No balance on credit card

I've been committed, ever since I got my first credit card, to pay off the balance in full each month. So far, I've kept that commitment, even when it was uncomfortable to do so, because I knew that it would be a downhill slide if I allowed balances to accumulate. You think it's hard living on what you make now? Try doing it when you're paying 14% or more on a credit card balance of $5,000. That's craziness, absolute madness.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that it is those people who can least afford to do so that let themselves get into credit card debt. I see it all around me at college: students who have to have the latest thing, like the iPod Nano (I drool over the thought of having one!), so they put it on their credit card. I currently have student loans totaling $5250, from those semesters at the beginning of my college career when we were living on practically nothing, and I think that even those loans might have been unnecessary.

So, you see where I stand on credit card debt. That's why I'm proud to announce that I have reduced my credit card balances to $0.00. Now, they are only for buying large-ticket items and gasoline (to avoid paying $0.45 ATM charges at the cheapest gas station in town). The way our spending system is set up, thanks to Michael and his spreadsheets at It's Your Money, we don't keep track of credit card purchases separate from our other spending. We simply make sure that our outgo is less than our income. My wife is incredibly good about putting up with "making do" and living within our means. My thanks to her for keeping me sane in that regard.