Got in over my head with spending

[Ducimus]

The one truly sad thing about debit cards, is being good with them doesn't help your credit score. Only real credit cards do.

[mookiemookie]

www.mint.com

A great site to help you budget your spending. It sends you alerts if you go over your pre-determined budget for a category of spending. If you tie it to your online bank account, it helps you categorize your spending and see where you may be overdoing it.

[Sailor Steve]

I used to have trouble with cards, but I have one debit card from a local credit union and that's it. I check my numbers every day, and only buy things on days I get paid, and only what I plan for very carefully.

Originally Posted by Ducimus

The one truly sad thing about debit cards, is being good with them doesn't help your credit score. Only real credit cards do.

That's not sad to me. A debit card is just like a check, only handier. I carry very little cash these days. On the other hand when I did have a credit card I ended up with a bill that took me years to pay off. Then I worked briefly for a credit card company and ended up swearing I would never have one again. And I haven't. Of course the afore-mentioned bills kind of made so I can't have one anyway.

For me the secret is to check every day, know exactly how much I have and how much any particular thing is going to cost me. I never buy more than one item (book, movie, music) per payday. Of course the last three have been pretty hefty for my limited budget - video card, external hard drive and memory upgrade. No purchases at all for three more weeks, and then it all goes for a new five-string bass. Professional expense, you know.