memory was fuzzy and I didn’t realize exactly how much we put on credit.
3.) I’ve had a few “binge and purge” shopping trips. I almost flipped when I saw a $900 charge to Walmart and then I felt a little better when I saw that money come back with a refund. I couldn’t remember what it was, but my husband did. I bought a laptop and then returned it. Yikes!
4.) I went a little charge crazy when we lived a few months in a bigger city. Target and Meijer were my favorite stores. I remember finding some great deals in those stores, but I didn’t remember the two page long credit card statements. If we move to a bigger city with more stores, I will have to be very careful not to go deal crazy.
My memory can be fuzzy at times, and it turns out that it was pretty fuzzy when it came to our past credit card spending. I’m glad that I am taking some time and reviewing old statements. Now it’s fresh in my mind how we got into the situation we are in and I can work to make sure it doesn’t happen again once our credit card debt is paid off.
