More Debt

Debt, debt, and more debt.

We have spent considerable more money than we have brought in the last few months. So much so, that our credit card debt has increased by almost $3000. Sadly, we are back into 5 figures for our credit card debt. We had gotten it down to about $8900, but now we are back up over $11000.

I’m nearly done with Christmas shopping, so I’m hoping I won’t need to charge too much more on that front.

This past weekend, we spent $700 at Kohl’s. The Girl got 6 pairs of pants, 2 sets of pajamas and 2 pairs of shoes (though one of those was for dance), The Boy got new underwear, 2 pairs of sweatpants and a new pair of running-style shoes, and The Husband got new socks and underwear a pair of sweats. Currently, we only had $200 in the clothing budget and that got wiped out. $55 will come from the kids’ activities envelope to pay for The Girl’s dance shoes. We also got a new toaster, several Christmas presents for different nieces and nephews, and decorative Christmas towels to decorate all my new bathrooms. We will probably carry a small balance on this card. I have half of the money we charged at the ready and the other half will be extended over a couple of months.

Sadly, this month we can’t even say our overall debt decreased because it didn’t, it went up. It went up considerably. 

Truthfully, my only goal for my December credit card statement is for it to be under $11000. That should be doable depending on what my credit card closes at this month.

We continue to make slow progress on all of our other bills. We are still paying the kids back at $50 a month and still making our regularly scheduled car payments. We have paid off just over half of our car loan. We’ve made 31 payments and have 29 remaining.

Our new normal is killing us. Our mortgage and bills have all nearly tripled, and while we can afford to pay those, we have not adjusted our lifestyle to our new normal. We still charge over $3000 per month, but now we can only afford to pay about $600. We need to find a balance and we need to stop charging.

I’m really thinking of going to a cash only budget, like for reals… Once the envelope is empty, the money is literally gone. For a long time, our system worked for us, now, it’s not.

Debt sucks and I am not helping my situation by continuing to use credit.