Credit Cards are Not Refillable Gift Cards...

I'm not one to stress too much.
Life is short. Don't worry. Be happy. We've heard that tune over and over again. Our lives should be focused on living...not on planning your life around paying the bills....

I'm not a complete failure when it comes to finances. It's simply been a strange string of events that have led me to where I am right now.

I had zero credit cards until just about up to college graduation. I figured if I wasn't charging things, I wouldn't be in trouble. Kind of true, however, I had failed to build up a line of credit.

That was me back then...I miss that girl. That girl who was scared shit-less of the credit card bill. That girl who treated credit card offers like envelopes filled with sin...and NOT the good kind.

That girl is long gone. If one more credit card company tempts me with a credit card offer, I might just have to bed it and wed it.

I currently have 3 credit cards, and I need to stop viewing them as refillable gift cards. I need to start doing those affirmations that people do in the movies. I need to start looking at myself in the mirror every morning, and write the following message to myself on the mirror with bold red lipstick: "Erika, paying a credit card bill is not the equivalent to transferring money into a magical checking account."
"Charging a latte to an almost maxed out credit card does not mean that your building your credit in a good way..."

And don't even get me started on student loans. I didn't even hang my B.A. certificate on the wall before the first loan bill rolled in. I take it back...I still haven't hung up my B.A....its still sitting on my bookcase nestled between a picture of John Lennon and Audrey Hepburn.

As I said before, you can't plan your entire life around the bills...after all...they never truly go away.

Here's some positive things that I HAVE learned about money:
Quarters are still considered money.
e-statements are a more non-confrontational way of receiving your monthly statements.
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to be continued...