I ate out 5 times in the past week and our paid in full card is definitely showing a significant slowdown in the spending. We are basically taking a spending hiatus and seeing how little we can spend this month.
Our major expenditures this month will be my little brother's birthday dinner and Thanksgiving dinner. I am actually hoping that, with the drop in out to eat spending, our cash allowance will completely or mostly cover the increased grocery bill for Thanksgiving (the stocking runs have already begun).
The card spending slowdow has been dramatic. We only have $45 on the card that isn't part of the automatic spending (gas and bills are automatics) when our goal is under $200 per week. I think so far we are meeting that goal, lol. From September to October, we dropped $800 in spending. I am almost afraid to see how extreme a drop we will have for November. I suspect it will be over $1000 if we continue at this pace.
I think knowing that the credit cards payoff is so close after so many years is putting us in austerity mode. We are just ready to see them disappear completely. Despite the momentary hiatus on overtime, we are still on schedule to get the credit cards below 10K by the end of this year. Right now we are looking at a potential March payoff date for both cards.
Continuing Progress and Significant Slowdown in Spending
November 2nd, 2012 at 01:49 pm
November 2nd, 2012 at 03:09 pm 1351868980
November 2nd, 2012 at 05:50 pm 1351878658
November 3rd, 2012 at 02:39 am 1351910343
November 4th, 2012 at 10:54 pm 1352069648
Jerry