So, I have a problem. I'm a billaholic (yeah, I made it a word). My problem comes to spending money on bills. Not not paying bills, but paying too much on our bills.Okay, I know that sounds strange because we all need to pay our bills and whatnot, but bill paying is like this weird obsession for me. First of all, I love bill paying time. I find it very relaxing. Now there are the times when we're a bit short on money and I have to stretch here and there to make sure all of our bills are covered, but for the most part the 1st and 15th of each month is not high blood pressure time for me.
The OCD part is that I am incapable of paying minimum amounts only. I know this can be good, but I think its a little odd. We both have pre-marriage credit cards and other loans that we're still paying off. I can say that aside from the mortgage, a majority of our bill budget goes to credit cards. We were young and stupid once and we're cleaning up the mess now. But, hey, that's the way it goes sometimes. So I've looked into ways to help us pay off our credit cards more quickly while accruing the least amount of interest. My favorite option that I found is called "Snowballing" or something like. Basically, if you have 3 credit cards and they each have a different interest rate and you have $500 per month to pay off your cards, you only pay minimum amount on the two cards with the lower rates and you use the rest of the $500 to pay the card with the highest rate. Once that card is paid off you move onto the second card and so on and so forth. You accrue less interest in the long run and pay off your cards at a slightly faster rate. Good deal.
I can't do it. Every month I sit down and say only minimum amount on these cards and big amount on this card, but every month I pay more than I should. If the minimum amount is $20.00, I pay $50.00. Now I justify this by saying I need to round up and really if I wasn't doing the snowball thing I would be paying $150, so that extra $100 is going towards the high interest rate card instead. I know it should be $130 to fully entail the snowball concept, but every month I find myself paying more than I should on the lower interest cards.
This month was worse. I also have a habit of paying ahead on bills. If we have leftover money, we don't save it, instead I put it towards our car payments or Stonewall's student loans. So we're a few months ahead on some of our more expensive bills. Great. We're going on vacation next week. Stonewall and I discussed it and decided that the bills we were ahead on, we would skip paying this month so we had some extra spending cash. (This is our last vacation before the deployment, so we want to make it good.) Could I do it though? Nope. I couldn't do it. I couldn't not pay bills. Now granted, I only paid half of what a normal month would be, but still, I just couldn't say no completely. It wouldn't have hurt us. It wouldn't have put us behind on payments. It wouldn't have had any negative effect at all, but I still could not refrain from paying. So our vacation budget is a little smaller now than what it should have been.
Okay, I know, technically, I'm being responsible. I'm setting us up to have a secure future (well, except for the not saving part. We do save each month, but nothing extra.), but I still feel sometimes as if I'm OCD about it. Like I'm in danger of becoming a miser. "No! You cannot have extra money for your vacation otherwise you'll only be 2 months ahead in payments instead of 3!" How friggin' weird!
Credit cards would be paid off faster and our vacation would be slightly more extravagant if I could just say no to paying the bills.
*Okay, so after re-reading I know I sound like a complete idiot. Which I think was my point in writing this. I'm just going to keep telling myself that someone reading this has an even weirder obsession than me and I'm not the only moron out there. Please don't destroy my fantasy by telling me otherwise. I'm still coming to terms with my bill paying OCD. Anything more and I might crack.*
6 comments:
Yep, you are right, this is weird :) But, at least you are paying off all of your debt and fastidious about doing so. It would a lot worse if you were only saving and not paying anything off!
Using the snowball technique is definitely the best approach, try and stick with it! I guarantee you will have more satisfaction only having to pay TWO cards than three!!! :)
I have accrued a $1200 in credit card bills, and at least $5000 in student loans.
I think what youre doing is smart, but you should create a separate vacation budget unless you already have one.
I agree with d.a.r., but I totally understand your point of view. I get a little OCD about financial stuff too. I always feel like I want the results NOW, when I know it's not realistic and hitting big financial goals takes time.
Control freak, OCD, whatever, at least you're being responsible.
ha ha...You are too cute.
I understand what you mean by this. You are creating a giant security blanket and it just feels good to have around! I wish I could say "relax" but that would be incredibly hypocritical of me so I will refrain :)
Instead, I a opt for the old: "I feel you on this one".
i thought i was the only person in the world that had OCD when it came to paying bills. i always pay in advance, and i even put an extra 1,000$ a month toward our vehicle. it's insane. glad to meet someone who has the same obsession :)
Oh you're not weird! I'm the same way!
We went into our marriage with thousands of dollars of credit card debt and student loan debt. (All my husband's :P)
7 years later we don't owe a single penny to anyone for anything. Not even car loans. Nothing. And that's because I've been crazy OCD about bill paying just like you.
There are worse vices to have, if you ask me!
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