I sat on my couch long after the kids had gone to sleep. I had my budget file open and was paying my credit card bill. At that moment I am He knew I’ve fallen back into old spending habits. I was ready to admit that I was so far Overspending on my credit card.
After over 8 years of budgeting and tracking our money, I Still Struggle with overspending.
Yes, this is correct. The person who teaches you how to budget and save money admits that they have a hard time spending money.
But this is my truth.
And if you’re sitting here nodding your head because you’re also struggling with overspending, let me tell you…Girl, I know what it’s like.
I know what it’s like to get a thrill from spending money.
I know what it means to spend without thinking.
I know how guilty you feel after you spend because you know it wasn’t part of your plan. ♀️
I know that even after 8 years of budgeting, my tendency to overspend can be a struggle. And in the past nine months, I’ve been overspending more on our credit card than ever before.
Yes. We use credit cards.
Before I get into this whole story (which thankfully has a happy ending), I want you to know one thing: Yes, we have credit cards.
In the past, I haven’t struggled to overspend on credit cards. We’ve always used them sparingly, and this simply hasn’t been a problem.
Earlier this year, we qualified for the Southwest Companion Pass. With this card, my husband can travel with me to Southwest for free.
When we were using our credit card to qualify for the utility card, I noticed this Much easier To wasteful spending.
Even though we were paying our credit card every month, I could still tell we were spending more than we normally would…especially me.
As a person Likes To spend money, I knew I needed to be careful with the credit card. To be honest, I was cautious. I used to do great…until about 9 months ago.
Something has changed in the past nine months…
About 9 months ago we moved to a new house. We sold a lot of our old furniture before we moved. You know, like the 10-year-old sofa that smells like dog.
When we moved into our new house, we bought some larger pieces of furniture that we needed (like the kitchen table, sofa, and coffee table).
As any good saver would do, my husband and I saved to pay for these pieces of furniture in full. In fact, by paying cash, we were able to negotiate amazing discounts.
I had a blast choosing new furniture. Like any true spender, buying new furniture made me want to buy something else.
It was almost like an addiction. I bought the furniture (which we budgeted for) and then suddenly I wanted all new things.
But the problem is that we did not allocate budget for other items. However, I still find myself searching Amazon every day and simply throwing items into our shopping cart.
Day after day, Amazon boxes show up on our doorstep.
My husband was giving me the side eye, but I didn’t care. I was with a great happiness To open the box. It was an adrenaline rush.
And all that extra spending? As you can guess…it was all happening on our credit card.
I’ve gotten into the habit of debiting all my impulse purchases from our credit card.
It didn’t hurt as much.
I avoided our credit card statements and pretended I didn’t have a problem.
Excuses, denial and more excuses
For the first six months of moving into our new home, I was full of excuses for why I was spending so much money.
I had had Every reason why me necessary The item I was purchasing. I would justify the purchase to my husband who was clearly frustrated with his old spending habits.
To be honest, I was in denial. I was filling my mind with excuses too.
Because once I started spending, I couldn’t stop.
If you’ve never had the problem of overspending, this may seem exciting. But this is 100% true.
I became addicted Online shopping.
I knew I had to face my problem.
Over time, I realized that I had to face my problem.
I started setting small goals for myself. For example, I set a weekly goal to not spend money on Amazon. There was even one month where my husband and I agreed not to shop on Amazon for the entire month.
The good news is that my husband was 100% on board with ditching my online shopping habits. He was tired of seeing our credit card bill growing bigger and bigger. And you know what? I’m tired of that too!
Go cold Türkiye
I didn’t make the decision to stop using our credit card completely until 6 months after we moved.
Even though I had mostly kicked my Amazon habit, I was still struggling with overspending on our credit card in general. Whether I was booking travel expenses or summer camp for my oldest child, I would reach for my credit card often.
One night, after the kids went to bed, my husband and I were sitting on the couch. We would pay bills together and work on our budget.
We just paid a $600 credit card bill.
My heart was heavy.
I He knew That we could have sent the $600 to savings instead. This money could have been allocated for a family vacation. It could have gone in the trunk of our car.
But instead, we spent it. And I don’t even remember what we bought.
At that moment I turned to my husband and told him I would no longer use the credit card. I know myself and my spending habits very well. And I needed to go cold turkey.
You see, when I use our credit card, I don’t feel the pain of spending money. I don’t feel hurt until it’s time to pay off the credit card.
Because we never kept a balance on our credit card, this meant we were making large payments on our card at once. And sending $600 to the credit card company is painful.
Since that night I have not swiped or used our credit card once. Slowly, my desire to overspend and Buy all the things fades away.
Does this mean we will never use the credit card again? of course not! But I know that when I start using our credit card again, I’ll have to have a healthy relationship with it.
The consequences of my spending habits
When I allowed myself to go back to overspending, three main things happened:
1. We save less money.
During this process, we were still paying off our credit card every month. This means that anything we sent to our credit card would have been sent to our savings instead.
We basically saved A.J a lot Less during this time because we were spending money on our credit card. Looking back, I wish I could go back and keep that money in savings instead.
2. I felt like I was going backwards instead of forwards.
When I start spending, I start wanting to spend money. Eventually, overspending became a bad habit that I had to break.
It takes time, effort and patience to break bad habits. I feel like I’ve gone backwards!
3. My husband became frustrated.
Look, it’s me completely I understand why my husband is frustrated with my spending habits. We have always worked together to set financial goals. And now I was sabotaging them with my spending habits! Thank God he is very understanding and tolerant!
Real things you can do if you’re struggling with overspending
Can you relate to my struggle? Do you also tend to overspend on your credit card or shop online?
If you’re raising your hand right now, please know you are not alone.
The desire to overspend is completely normal. But you can do things that will help curb your urge to swipe your credit card and start saving money!
Here are 3 things you can do if you’re struggling with overspending.
- Set small goals. This was it Firstly The thing I did when I realized I had fallen back into my old habits. I started setting weekly goals to not spend money online. Sometimes it’s easier to deal with a bad habit when you can only eat it for a day or two at a time. Start by telling yourself that you will not buy anything online for one week. One week only! you can do it! Setting small goals like these makes you stop spending money maybe.
- Track your progress. To motivate yourself, add up the amount you spent on your credit card or online shopping last month. Then try to spend less! Then, track your progress. Will your progress be perfect? no. But it’s still something to be proud of!
- Go to Golden Türkiye. Sometimes the key to not overspending on your credit card is to stop using it altogether. This is it exactly What I ended up doing. I knew that if I wanted to kick my bad habit, I would need to completely remove credit cards from my spending right now.
With time, effort, and persistence, you can stop overspending on your credit card. It is possible and you are capable!
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This article shares how I got back into overspending on my credit cards and how I overcame bad spending habits.
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