Thank goodness for higher credit limits.
In late November an ominous alert light appeared on my dashboard—low coolant. After a trip to the service department, I had to participate in all the holiday gift-giving and get myself some Christmas presents—a new water pump and several new gaskets for my Alero 
. I was very generous to myself, to the tune of $900!
I could’ve been in a real bind. At the time I didn’t have a lot of cash available, and in the previous months I’d taken on a bit more credit card debt—inching toward my credit limit.
Luckily, my credit limit had just been increased on my Wells Fargo Visa®, and I was able to charge the new parts and service expenses. Unfortunately, I’m now faced with more debt to pay off. Boo.
The funny thing about the situation is that when my notice of a credit increase arrived, I was thinking about indulging in a bit of a shopping spree—some new work clothes, etc. Boy, am I glad I didn’t give in to those thoughts. If I had, putting more charges on my card for the car repair would’ve stung even worse.
I’m wondering: how do you keep yourself from using your credit for things you want instead of reserving it for emergencies? Is there a strategy or is it sheer will power?
I’d love to know what helps you. Because with the cold weather in South Dakota right now I’m having a hard time resisting some new comfy, warm trousers for my long walk into work.
For me, it's the great feeling of not having any credit card debt that keeps me from overusing it. It took me a long time to pay off my credit cards after college and I still remember that wonderful feeling of making that last payment.
for me you don't understand the importance of saving money!
Hey Tina -- I can see how you could come to that conclusion from this post, but my 401k and high-yield savings account would beg to differ :) I do tend to talk about revolving credit a bit on the SLD, but I've also touched on my savings goals. If you get a chance check out some of my previous postings. And if you have thoughts on savings topics we should be covering be sure to let us know via our Feedback tool.
Barbara: excellent topic. Vehicle repairs are perhaps among the best situations for using a credit card. In my situation, over Christmas I charged nearly all of my gifts to a credit card, but I treat those purchases the same as if I had used currency.
Perhaps a good strategy to learn some discipline is: for one entire month, keep your CC in a hard-to-access part of your wallet, and use only currency to make your purchases. There is a psychological component to using currency which "hurts" more than using a payment card. After one month, you can go back to using a CC but hopefully will come away equating ANY retail purchase with the use of cold hard cash.