Are you in the process of trying to get in control of your finances? You’re not the only one (ahem…). 

It’s not a lot of fun trying to whack away at your credit card balances while also trying to manage to take care of all your other bills and financial obligations. One of the trickiest things about paying down your credit card debt is that sometimes the shrinking balance can actually trigger a desire to go out and charge more on the card. You tell yourself that you deserve a treat, you’ve been working so hard to pay the debt down, and hey, now you have the available balance to use!

“I deserve it”, you convince yourself.

STOP!

This is where common sense and restraint need to step in and stop you from destroying everything you’ve accomplished so far. Take the credit cards out of your wallet, put them away somewhere for a while (some people even recommend freezing them in a glass of water!), and switch to a cash system.

Cash? What’s that?

Seriously, using cash instead of credit cards will open your eyes as to how impulsive your purchases can really get. It’s all too easy to use your credit card and assure yourself that you’ll pay it off later, but there is a definite finality that comes with paying for a purchase with cash. It’s painful. Once the cash is gone, it’s gone forever. It’s just not as easy to talk yourself into pulling a massive amount of money out of your savings account to impulsively buy a new stereo system for your car as it is to reach into your wallet and give the salesperson your credit card.

In simple terms, cash is harder to part with.

Write out a weekly budget, figure out how much cash you need to get through the whole week, and then withdraw that amount of money from your account. Some people find it helpful to use an envelope budgeting system or some other filing system for the cash, but the point is to make sure that you know where the cash is supposed to go.

Keep track of where you’re spending the money, and adjust your budget accordingly if you find you’re running out of money too quickly. You’ll probably realize, however, that you spend far less money when you use cash for all your purchases and you’re a lot more careful about where your money goes. When you can reach this point, you can really start to attack your credit card debt.

Yes, using cash has its downsides. In many ways it’s less secure, and turthfully it can slow you down sometimes. You’ll want to swipe your card at the pump to pay for your gas, and you’ll detest waiting for change from the servers at restaurants. It will all be worth it though, because once you start to realize that your money is less expendable than you once thought it was, you’ll really want to get rid of your debt.

Once you reach the point where you feel like using a credit card is less necessity and more robbing yourself of future income, then you’re poised to get your debt paid down fast.

And that’s when you’ll know you’re ready to defrost it and put it back in your wallet again! 

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