We also use credit cards and it is a game changer for our family. My husband and I decided not to merge our financial accounts and maintain separate bank accounts with a joint house account. Not a typical standard for married people but our preference. So credit cards make it easier to buy everything we need that month and then when we close out our budget we each transfer over the money at the end of the month and pay off the credit cards in full. So definitely easier for us in that regard.

Totally agree with what you said that allocating the money in categories is the most important part. Lots of people thinl credit cards are a budget category, and it isn't!!!! It's a payment method, that's all

I definitely use credit cards and I do exactly what you said, I add the transactions to their correct category and I reconcile with the statement every so often. I use YNAB as my budgeting software and it makes it soooo easy to manage CCs. If your transactions used budgeted money then it adds that money to a CC payment. So you can see your balance and how much you’ve budgeted to pay and easily know if you’re overspending. I also had 4k of CC debt when I graduated law school from bar exam costs and YNAB helped me manage paying that off quickly while still using my CC for my budgeted purchases so o was never increasing my balance. I also pay my card every week to keep the debt to credit utilization low

We use credit cards...a few in fact. We take advantage of cash back or percentages off. I pay them every week to make sure we aren't over spending in any particular category.

We use the Apple Card’s. It’s nice to see a balance immediately. We setup a weekly budget & you can see how close you’re getting to your ‘limit’ in real time. No waiting for transactions to clear. Plus we use the apple cash back as our personal spending money. It’s 2% when you use Apple Pay.

@TheBudgetingWife

2 жыл бұрын

That's awesome!

Thanks for breaking this down! This is helpful!

I use ours in a similar way. I think of it a little like a sinking fund account. Groceries, pets, household items and pay it off each month. The 5% is nice as well! In my former job I enjoyed doing the reconciliation each morning. It was a nice way to ease into the work day.

@TheBudgetingWife

2 жыл бұрын

That's a great idea!

Great information on using credit cards and listing the transactions in your budget categories. I have been doing the same.

I do this with my discover card, based in the quarterly category, only I immediately take it out of my checkbook register (marked as DISC, not DC) so it’s like we paid “cash”, and then make a payment every week (usually on payday). I may have to remind the hubby of which category it is that month, but it works for us!

I am going to start because the money I'm transferring over to pay a couple bills and personal ..will take care of the payment...and will be paying down the card at the same time.

You can also only pay the statement balance instead of the current balance to ensure you don't get charged any interest and fees. I prefer paying off just the statement balance so that I get to keep my money in my account (earning interest). Just make sure that whatever balance you are incurring after your statement balance falls within your budget.

Hi. New subbie here watching 👀 ❤️

Hi Marissa! My husband and I also use credit cards and never pay interest. But I was wondering what you think about paying for stuff with monthly payments but 0% APR within a year or 6 months for example. And when I say stuff I mean bigger expenses like furniture. Whenever we’ve done this I always get the urge to just pay it off right away because I feel like I’m fooling myself into thinking that I have more money in the bank than I actually do. Have you done this?

One thing that threw me off with credit cards was say we were spending petrol/grocery for month of May, but they wouldn’t take the payment for it until June. I could never quite wrap my head around how to figure that out. Do you just leave the money in your account or put it into a holding account until the next months payment?

@biancagarcia6597

Жыл бұрын

I also have issues with this, did you ever figure out a good way to do it?

@janellemarina

Жыл бұрын

Make a separate holding account for your credit card payments and every week add your pending purchases to that account so you don't accidentally spend it.

Credit cards are the best hack. Dave Ramsey has been spreading too much misinformation about cards. 😂

What do you do when you pay the CC balance? How do you record it?

❤️❤️

how much should i spend on a 300$ credit limit, currently building credit and trying to get a good scoreim a beginner

Do you put the transaction in the same month you spent it? My question is because then your bank account will be different than your budget since you will only pay the credit card next month. What I'm thinking to do is to put one time transactions in the same month I do then, and purchases I do in installments, put only each installment in each month.

@VishKnew

11 ай бұрын

Same question as cc bill is paid next month. What to do next?

Quick question, Ive been trying to try this out and everyone says to pay it off by the due date, to never carry a balance, but how about if I only pay 1/2 of the balance on the due date and the other 1/2 on the following month like pay off whatever I spend on the credit card for that month but pay it off in 2 payments. Is this still considered bad?

@majomillan6257

Жыл бұрын

Whatever you pay AFTER the due date will be accumulating interest, so you will be basically paying additional 25% (or whatever your cc interest rate is ) on of your 2nd payment

Do you pay your bills with your credit card? I haven't been able to talk myself into it but the points would rack up alot faster. 😂

@TheBudgetingWife

2 жыл бұрын

Yes! Especially because that's a bill that it is what it is. I'm not going to be overspending on my electric bill just because it's on a credit card. :)

@melanierose9015

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheBudgetingWife I'm going to start using a credit card for rewards and I'm only going to use it for fixed expenses to avoid the possibility of overspending!