Using credit to get out of credit card debt

I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. Those 0% APR on Balance Transfer offers that you get in the mail can help you get out of credit card debt BUT you have to be diligent about payments, pay more than you would normally pay per month, and NEVER pay late (even a day late will cause you to lose your 0% APR).

Check out #4 in this article on getting out of credit card debt:

Got Credit Card Debt? Ten Tactics to Use Right Now to Get It Under Control

I have done this a few times. The first time I transfered almost $4,000 from a few cards onto one card, and when that 0% APR time ran out, I moved that balance to another card. Today, I did it again, I'm determined to be out of credit card debt by the end of this 0% APR period. I started this quest to pay off our credit about a year and a half ago and we're down to almost $1,000 now. As we get my DH's student loan debt down to a transferable amount, we may transfer his balance to a 0% APR credit card, too. The extra time that the 0% APR period gives is such an advantage to getting the card paid off, without all of those extra fees tacked on to the balance.

Habit Change

In the past, I have been guilty of jumping into changes too quickly. I'd become overwhelmed and quit. Part of the problem was not preparing and part of it was not making changes that worked with my personality.

I started reading, "Organizing From the Inside Out" last night... this book teaches you how to organize your life in a way that flows with who you are.

Steve Pavlina has a great post today about Habit Change. He equates habit change with chess strategy.

He says:

"Trying to change a habit overnight is like trying to execute scholar’s mate in chess. Scholar’s mate is a strategy of achieving checkmate in only four moves. It only works against total beginners. Against a chess player with an ounce of experience, scholar’s mate will fail. A botched scholar’s mate puts you in a disadvantaged position, so attempting it is usually a bad idea unless you’re playing against a complete novice.

Are you applying the scholar’s mate strategy when trying to change old habits or adopt new habits? Do you go straight for the kill, only to find your attempt shot down?

When you try to change a habit without devoting sufficient time to the early game and middle game, you’ll almost always fail to make the change stick. Only the very easy habits will succumb to this kind of brute force strategy.

The early game of habit change is education and setup. In the middle game, you execute some changes to support your habit change. Only in the endgame do you go directly for the kill."

Go read the rest... Habit Change Is Like Chess

New CD!

I don't what took this guy so long to ship his CD, but because he's so cool, I'll forgive him. Got this in the mail yesterday! WooHoo!

Brian Lauri - Train of Thought

Another nightly battle

Work was great last night. I wore different shoes, which helped with my foot and leg pain that I've been experiencing since the new ad set system has been in place (maybe I haven't talked about this here... this new system involves a ton more walking, than we are all used to... because of the walking, the extra hours [because we are understaffed], and my extra weight on my tiny feet [70 lbs... gasp... on a size 5 foot], I have been nearly crippled for weeks now. I haven't been able to walk without constant and sometimes severe pain. It also helped that we got out of work early last night, we haven't been able to do that for quite some time because of being understaffed. So, I wasn't on those awful floors for as long.

I got home just a little after midnight. Spent some time with Dodger, watched Seinfeld, and read a bit more in "Fit For Life." My nightly battle, again, was within my head... one part of my brain screaming, eat-eat-eat... and the other part screaming, no-breath through it-you don't have to eat-it's too late to be eating-you'll over tax your system if you eat this late at night and right before bed. Ugh! I won the battle again... but damn, it sure sucks! I sure hope one day that the *bad* voices in my head aren't so loud.