Dollars and Sense

It all started innocently enough. I was only working 6 hours a week my freshman year of college so I was a little short on cash. One day as I was walking to class, I passed a guy giving away free candles if you signed up for a credit card. Sounded good to me. I got a free candle and a little extra spending money. Until I kept spending and kept spending and kept spending. Then I signed up for another credit card and another and another.
Then I graduated got a decent paying job (well, not that decent paying but I was also living with my parents) and paid my balance almost all the way down.
I thought I had learned my lesson until I moved in with a friend of mine and we started going out A LOT! And we needed clothes to go out in and new shoes and new purses and cabs to drive us to the bars we were going to.
Then I got engaged and started wedding planning (lots more money!). About six months before my wedding, my husband fiance lost his job. And I was in school full time (again). So everything went on the credit card again. My wedding dress, the bridesmaid dresses, the dj, the limo.
When it got out of control, I signed up for a debt consolidation company and started to make a serious dent in my debt. More importantly, I was not allowed to use my credit cards any more so I learned to live without them.
And today, I paid the last of them off. Which is giving me an extra $600 a month to spend on anything I want. I am SOOO excited!! And proud of myself!! And I will never let my daughters get into the same financial problems I did.