Blogging Away Debt

More and More, I’m Thinking of Stopping Our Debit Card Use

We rarely use cash and instead we use our debit cards for everyday purchases. We still have one credit card (that we pay in full a few days after using) for internet and recurring charges. I like to have everything electronic, but something that happened today (well, yesterday now) gave me the creeps.

I returned an item to Walmart today and the woman asked if I wanted the credit back on my card. I said yes. I was ready to get my card out of my wallet when all of a sudden I noticed the receipt for the refund printing.

Wait a minute…you mean my card information is stored within that barcode on the receipt? Maybe I’m over reacting, but that freaked me out. I’ve always had to present my card for refunds. Walmart having my card information stored on the receipt like that makes me very uncomfortable.

My particular debit card does have a protection policy on it for unauthorized charges. I have read that it could take days to straighten everything out and get funds put back in an account if something like that happened. That would be devistating to me with the automatic drafts I have. I get chills just thinking about it.

In the past, I’ve briefly thought about only using our one credit card for all purchases so we can receive cash back bonuses. I decided against it because I was concerned that our spending could get out of hand. I think I may revisit that decision and see if there is a way we could make it work. Or perhaps I could look into other alternatives.

Why Do We Struggle Being Forced into Frugality?

by Tricia

I’ve exchanged a few emails with Rob in Madrid. He’s left some great comments on here, and he mentioned a question in one of his emails that struck a chord with me. He was gracious enough to allow me to share this question with all of you.

Why do we struggle when we are forced into frugality?

Think about it for a moment. If you are in debt, you got that way by spending more than you make. For the purpose of this argument, let’s say you were living on 125% of your income.

At some point, the debt payments become too much and you are forced to cut expenses to make ends meet and to start paying off your debt. You are essentially spending less than you make and as an example, you are now living on 80% of your income.

You have 20% of your income that you are now using towards your debt. But wait a minute. You could have been living on 80% of your income the entire time instead of the 125% and accumulating debt?

For me, it’s been eye opening as to how much we have been able to pay on our debt. Once our debt is paid off, that is all money that we technically could be saving if we continue living on 80% of our income. But will it happen?

It was definitely a struggle to get to that point of frugal living. Why did we fight it so much and why didn’t we live that way sooner and avoid debt? Why is there such a struggle?

Thoughts?