Do you live off of cash or credit?

One of my favorite bloggers, John Chow came up with a good blog post where he discusses the #1 reason why he doesn't live on cash and now that has me thinking - do you live off of cash or credit?

I personally live off of cash for me since I don't have any cash back credit cards right now, I only have the basic credit cards, but one day I'll get a cash back credit card.

So, do you live off of cash or credit?

 

I do my best to use my credit card as much as possible, but as John Chow mentions - it requires the ability to manage your money and avoid impulsive purchases. I do that, so use my credit card and pay it off at the end of each month.

I just bought a laptop on Black Friday for $399+tax (see my other thread in the misc. forum for details). This is what I'd call an impulsive purchase, so I put that on debit -- no worries as to whether or not I can pay it off at the end if the month. It's done, and it's cleared.


If it wasn't for my meticulous management of money (amongst many other things), and I was lazy in this respect, I'd probably put everything on debit just to never have any worries.

By the way, PayPal's debit card offers a 1% cash back program, just like John Chow's credit card provider. 'Tis a great way to avoid credit but still benefit from cash-back incentives.

 

I live off cash normally, I dont have a credit card and never plan on getting one.

 

i live off cash, cause when you see it, you have more idea of how much youve got left, cause i enjoy shopping too much and would probably end up in debt

 

For the most part we live off of debit rewards mastercard (Disneyworld this year). Which is connected to our checking. Credit cards are for vacations (points) and emergency funds if needed. For our business it's credit card city, but they're paid off everymonth.

 

We use the card for everything and never pay late fee's because we always pay it off each month.
I like the main card we have, it'll show you what stores you spent all your money at in nice to read graphs and charts.

 

My parents live off of credit, mainly. Usually, I only see them whipping out their cards and moving on. Very rarely do they use cash - only if it's something small like 10 dollars or so. Anything over 20, credit.

 

We live off our credit cards and pay them off at the end of the month.

 

No credit cards for me!

I use cash and debit card for every single thing.

 

My mom's credit card offline and my own cash when I buy online. 8)

 

I use cash

Credit is a fast track to the poor house.

I refuse to pay interest on money that I already have. If I can save up for 2 - 3 months and buy something with cash, that saves me the interest fee.

 

Not for everyone
My wife and I have never paid interest on any of our cards in the 8 years we've been together.

 

Not everyone has the personal and financial discipline that you and wife seem to have. I applaud you.

But for me, it was absolutely a fast track to the poor house, thanks to 2 divorces and lack of self control. I'd never have a credit card again, even knowing what I now know.

 

My ex-wife would not stop using credit cards.

In 1990 - 1991 she ran up her sisters credit card to something like $2,500. The funny thing, I was making good money at the time. Our total bills were around $500 - $600 a month, and I was making around $3,000 a month with lots of overtime.

We got that card paid off. But in 1995 we had around $30,000 in credit card debt. Every penny I brought home went just to pay the interest.

She went through a credit counciling program, and got the cards paid off.

3 years later, in 1999 she started running the cards up again.

That was one of the many reasons why I left her. I asked her over and over again to please stop with the credit cards, but she refused. It was like a drug, she would not stop using the credit cards. She kept running our family into debt every few years. I could not handle it anymore, and we divorced.

 

The credit goes to my wife, she just lets me know how much I can spend..lol

 

Opposite with me - my ex-husband couldn't stop spending. Spend spend spend!

I won't touch a credit card because I know me, and I would lose control.
ugh

 

Probably -- 90% cash/debit, remaining 10% Credit



I hope this youtube link works.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TjBNjc9Bo"]YouTube- I.O.U.S.A.: Byte-Sized - The 30 Minute Version[/nomedia]

 

Debit. 100% of everything that does not involve paying my parents (then it's check or cash).

I certainly don't have the discipline to not run up a real credit card, so it's best that I don't have one.

 

Well, during my final year of college, I ran up my credit cards a bit. With my scholarships I was blessed not to run up much debt at all with student loans (just needed a small one Sophomore year when I stayed on campus). However, my laptop went out (charged the purchase on two cards) and then my wisdom teeth were not entirely covered by insurance. On top of some other average purchase including one payment installment on an engagement ring, I accrued a good bit of CC debt. I was never really in serious danger, but I made the mistake about not being aggressive on them.

We went to go pre-approved for a mortgage and while I had a pretty darn good credit score, but I'm a couple points away from where the ideal number exists for me. Since I had gone full time around the same time, I read Dave Ramsey's book and decided to do my own debt snowball. Since then, I've paid off 2/3 credit cards completely and I'm almost done with the third. I've paid off a hospital bill as well, and I've started paying down my student loan.

We lucked up into having a house built for us, so I have a couple months to save, and my income is really up given that I now don't have all of that debt and I currently live at home. Once this mortgage is done, I'll close at least one but probably two of my cards and just have it for emergency purchases. Once I begin paying on the house, I'll have a more established credit history while doing the best I can not to get into credit card debt.