My credit card debt is well above average, no doubt about it. I’ve been asked how it got this high. This sounds bad but I’m not really sure how it got this high. Other than the two credit card checks I used last month ($3,000), I really haven’t used my credit cards in YEARS.

Here’s some things I know we charge in the past 13 years and the approximate purchase year. Most of them seem like stupid needless purchases now and I regret most of the purchases.

$4,000 Master bedroom set - 1998
$4,000 Computerized Sewing/Embroidery machine - 1998
$2,500 Tires and Rims for a vehicle we no longer own - 1996 (regret)
$2,500 Tires and Rims for a vehicle we no longer own - 2002 (regret)
$3,000 Tires and Rims for a vehicle we currently own - 2005 (regret)
$5,500 Tires, Wheels and adaptors for a vehicle we currently own - 2006 (regret)
$2,000 Tires and Rims for a vehicle we currently own - 2005 (regret)
$1,200 Quilting machine with frame - 2001 (regret)
$1,200 Treadmill - 2002 (regret)
$10,000 (guess) for various trips/short vacations - 1995 to 2005 (regret)

Those are all the major purchases I can think of right now. They add up to $35,900, that’s far short the $41,000+ I owe right now. I’m thinking the majority of the other purchase were for gasoline. I guess I’m still paying for gas I burned 12 years ago. That’s really dumb.

I think the biggest reason why we are have accumulated so much debt is because for the first 10 years of our marriage, my husband worked overseas. When he’d come home on days off, I wanted him to have whatever he wanted, I really couldn’t tell him “no”. So we’d spend with cash and then when he’d go back to work I’d try and sort it all out. If I came out short, my credit cards where there to help me out. While my husband was at work he had a horrible eBay habit that was costing me literally $1,000 +/- a month. To compensate, I’d sell stuff on eBay and the more I sold the more he spent.

Okay, let me have it! :-)