The recent recession hit many people hard. Many lost their jobs and those who managed to maintain their jobs probably had to have their pay cut significantly. My cousin Jay was not immune to the recession either. He was an accountant at a local firm. Although he did not lose his job, he felt the strain of increasing living cost due to the price hike of daily items like groceries and petrol. During a recession such as the recent one, Jay knew one of the ways that he could avoid making things worse was by managing his credit card debt. Basically he had to find ways to reduce the amount he already owed on his credit cards by paying them off and at the same time reduce the amount he spends on his cards every month.
Jay started by planning a budget of his expenses and comparing it to his expenses in the previous months. He realized that to manage his credit card debt he would have to make some changes in the way he spends his money.
Basically there would be expenses to be cut and adjustments to be made in order to reduce his monthly debts. If he was lucky, he probably could end up saving some money in the process. Jay looked at his previous bills and prepared to make sacrifices. He realized that the changes he would have to make would have to start with small steps. So he started writing down the three major ways or items that he could immediately cut back like the gold-plated cable plan he had. He changed his cable plan and reduced the number of channels he would be getting. Of course, it would probably be more effective if he simply cancelled his cable TV subscription but a gradual change would be easier to maintain than a drastic one.
Jay also thought that the recession would probably be a good time to start living healthy and at the same time avoid credit card debt. Jay always used one of his credit cards to pay for gas even though his work place was just several blocks away. To reduce the amount he spends monthly on that particular card, he started to walk to work. Of course, he was huffing and puffing on the first few weeks but soon after his body adapted and walking to work did not turn out to be such a task after all. He even found that he liked walking to work because he would meet up with more people along the way like the cute brunette at the bakery. Jay also used to smoke. Now that cigarettes were turning out to cost almost as much as a luxurious item, he decided it was probably the best time to quit smoking. He went cold turkey and he succeeded. It also saved him about a hundred dollars a month now that he was not spending on cigarettes.
As an accountant, Jay also knew that overspending would probably end up causing him to have to enroll into a credit card debt consolidation program. So he ended up making one of the biggest changes in his life; he started living on cash. He did not cut up any of his credit cards as he knew he would have to maintain using and paying them in order to rake up a good credit score. He simply tried to live on cash for as long as he could and for as much as he could. Generally whenever he had cash in the bank he would pay for whatever he needed in cash. He also started separating the purpose of each of his credit cards. For example, one card was strictly for petrol, one card for monthly bills and one card for work related expenses. By doing so, it was easier for him to monitor his spending and also cut his credit card expenses significantly.
Staying away from using credit cards may probably be as difficult for a man as it would be for a woman. Jay also took quite some time to adapt to the new lifestyle he adopted. However, he was focused and rather persistent to avoid burying himself in debts that he managed to withstand any difficulties and continued to pursue his debt cutting methods with perseverance.