Shoppping with Mom and Dad

Do you remember shopping with Mom and Dad? Those $100 jeans sure looked good when someone else was paying.

It's funny how we change our way of spending when we are out on our own. Maybe TJ Maxx will do instead of Abercrombie. After all we are spending our own money.

What some of us didn't realize is that spending with a credit card has similar results as shopping with mom and dad. The only problem is that the credit card companies send you a bill for it.

A Dunn and Bradstreet study shows that we spend 12 to 18% more when we use a credit card vs. using cash. So even if we're paying off the credit card every month, and getting 5% cash back, you're not really winning, you're over spending. Yikes.

When we use a credit card, we act like someone else is paying. Hey, Visa is picking up the tab on this one. Sorry guys, Visa will be sending you a bill for that little convenience.

And if we don't pay it off they'll charge us an average of 16.70% APR.

Switch to cash to save money. And for sure get on a written budget to save even more money.