How I Got Out of Credit Card Debt (and then back into it)

Over a year ago I got really interested in saving money, investing, and paying off my credit cards. I’d never had any kind of budget up till that point. In college I had my own apartment and somehow got by with a part time job and one credit card. As long as I had enough money in my account to pay rent and buy ramen noodles I was doing ok. By sheer coincidence, the same week my credit limit got raised, the original XBOX was released and I bought one. After graduation my credit card was maxed out but I got a real job. I still didn’t have a budget but I could throw that credit card in the drawer and start paying it off. One year into my new job I bought a house and had a couple roommates. I was making more money but I was also buying a lot more crap. I would buy computers and TVs on credit and pay them off over time and I had gotten a couple new credit cards. I was definitely making enough to live on, but my savings were staying about the same.

So where am I going with this? Last year I got Quicken for the Mac and it is really nice. I set up my bank accounts and credit cards in it and Quicken downloads the new transactions automatically. There are some it doesn’t work with but I can still download transactions manually and import them. I am hoping they fix this in a new version, if it ever comes out. After a few months of using Quicken I had enough info to set up a budget. I’ll admit I can’t stick to it every month but I am increasing my savings. I had all my credit cards paid off but lately I had some unforeseen expenses that I put on credit.

In future entries I’m going to go into detail on how I use Quicken, how it compares to other services, and money saving tips that have helped me.