One of my motivations for becoming a minimalist was debt. Scott and I did not have a lot of it. I have a mound of educational debt, true, but that didn't bother me. The problem was the small amount of credit card debt. It was only a few thousand, but it was a few thousand more than I wanted.
I think what bothered me most about it was that I felt like I didn't deserve to have it. Yes I had put the money on my credit card and yes I wanted to pay what I owed, but it felt so unfair to have all this credit card debt when I hadn't been living outside my means. The debt wasn't charges for purses and shoes I didn't need (but surely wanted). All the debt was a loan to keep me afloat. I needed emergency dental surgery and didn't have $2,000. The car broke down and needed a pricey repair ($800) and we didn't have the money, but Scott needed to be able to get to work. Every penny on our credit card was something that was a necessity.
I wanted to have a nest egg -- a small savings tucked away from when these events happened, but we were living paycheck to paycheck. We were scraping by and there was never any money leftover to put in a rainy day fund.
Still, the credit card debt was clawing at me and I couldn't stand it. I wanted to be free from it. It was holding me back. It made me nervous. It gave me anxiety, especially when the dental surgery was a few years ago and I still hadn't fully paid it off... would I ever?
That's when I took a good look around me and decided something had to give. If I was doing everything right, then I wouldn't be where I was. Clearly I was living outside of my means in some way. Even though it didn't feel like I was. Even though I didn't live a lavish lifestyle. Because of the situation I was in financially, I knew deep down there must be a way for me to scale back and reduce in order to get out.
There was.