I got my first credit card.

It's finally happened. After battling the pressure (and temptation) for 7 years, I've finally gone and got myself a credit card. I am pooping myself.

I've never been very good with any kind of 'credit'. I had an overdraft once and the day I got it I literally viewed it as free money. Granted, I was 19 and still in that phase where I was learning how to budget/save/not be a complete idiot with finances, but it left me scarred and adamant that I was never going to get a credit card for fear of doing the same but with more severe consequences. 

My credit rating has always been awful. I've been rejected from a phone contract before for goodness sake! I've never held a well paying job, never had a loan or a credit card before, no mortgage or finance agreement in my name. I'm pretty scuppered really. Every time I log onto Clearscore it recommends a credit card to boost my rating, but I've always resisted for fear of spiralling into uncontrollable amounts of debt.

The time has come to grow up.
I have got my first card.


The decision mainly came down to an upcoming holiday. We're going on our first couple holiday abroad and it's well known that buying flights etc on a credit card is a lot wiser than paying with debit. The trick is going to be not spending money on my card that I don't have in my bank for silly frivolous things. I might lock the card away.

These big girl decisions still leave me very nervous. I guess that's a good thing to feel when you're dealing with money to keep you from making really bad choices, but sometimes I still want to go back to living under my parent's roof without a care in the world and spend my money on make up and clothes (read: notebooks). 

It's been really hard to think clearly with all the job changes going on over here. We've gone from having to plan every penny, to having a bit of extra each month, and the temptation to go wild has been immense. Financial experts everywhere always say that you spend what you earn, meaning that whatever you bring in you always use up to the limit, so I'm trying hard to make sure that the extra we're bringing in goes towards saving for the future instead of just increasing our expenditure to meet our new salary. If we could survive on what we had before then we can certainly survive now! 

Partly I'm bringing this to light here in an effort to keep myself accountable. If I write about it then maybe I'll make better decisions? Here's to getting an excellent credit rating, being disciplined, and not flashing the cash like Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City. Wish me luck!


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