HabitShaper

I am using HabitShaper to cut back on spending, and eliminate my debts. And it took a few minutes to set-up this plan, and it takes no thought to carry it out.

How? Very simple, really: by paying down my debts daily.
I used HS to make a goal of putting 20 dollars into my credit card every day. Of course, in true HS style, I start with an easy target of “at least 1 dollar”, and move up from there.

Now, this might not seem like such a big deal, but there is a huge difference between putting 20 dollars a day, and putting 600 dollars a month on my credit card.

A major problem I’ve had in the past is that I paid my debt in chunks, as soon as I got a paycheck. Then if a lean month would come around, I’d have to dip back into my credit again.

By paying slowly, I can see lean months coming, and have time to adjust my spending. I don’t have to use my complicated Excel spreadsheets to figure out how much I will have for the next X days.

I think the reason for this is simple. If our choice is “spend 20 now, and have less to put on my debt later“, we might still go ahead and spend. If we have to choose between “spend 20 now, or put 20 into debt now”, we take time out of the equation and it becomes easier to decide.

Nine times out of ten, in the former situation I would still go ahead and spend that 20 bucks. But in the “pay by day” mode, I am more likely to think about whether I really need to spend those 20 dollars, or if I should put them into getting out of debt.