Consolidation

Well, it finally happened. I am able to consolidate my entire credit card debt onto a single card...for 1.9% interest for the life of the transfer. The good part is that I will be saving a huge chunk of change in interest payments. The bad news is that it'll take me close to 3 years to pay off the debt. Yes, I know...I'm a dumbass for getting this far into debt. Believe me, no one is beating myself up worse than me. The good thing is that I've finally gotten a handle on why I spent so much money.

I figured out one day that buying stuff made me happy when I was in a bad mood or depressed. I guess I'd always known that, but the difference this time was that I realized that I didn't stay happy for long. When that "happiness" wore off, I'd buy something else. It became a pattern. What I failed to grasp, however, was that the happiness wore off quickly because 1) it didn't really make me happy and 2) seeing my debt build up killed my buzz even more quickly. It became a cycle of buy, get happy, lose happy, buy, get happy, lose happy, and so on. That, my friends, is how a single guy like me got into serious credit card debt.

With the help of a very good friend, I am now attempting to operate under a real, live budget. This friend recently lit a huge fire under my ass, which got me motivated. Since Tuesday, I've consolidated all debt onto a single card, closed and cut up the remaining cards, and will run a 'cash only' existence. This is going to be tough because I've never done it before and it's a completely new way of thinking. My friend is very good at this, though, and has assured me that it'll be entirely possible, with some practice. And, to be honest, I'm looking forward to this. I've had few challenges in my life lately and this is going to be a big one. I'd like to publicly say thank you, Friend, for getting me motivated. You get all the credit for this one. :-)

In other news, not much happening around here, which is why you haven't heard from me. Went to a friend's church last night and found it very interesting. More on that later, maybe. Gotta get back to work right now.

We'll chat more later.