It's not that you need to track every cent you spend for the rest of your life, but you need to do it for several months, preferably for one year, to get an accurate indication of your patterns and the seasonal changes that take place with your expenditures and lifestyle needs. Pay off debt with discipline not deprivation . Technically, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having credit. That statement may surprise you coming from me, a financial recovery expert. But it's true.
Credit is a necessary part of the economy.
If you want to borrow money for major purchases like a home or a car and most of us have to because we don't have access to large sums of cash you have to have credit to show a history of timely repayment. It's the abuse of credit that gets us into trouble. Save consistently without becoming a miser . Waiting until the end of the month to see what's left to put into savings doesn't work. Usually, there is nothing left, so we promise ourselves we'll try again next month.