I’ve bitten the bullet and cut up my credit card. Now, I need to be honest first of all and say that I actually have four credit cards. One has zero balance and I’ve not used it for about 2 years, and it was only ever used to transfer a balance. I’m planning to keep it because in the UK if you don’t have a credit card, it can impact your credit rating, and I’ll need a good rating when I can afford to get a mortgage.

Of the other three cards, two were only ever used as 0% balance transfer cards, and I’ve never used them to buy anything. The balance has only ever gone down on these cards. Once they’re paid off, I’ll cut them up too (one will be paid off tomorrow!).

The fourth and final card has had a balance like a yo-yo. It goes up, I pay it off, it goes up again, I pay it of, and so on. I know it’s there, and it’s become a crutch at the end of the month when I’m skint and just need to buy something. I’ve got a little money to pay off on it, but I’ll pay that off in September. I re-wrote my budget when I got back from leave, because I am DETERMINED to pay off all my credit card debt this year. I cannot have it hanging over me any longer. So as terrifying as it was, I’ve just cut up my ‘crutch’ card.

Now I know saying I have another card means that I could just use that instead, but for some weird reason, I’ve never used that one purchases, and have no plans to now. It will remain as my emergency card that I can take on holiday in case there is an actual emergency. If I feel at all tempted to use it otherwise, I plan to give the card to a friend to keep so I can’t! Another part of the reason of keeping it at the moment is because I have NO savings. Once I’ve saved up an actually emergency fund of 3-6 months wages, the card will not be needed other than to maintain a credit rating.

So it might not seem like a huge deal, cutting this other one up, but it is to me. It’s me making a promise to myself to do better. Another way for looking at it is that I have no choice but to be good with money! I’ve done so well getting to where I am now, having paid off nearly £12k of debt, and this is the final push to help me get rid of the rest.

My budget for the rest of the year means I literally have about £25 spare each month, and that is IT. Now, I have absolutely no buffer.

Wish me luck, I think I’ll need it 🤣