Saving Up Instead of Credit

Making the minimum payments on credit cards is always the first priority of anyone with debt.  Obviously the penalities are not worth missing a payment unless is direly necessary (which I believe is rarely the case).  With paying down debt in the snowball format, I have changed my mindset to the minimum payment not being what is on the credit card statement, but rather what we have deemed minimum.

Therefore, even though the current credit card we are working on has a set minimum, we have added the amount from the last card we paid off to that minimum monthly.  This is essentially the basis of the snowball payments. 

But I think it can be tempting to look at the extra money and think of other things it could be used towards.  Right now we have a major purchase that we would rather make sooner than later.  We planned and saved for a couple of months, but now that the time is approaching when we want the item, we do not have enough money.  Putting it on a credit card is a 100% absolute no-no.  I would rather go without than use credit (which is a huge step in the right direction for me).

So since we do not want to touch that extra money added to the payments and we refuse to put the item on credit, I have decided to take all the extra money that I make (usually listed in the sidebar under "Current Month") and apply it to our savings instead of the credit cards.

Mentally, this decision was discouraging at first.  I thought that it was a failure to not put every last penny towards the credit cards.  But the reality is, life still goes on.  Even though I am going for the "gazelle-like" focus that Dave Ramsey so much harps on, there are still things that, while not a necessity, feel like a priority for my family. 

The big note here is to recognize that they are priorities and not necessities.  This distinction is very important as it turns the decision into one that is within my control.  I cannot play victim here.  I cannot gripe about the slowing down of the credit card payments during this time because I am choosing to use the extra money I make for something that matters to me. 

I am still considering this a win, because after looking at the charts my husband and I made, I feel very comfortable with the timeline that we are on.  After this major purchase, which will hopefully only take a month or two to gain, it is right back to credit.

We're making major progress and I feel like this is the right choice.