No Cards Just Cash !!!!

Just received my Credit Card statement and realized that since last few months I'm on a kind of spending spree. Thanks to all sorts of Credit Cards I have got by the mercy of credit loving banks, though I have hardly missed any due dates for my credit cards ( After suffering from the famous debt trap for quiet a long period and it's a subject of another blog) somehow I realized that I'm spending on pretty unnecessary stuff or at least some of my purchases either could be postponed or even cancelled after a deep second thought.

Just notice your buying behavior and and how it changes in the presence of a card payment. We normally plan purchases and allocate funds to make those purchases from our budgets. We hardly consider the credit limit on our cards as a line of credit when we plan our purchases and in most of the cases purchases made on a credit card are unplanned or impulsive purchases. When you start convincing yourself how it's reasonable to make some unplanned or unscheduled purchase and you can do that by using your credit card you can straightaway assume that your have become a shopaholic. By the way there is a beautiful movie on this theme 'Confession of a Shopaholic', a must watch movie for all who feel shop crazily till they drop.

Remember the old days when we use to carry wads of cash with us wherever we go. We use to calculate, plan, budget and withdraw enough cash from the bank to manage our expenses and purchases. There was hardly any chance that we use to overspend as there use to be no enough cash at hand to make the impulsive purchases. Yes you could always go to the bank and withdraw additional money and again go back to shop but you loose that impulse to make a purchase the immediate next hour once you are pulled out of that shopping situation.

Having access to money all the time either through Debit Card or through Credit Card has definitely increased the spending appetite of a consumer and that's why companies like Master Card and Visa received so much of patronage from the business community. US consumerism is founded on the concept of borrowed money and they live their entire life to pay their credits card bills.

I have decided to experiment the pluses and minuses of using plastic money and from tomorrow exactly for one month I'm going to handle money the good old way I.e. withdrawal of cash from the bank for my spending. Barring on line utility payments I have decided not to use any Credit Cards, Debit Cards even to withdraw money from ATM. I have decided to measure the impact this may have on my spending and submit the report to you all after a month.

I'm sure life will become less complicated the way it was many years back. We need to adept technology wisely by choosing the good of it and leaving the bad behind

Do you agree with me ?