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Got a question... What is that Discover Card comercial song? Looking forward for any response. Another question on my mind: I'm addicted to shopping and want to learn how to save money.what are Dos and Don'ts Of Using Credit Cards Responsibly?.. |
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That's a good question. I'm not sure what is the answer to your question. I'll do some investigation and get back to you if I find an useful answer. You should email the people at Discover Card as they probably could give you an answer..
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Instead of addicted to spending, OP will become a neurotic saver..
Anonymous, if you are truly addicted to spending/shopping, there are support groups. I had a friend who was addicted to shopping, and she found great support and eventually recovered... |
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Cut your credit cards up or freeze them in a block of ice. Have your money sent to ING savings acct because it will take several days to become available for use..
I think a good way is to take your disposable cash and invest it immediately into stocks/bonds/mutual funds/cd's because in practice you are spending your money by buying securities and financial instruments. Once you are invested you will less prone to liquidate and spend money on stuff!.. |
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There are a lot of great money blogs out there with a body of writing you could read though. I prefer MyMoneyBlog.com and DinksFinance.com. You can also learn a lot from DollarStretcher.com..
Let me give it to you as pithy as I possibly can:. 1. You must have a budget.. 2. You must have a savings account not linked to your Debit/ATM card.. 3. You must pay yourself (your savings account) like you pay your rent/mortgage, right off the top of your check, before you pay anything else.. The way I was able to finally stick to a budget is with 2 revelations:. A. Be realistic. If you budget saving 40% of yoru net income, it looks great, but you will only stick to it for so long before saying "screw it" and once you say "screw it" once, your budget is toast.. B. At the end of every day, write down everything you spent money on. This will make you aware of it. Do it EVERY DAY. I use a spreadsheet. You can use a journal. Ask yourself before you buy a $4 Latte or spend $400 at the mall: "Do I really want to have to write this down tonight".. For you, new to this, google. Budget Envelope System. And use it.. Good luck. If you're like me, you'll find saving to be as addictive soon as shopping was for so long. The feeling of freedom, independence, and pride that a well funded bank account can give you cannot be had any other way in life.. This post has been edited by. Encoder. : 09 January 2010 - 06:02 PM.. |
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+1.
Working through the underlying issues makes it more likely that a money management program will stick. Lay out a budget for the month. Max your employer 401k match, it's good for your future and it helps cut back spending money. Allocate a % of each paycheck say 15% to a savings account (add it as part of DD). If you are not paying (with Discover card) bills but going on spending sprees, you're digging yourself further in debt; set up paycheck deduction for health care, insurance, parking; automatic deduction from your checking account or Discover card for utilities;. I don't dig DR or anti-credit crowd, but it could be a good time to sock drawer all CCs but one or if you can't stick to it, involve a spouse and give them to your spouse for safe keeping, so you can only run up one card (say your main rewards card or the lowest APR card). Try Money Management forum.. |
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Amen! I've learned that quite recently, as well. I LOVE watching my savings accounts grow each week! That, along with my new-found appreciation of responsible Discover card use, have made me feel much better about my financial present AND future!.
And I owe it to this site, not DR!.. |
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I pay myself every single day. I have an ING account and I make it a habit to put money in it every week day. It's usually not more than $5 or so (paydays, I pay myself more) and sometimes it's only a dollar. What's important is that you discipline yourself into saving and the money piles up on it's own..
Also, you should put away any extra money you get into your savings. Income tax returns, rebate checks, etc. When I cash my coins, I deposit them into savings. I've also hooked up my ING account to my Paypal account, so when I get rid of books and CDs online, I transfer the money to my savings. Did you get overtime on your check this week? Put the OT into savings.. Give yourself a couple months of doing this and see how much you've saved up. You may surprise yourself... |
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The advice require can vary depending on your reason for your addiction. I am not a health professional. It's my opinion that some people shop as a method to release stress or for other emotional issues, and some do it to "keep up" with an imagine..
I would just advise to learn to enjoy having money in the bank more than you like having things. Money in the bank is a thing.. I admit I am not the cheapest person around, but at times, but I've learned to be cheap by buying only what I need, with an occasional shopping "reward" to tide me over.. Learn to enjoy having savings in the bank the same way you would enjoy having a thing you would buy. I do overtime at work and I do so much people always ask me why I do it even if I don't need the money, I tell them I just like having money in my pocket, it never hurts to have savings. I think of "savings" as a possession. Like a collection. Some people collect things, why not collect money? Collect a savings.. This is just my personal advice and opinion, I am no expert, it's different for everyone.. This post has been edited by. Mapleton. : 09 January 2010 - 09:12 PM.. |
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An easy way to control your spending, is to keep a check register, and record all of your Discover card purchases in it, along with your checking account balance. That way, instead of seeing $X Available credit, you can look at your checking account balance. Treat you Discover card purchases as debit card purchases..
If you have a true addiction, you need to treat it as a disease. Just like alcoholism, smoking, drug use, shopping (for some people) releases chemicals in the brain that make us happy, and people become addicted to that 'high'. Addiction-ism, is a true chemical addiction, and is very hard to break. If you feel you truly have an addiction problem, I seriously advise you to seek help. It may just be a shopping addiction right now, but in the future it could lead to something else. It is a very sad, and painful thing to watch someone lose control of their actions because of an addiction. It hurts the family members, and friends of the person just as much as that person them self... |
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"IF" YOU ARE paying (with Discover card) INTEREST...PAY THE MOST TO THE.
HIGHEST. APR FIRST.. |
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He's got a nice gig giving advice but I don't find him to be particularly savvy, from what I have listened to on his show his fan base is akin to the Jim Cramer and Suzie Orman crowds. People with simple money problems(nothing requiring sophisticated professional solutions)) who have a nascent understanding of finance and need a little guidance from a "guru"..
A finance for dummies book is all that that most people need.. This post has been edited by. JOLTY. : 10 January 2010 - 10:45 AM.. |
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Keep all of your receipts too..
I can happily say I'm not a shopaholic anymore and one thing that helped was looking over my Discover card receipts and realizing I didn't need all the crap I bought... |
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I remember when I was a child my grandmother and grandfather going over the weekly household budget on Sunday nights at the kitchen table with the cash proceeds from my grandfathers paycheck in front of them. They would place each bill and the cash owed into separate envelopes. I wonder if anyone still does that..
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ALL THE SHEEP PAID FOR HIS HOUSE.
He couldn't even QUALIFY for a mortgage. I bet 90%+ of people here could qualify for a mortgage with 30% to 40% down payment. I'm sure. HE. Couldn't even qualify with 50% to 75% down.. |
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Whether we agree or not with DR's methods, his empire affords him the ability to buy a 6 or 7 figure price tagged property outright..
So making this point directed at DR is moot...now if pointed at the majority of his avid followers perhaps you are on to something... |
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I disagree with him on the subject of credit, but I like his method of buying cars and owning them outright: Save up, buy cheap car with good resale value - i.e., Honda, Toyota, Nissan - keep saving, sell a year later for close to purchase price, combine profit with savings, buy better car, and so on, until you're in a late model vehicle. Takes a few years and a lot of patience, but I can definitely see how it could work...
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Been lurking a while, so don't knock me for first post....
I'd just say take advantage of what your employer has in place for saving. If you have autodeposit, have a small amount (whatever you can afford) deposited into a savings account automatically when you get paid in addition to a deposit into your checking. My employer has savings bonds autodebit available, so I set aside $100 per paycheck to go to $1000 I bonds (keep in mind that this is limited to $5000 per year). I do both of these so I can't touch the savings (the savings account is NOT connected in any way to my regular checking account, 2 separate credit unions), and I can't cancel any of this on a whim (it would take a full pay period to cancel anything), so it reinforces that this money is extremely hard to splurge on.. And my original thought on Dave Ramsey is still my opinion now that what you pay him isn't worth what he's selling...and it's not "using credit cards responsibly" when he advocates not using them at all, ever... |
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I am a shopaholic RECOVERED, As someone stated In order for anything to work, you must get to reasons WHY you shop. I did it because I have bipolar disorder, and shop when I am manic. I just like to say I have stuff I really did not need..
I have a childhood friend who shopped because her mother packed up and left when she was just 17, with no food, money, no way to pay rent. She buys stuff "just in case" she needs it.. My mother shops because she grew up with 10 brothers and sisters with parents who drank all the time, so growing up in that house was "dog eat dog". OP I am not saying these are your reasons, But I can tell you from experience, You have to find the reason why you shop in order for any recovery to work.. Good luck.. |
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SAVING.
For 30 or 40 years. BEFORE YOU CAN AFFORD THAT HOUSE. When you can afford to pay cash...IT WENT UP or YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE ENERGY TO START A NEW WAY OF LIFE. (home ownership). ======================================. A CHEAP CAR CAN HAVE MAJOR LOSS ISSUES (repairs).. |
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Rule #1........... Only purchase what you can pay for IN CASH.............
Rule #2............ Don't forget Rule #1. Having a Discover card with an addiction is akin to throwing kerosene on a fire. Why don't you stick with a debit card???? If you "must" get a credit card, make it a charge card like AMEX green that you must pay in full each month... |
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Yep, it's called the "envelope system" of budgeting. A lot of financial folks recommend it as a simple, physical way of purposing your money. You use an envelope for each expense. If you are paid twice monthly, you put 1/2 the amount needed in each category into the envelope from each paycheck- in cash. It's about as simple a method of budgeting as there is...
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Do you have a shopping addiction, George? Or is it possible the post was just maybe....not directed at you?..
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LOL! I saw them do it but somehow it never translated into my horrible spending and budgeting habits! I learned from my credit loving yuppie parents!..
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IT WAS A RELATED STATEMENT.
YOU DIDN'T READ PAST THE HOUSE PART. ============================================================. ============================================================. SAVING for 30 or 40 years BEFORE YOU CAN AFFORD THAT HOUSE. When you can afford to pay cash...IT WENT UP or YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE ENERGY TO START A NEW WAY OF LIFE. (home ownership). ======================================. A CHEAP CAR CAN HAVE MAJOR LOSS ISSUES (repairs). This post has been edited by. GEORGE. : 11 January 2010 - 11:43 AM.. |
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This post has been edited by.
GEORGE. : 11 January 2010 - 11:44 AM.. |
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Get a job in.
RETAIL. You won't like shopping. Can't shop before work...after work you are too tired. (or too many people in line at the check-outs).. |
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OP,.
If you are truly concerned that you may have some sort of shopping/spending-related addiction, I urge you to consult with your primary care physician about finding an appropriate medical professional (psych0-therapist) to help you overcome this problem.. There's no shame in it and it's really no different than any other form of addicition (substance abuse, gambling, eating, etc.). As other posters have stated, there is a good likelihood of some some sort of underlying emotional or maybe even chemical issue that is acting as a catalyst for your shopping/spending problems.. You can definitely learn to manage this problem if you seek out effective treatment measures.. Good luck!.. |
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IT WAS A RELATED STATEMENT.
YOU DIDN'T READ PAST THE HOUSE PART. So you were essentially replying to yourself, because all I said was:. No more, no less... |
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+100..
Plus, you can return stuff (and not for store credit, either) when you change your mind.. I'm not an addict, but can get spendy, esp. around the holidays. It's nice to see those credits on the Discover credit card statements correcting one's shopping missteps... |
