But as soon as I open the door and give myself permission to do something, it's full blast time.  I'll exercise to complete exhaustion, inhale a can of soda in a minute, or eat licorice sticks until my stomach hurts.

When is it fair to say to my sister, you are now bringing more people on this trip and therefore you need to pay more? 

However, if you've decided that you just have to have a credit card, here are some of the things that you will probably tell yourself and the mistakes you will probably make while using your cards.  They will be sure to keep you in perpetual bondage to your debt, just like the friendly credit card companies would like for you to do.

You have probably heard the stat that half of marriages end in divorce.  Of those that do end in divorce 50% of them cite money problems as the cause.  So, removing financial stress from your relationship cuts your chances of divorce in half!.  Pretty crazy.  

If the choice is to laugh or cry at the situation, I always choose to laugh. I have to tell you this because I think this is going to be a "whine and stomp my feet" blog entry.

There is no time like the present. The longer you let something fester, the bigger the issue will become, and the more explosive the fallout could be.  

The comment suggested instead of writing purchases down, to take a picture of everything with my smart phone.  My wife and I carry our phones everywhere we go, so it's extremely convenient.  It would be almost a foolproof way of remembering how we spent our money because while we commonly lose receipts, we have never lost a phone.

If you are using credit cards or have just one credit card that you have held in reserve for emergencies, are you aware that last summer there was an antitrust settlement between merchants and Visa, MasterCard, and big banks about credit card interchange fees? These are the "swipe" fees merchants pay to the networks (like Visa) to process your payments when you use your card.

 It brought me back to the times I lived paycheck to paycheck. 

There are times when unexpected expenses and situations result in unplanned costs.

How did we get from nightmare to dream? Hard work, communication, never forgetting we loved each other, and never giving up.

We've gone through a lot during our almost seventeen years of marriage, and with experience comes wisdom.  I've thought a lot about how things would have been different if somehow we could have possibly known then what we know now.  

Retirement is so far away when you are busy working, raising a family, going on vacations, and spending time at home on numerous hobbies and projects.  And when it seems so far away, why bother giving it a thought?  

I've been known to end up with a tax refund or some birthday money and decide I need to spend it straight away - and not on groceries, but on something big, and probably something I won't use very often, if at all.  

If you have a load of debt because you took out student loans for college, you're definitely not alone.  

When it came to our finances, I can tell you that my husband Jay and I have really been through it all.  

Of course what happened was that eventually the credit cards were maxed out, and then it was time to keep all fingers and toes crossed that an unforeseen catastrophe or need did not arise that would require a major purchase.

But I can't ignore the fact that I need to plan for retirement age either.  Doing any preparation for retirement is difficult when enrolled in a debt relief program and on a tight budget

Are you stuck . . . bored . . . listless about where you're headed in life? Take a page from the greats and make a conscious decision to elevate your game, starting right now!

While not as important as an emergency fund or savings account, it's something that my husband and I wanted to establish for our family. We both work full-time, and have two small children at home, and it never seems like there are enough hours in a day to do everything and spend quality time as a family.

I am embarrassed to even THINK of all the emergencies I financed through credit.  I am still paying for emergencies that came and went five or six years ago.  Thanks to my Debt Management Plan, they will all be paid in three more years. 

It seemed like every time I had money saved up just in case an emergency would arise, it did.  However, if I hadn't saved for that possible emergency I wouldn't have had the funds to handle it.  That would have added to my stress of trying to get out of debt.

My 21- year-old mindset was that I wanted every bit of the money that I had earned. Why should I even bother thinking about retirement at such a young age?  If only I had taken the time to understand what I could have accumulated if I started out saving for retirement at 21 instead of 30+. 

Is the garbage we generate related to the money we spend? In this financial experiment, we'll determine just how much money you're actually throwing away.

In March, we reached the point of having one year left of our plan.  Reaching that mark put a smile on my face, but I really had my eyes set on this month, because after this month we will only have ten payments left.  What's special about ten?