What To Avoid Charging

1. Groceries. It is never a good idea to get into debt for everyday essentials such as groceries. You can tack on $400 to $600 dollars a month in debt by charging your groceries every month.

2. Mortgage. If you can't pay your mortgage every month without charging it to a credit card you need to sell it and get something affordable. There are some companies that allow you to charge your mortgage payment but you should always avoid this. Your mortgage payment should never be more than 30% of your gross income.

3. Tax bill. Make sure you are having enough taxes taken out of your paycheck so that you will not come up short and owe a tax bill. If you are self-employed send in estimated taxes every quarter to cover your expected tax expense.

4. Car loan. Do not take out a catch advance on your credit card to cover your car loan. This quickly adds up to a lot of credit card debt at higher interest rates. If you are short every month and unable to cover your car loan get a part-time job to avoid getting yourself further into debt.

How To Avoid Credit Card Debt

Never use your credit card as your emergency fund. This just piles on the debt making it harder for you to ever climb out. As soon as you realize that you are in financial trouble, cut your expenses to the bone. Discontinue cable, stop eating out, and cut all non-essentail purchases. This is the first step to freeing up money to pay on debt and to use toward bills to avoid more debt.