Is the recession causing you to live within your means, and less on credit?

I don't have credit cards, If I can't afford it I do not buy it! Yeah it sometimes sucks when I wanna buy myself a shiny new toy, but at least I am not crippled with debt!

No, Not in the least... In fact, i am quite sure Credit is Scarce if not depleting in Value. Bearing in mind, Fees, and Interest are at a record high. We are Loosing, our Socks before we can finance them!

Next time our country (ya know this one USA) does something without paying for it then, don't get mad at the American people for doing it 2...All Leaders in this country are supposed 2 b leading by example, REMEMBER. When our OWN Leadership stop doing stuff without paying 4 it, then .... well, u finish the rest

I have seen fellow soldiers get buried in debt. Their families are forced to apply for food stamps in order to make ends meet. This is a shame. Its not just the Military's fault. True, we dont get paid massive salaries as an E-6/Staff Sergeant with 10 years of service. My basic pay is only 3,148 a month barely above poverty level. I also receive BAS of $323 a month, a yearly and monthly clothing allowance. I also receive an extra $150 a month because of my jump status/hazardous pay. My combat special compensation pay is calculated using some bizarre chart from the DoD that I don't understand. I also receive a cash bonus because my MOS is a critical skill and when I re-enlisted I receive a one time cash bonus of $40,000 (the most money I have ever had at once). I live on base, since I am always in the field or on deployment so I don't receive the Housing Allowance. The Military Healthcare/TRICARE system is one of the best in the nation. It provides health care free of charge, they even gave me a bit of plastic surgery on my forehead so I wouldn't resemble the Frankenstein monster so much.
That being said most of my expensive are taken of, my truck is paid off and I have plenty of money in my saving account, retirement fund and mutual funds. The Army also provides free financial advise and services. Those soldiers who find themselves living pay period to pay period or struggling with young families have made some irresponsible financial mistakes. Living beyond their needs. I don't feel any compassion for the younger single soldiers who get themselves into a financial quagmire but something should be done to make sure the military families are not forced to live in poverty or are reduced to using food stamps to make ends meet.
I have to agree with what many others posted. Use a debit card with a Visa logo on it or use an AM-EX card and pay the balance off in full each month. That way you can build positive credit while at the same time not find yourself in a financial hole.

No. we have always lived within our means. it's just that the government keeps taking more and more of our earnings and giving us less and less in terms of services.

People everywhere are holding on to their savings like never before. Small businesses are holding back on hiring because they are not sure how this is administration is going to tax them. I believe that when we vote a good number of these democrats out of office this November we will begin to see more confidence in our economy, and things will start recovering.

Doesn't this question strike people as insane? Why did we need a recession to live within our means? Isn't this a big part of the problem?

a credit card purchase is agreeing to make a small loan, if you treat your credit purchases as such, you can easily grasp what and how to live within your means by using cash for purchases, and credit cards for reservations,...etc.

I've never been a big credit card user and currently have none. I've never been able to see the rationale behind paying someone to spend your own money. While they have come in handy during a few emergencies, any other use is a trap. If you can't afford it, don't buy it.

I wonder how much of that drop in credit card debt is attribitable to write offs of bad debt. I have always lived within my means, though my means aren't as big as they used to be. I'm the poster boy for the under-employed. That's why it pisses my off that the economy is so bad because of people who couldn't or wouldn't live within their's, and the people who enabled them to do it. I took care of my business, but now my stock portfolio is in the tank and I can't get even 1% interest on a two year CD. It's ridiculous, how is anyone ever supposed to retire. I've worked hard and saved money, now it's worthless. I don't want to work until I'm eighty. But who can blame them, hell, look at the example they've been given. The whole country can't live within it's means. The national debt is out of control, budget deficits get worse every year, and their solution? Drop interest rates to nothing so even if you had a dollar it would be worthless. Call it what it is, a depression.

I completely agree with JanforGore.

You are not allowed to do anything anymore without using a credit card. And what sucks even more is that now my bank (Bank of America) wants me to use my debit card for transactions, even when I go see a teller. I don't like that. The teller doesn't even ask for my ID. What if I was a crimminal using someone else's card?

What I'm saying is a bit of topic, but everything seems to be done electronically, which means if there is a major computer malfunction,we're all screwed.

I don't buy anything unless I can pay for it in cash. This false illusion that you are somehow in better standing because you have a plastic card in your wallet needs to be changed in this country because it is drowning us and dooming our children to a world of debt. I also have never really lived above my means, so I haven't had to adjust too much. And even though many Americans are finding it harder to get by, perhaps for some it may just be an experience some can use to search their souls to finally find what truly makes you happy in life, and it ain't no American Express card.

I mostly drink beer out of a can now. It used to be Coronas and lime exclusively. And pot forget about it for the most part.

It's causing me to redefine living within my means.

I'm already broke, so the recession hasn't really effected me.

Interest is for suckers. I knew this when I was 15. I have no credit cards and no debt (Tooting my own horn... Toot toot!). If you can't pay for something with the money you have, maybe you don't need it... ?

We all have too much "stuff", anyway.

you should always live within your means!

The recession is causing me to live paycheck to paycheck so that I don't have to add credit card debt to the money I already owe on student loans which I am deferring since I can't get a full time job, let alone a job in my field. Not only can I just not even handle the thought of owing even more money than I already do for my education, my parents who are struggling themselves have even offered to loan me money if I ever need it to pay off a credit card so that I won't ever have the credit card debt that they have. Thankfully, I've been able to make all my payments on my own so far making minimum wage.

glad I never had a credit card! loan shark bastards won't make a dime off my ass!

My answer is American Express and never never never never use sign and travel. You can only buy what you can afford because you have to pay it all off at the end of the month. :)

The only credit buying before the 1960's was for a home, a farm or an automobile. Now an automobile cost more than houses sold for in 1969 and wages have been flat since then. No more shoe salesman buying a home. And no more single earner people, like the HS gym teacher with 5 kids across the street from me buying a house on his own. Buddy can you spare me $2 for a coffee. Three of my younger children are working at Starbucks and Taco Time for less than $10 an hour. When I was 20, I worked as a Teamster and was making the equivalent of $30 an hour. That enabled me to put myself through college without loans and adopt 3 children. Haven't made that much money since with a Master's Degree in Education. Kept on adopting children who found me.

Unfortunately, our only real business in the US is servicing debt at 25%. Good to see business is not so good. Still won't gas puppies at the pound to make money. Nor will I go again to foreign countries to kill people who mean me no harm.

If by means you mean nothing,
and by live you mean dead;
then yeah...
sure.

"credit"? What is this "credit" you speak of?

I use credit cards but I try to pay them back immediately. Luckily I have taken up the habit of paying with cash or my debit card.

I've completely ditched credit cards and credit all together. The gig is up as far as I'm concerned. I talk to people all the time with Fico scores over 700 who will never pay off there debts. They will make payments for the rest of there lives or until the day they are no longer able to.

It didn't take an economic downturn to teach me that lesson. Thanks mom and dad!!!