I am on Day 14 of my financial sanity. I am so happy I have been staying on my spending plan and will pay off the $3,600 left remaining my one of my husband's car loans today.
About four days ago I started attended Debtor's Anonymous (DA) meetings over the telephone as there are no DA meetings in my area. DA is a wonderful program for people who have a compulsive overspending or charge card use problem. Fortunately, I don't really have a debt problem, but a couple of times a year I way go overboard on my spending...WAY overboard.
Although some people have garden variety problems following a budget, my problem is a little more serious than that...I have an addiction to overspending. I know my financial situation is fairly blessed, but that doesn't negate the seriousness of my addiction. It's something I will have to watch every day for the rest of my life to keep it under control.
I was reminded of that yesterday during a telephone DA meeting. A woman called in and said she had a problem with shopping on one of the TV shopping networks. Although it had gotten so bad the bank was about to foreclose on her house, she couldn't decide whether to block those TV shopping channels! It sounded so CRAZY to me that her shopping addiction had nearly ruined her life and she still wasn't ready to quit!!
I say that not to judge her, but to remind myself that if you have the problem, overspending is a progressive addiction that always gets worse, never better, UNLESS YOU DO WHAT IT TAKES TO STOP.
For me, it is the tools of the DA program. In a nutshell, they are:
1) Cut up your credit cards
2) Write down all income and EVERY purchase today
2) Don't debt today
With God's help, just for today I will write down my "numbers" and not debt. It's really that simple. If you think you may have a similar problem visit www.debtorsanonymous.org.
Just for today, I hope you and God make it a great one!!
Debtor's Anonymous Meetings
January 17th, 2011 at 02:09 pm
January 17th, 2011 at 03:16 pm 1295277364
January 17th, 2011 at 03:16 pm 1295277409
January 17th, 2011 at 04:01 pm 1295280067
January 17th, 2011 at 05:58 pm 1295287086
January 17th, 2011 at 06:45 pm 1295289959
January 18th, 2011 at 12:28 am 1295310512
January 18th, 2011 at 12:07 pm 1295352443