Did you put your Christmas shopping on Credit Card again this year?

No....NO....NO!!!! I gave up that pattern years ago and cut up all my credit cards to boot. Now if David and I do not have the cash to purchase something we save for it until we do. We have both been caught up in creating heavy debt loads by leaving beyond our means...and will NEVER go back to that way of life. The stress, worry, pushing, sweating to meet bills...uh..uh...been there and done that. We know from experience the hardest thing is to "live beyond your means" and once we downsized our expectations, simplified our life, set realistic goals, got on a budget and did not overextend our financial outgo life has taken on a magical quality that allows us to live our best life because our debt load is no longer weighing us down. I avoid the Christmas outgo by beginning my shopping NOW for next holiday season. I have three presents tucked away in a box for special people. By December of next year all my shopping will be done except for maybe David's...and we won't be in debt up to our eyeballs. Sure works for me! Raia

yup im not really proud of it. it was just that i already had everything budgeted for the holidays, and then suddenly after the shopping spree and all, my mom and my sister still had some request and they asked me to shop for our christmas eve feast. now i really have a huge amount to pay and im afraid i cant pay them all. so i have to pay half of it this month and the remaining will be paid by february.

I made sure this year that any money spent on a gift or gifts for different people in my life was money that I already had. Thankfully, no credit debt was used by me or my wife in buying gifts for our family and our friends. I've seen a lot of news lately with people talking about their debts on credit cards and such and it's nice to know that we were able to handle our Christmas shopping without doing that to ourselves.

Firstly I made sure I had the money then I put the spending on my American Express to get the points and then got something from them and used that as one of the gifts that I gave.

Dear Tetchie: (where have U been?) At risk of sounding like a Scrouge, I didn't buy One, (thats 1 ) christmas present. I have a family and 4 Grandchildren, but we don't subscribe to Exmas Fever.We celebrate Thanksgiving twice. Once in Canada in October and again in Texas in Nov. We believe in gifting on special occasions, Christmas not being one of them! Been missing you! Glad your back!

My credit cards were maxed out before Christmas even got here so I wasn't able to put anything on them. I had to be late on the payments on one of them so I could buy some presents I hate credit cards they are to easy to run up!

I'm afraid I did sweety but I kept my spending well under control for once this year! I know already what the statements are going to be and I am not in for a nasty surprise - thank Goodness! xxxx

i was good this year and did not use one credit card and i am so proud of myself.i managed.i actually cut them up over a year ago as i was spending way too much money.i figured if i could not pay with cash then i could not afford it.cheers sue