If you’re out shopping and your credit cards are within reach, you may be tempted to purchase items that you can’t actually afford. Credit cards make it all too easy for you to ignore any kind of budget that you have put in place, because once you’ve handed your card over, you don’t have to worry about paying for anything until a later date. However, if you don’t have the money to buy something when you’re in the store, the situation may not be any better a month or so later, when your credit card bill arrives.
Thus, when you decide to go shopping, it may be a good idea to leave all your credit cards at home, so that you have to stay within your means. If you only take so much money out with you, then you are unable to spend any more than that amount. You may have to take your debit card with you, so that you can draw some money out of the bank or even pay by card in the store. At least with a debit card, you’re more likely to be sensible with your spending, since you know that the money in your bank account is going to be used to pay essential bills.
By leaving your credit cards at home, you won’t be able to give into the temptation to impulse buy. If you see something that you really want, for no other reason than it looks good, you can’t just buy it on a whim, because you won’t have the money to. If you’re out grocery shopping and you happen to walk past by a shoe store, you can’t simply decide not to buy any groceries and get a pair of extravagant shoes instead; unless you’re prepared to go hungry!
If you are unable to impulse buy, you’re less likely to end up with a load of rubbish that you don’t really want or need and that end up never getting used. Thus, you’ll have more room in your house to move about! Plus, you should find it easier to stay out of debt. The problem with using credit cards is that once you start it can be hard to stop and so you keep spending and spending, whilst trying to avoid thinking about how big your credit card is going to be.
However, you can no longer avoid the issue when your credit card bill arrives and you are unable to pay it all off. You can find yourself having to pay a high rate of interest and it can seem as though you’re never going to escape the burden of debt, which is why you should try to prevent yourself arriving at such a position in the first place by limiting your credit card use.