[USER]

Good Morning Group! I’m seeing A LOT of posts about shopaholics such as myself! Rather than respond to each one, I will put it here for everyone to read!

I got myself into almost $7k credit card debt! I’m a middle aged woman with a husband and 3 teenagers! It surely doesn’t take long to add up! After Christmas, I was putting my new things away and it was like a lightbulb went off!

I have more bath & body works then I’ll ever use in this lifetime, you name it, I’ve got it from that store! Like over 100 candles, over 50 bottles of body washes, lotions, sprays, etc! I have more Victoria secret bras & panties then I’ll ever need! Over 100 panties, and over 20 bras!

I’ve got brand new shoes never worn, brand new clothes never worn, some of them are a few year old and still never worn!

Even though I got all these items on sale, it doesn’t matter if they’re not being used! It almost made me sick to know I owe $7k for stuff just “sitting” here!

So I made a personal goal! My goal is to not spend one single penny on another thing if I already have it UNLESS I get a free coupon in the mail!

No shoes, no clothes, no BBW, no VS, no nothing! Use what I’ve already got and throw any extra money at my credit card! Well, we’re 4 months into the new year and I’m doing really good with that and have gotten my card down to $4800 so I’m making progress and one way or another, this card will be paid off by the end of the year!

It sucks, I’ve spent a lot of weekends at home instead of going shopping and going out to eat but to watch that balance drop everytime I make an extra payment is rewarding and teaching me a good lesson about how frivolous I was with my spending!

So ladies, you are not alone, it’s so easy to get yourself in this mess!

Told my family we’re not going on vacation this year because I’m trying very hard to pay this off and I’ll be damned if I rack it back up by going on vacation!

Keep moving forward ladies, we got this, one paycheck at a time, one dollar at a time, we will be debt free one day!

[Teresa]

I made that hole for myself as well. Trying to dig out. And yea, I need nothing. Nothing.

[Robin]

Good for you.. if u don’t mind a suggestion, sell some of your duplicates & use that $$ to pay down debt, or re-gift to others instead of buying.

New ….good luck!

[Cheryll]

You are doing amazing, paid down over half in just 4 months. I used to be the same way, buying duplicates of products I didn’t need, lotions, make-up, skin care, shampoos, etc. And oh so many clothes. My cabinets and closets are stuffed with these things. I rarely bought any of these things on credit, however.

I am now 73 and have been retired for 6 years and a widow. I now just use what I have accumulated all those years. What works for me now is that I rarely shop, do not order on-line, and just drive right by the stores and restaurants.

I live on my SS and never touch my investments. I live simply and frugally.

You have learned early enough what I learned too late, and that is we don’t need half the fufu things we buy.

[Sue Marcum]

Re gift some of the BBW. Or donate to a women’s shelter. Those ladies will love it and you’ll feel good about helping someone else. Win,Win!

[Teresa]

Have you ever done the time vs value formula?

Take your take home income … subtract all necessary expanses .. mortgage/rent .. phone …insurance … food.. internet .. credit card .. Be very honest. What you have left divide by the number of hours you worked. No one I ever worked with ended up with 1.00 an hour .. always cents.

Now decide is that 10.00 candle worth 10 hours of your labour, that 70. blouse worth 70 hours of your labour. Hold that in front of all your money decisions. How many hours of labour do you work to pay interest? Good to know. Hope this helps a little.

[Vanvisa]

I think you should be really proud of yourself for acknowledging you had a problem, committing to do things better, doing it and fixing another issue in the process.

If I may, it could be helpful, in order to sustain this progress, to maybe do some self-reflection about what was happening or not happening in your life, or how you were feeling, that drove your spending.

Sometimes people buy stuff to fill some other kind of void, everyone has their own personal triggers.

[Author]

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