Image Courtesy of SqueakyMarmot

According to an article in Sunday's, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, retailers are expecting consumers to reduce their use of credit cards this holiday season. Most people plan to use cash for their holiday purchases. What? Is this a new concept? People actually be spending their own money for gifts this holiday season?

Because of the credit crunch, more banks have cut back on credit card offers at the same time consumers are cutting back on purchases. In my opinion, if there is any good that will come out of the credit crunch, it is that people are starting to realize it is a bad idea to spend money that does not belong to them. If you don't have the ability to pay cash for a purchase, you probably should not be making the purchase; especially, if it is for a want and not a need.

Credit card issuers have also started to get better about who they issue credit cards to. For the second quarter of 2008, compared with the second quarter of 2007, most of the top credit card issuers have reduced the number of credit card solicitations they send out.

According to Synovate Mail Monitor, solicitations by HSBC are down 54%, Citigroup is down 45%, Discover is down 33%, Chase is down 9%, Bank of America is down 3%. Some issuers such as Washington Mutual and Capital One have actually increased the number of solicitations they've been sending out.

How do you plan to pay for your holiday purchases?

Subscribe to SingleGuyMoney

This is a guest post from J. Money of Budgets are Sexy. If you've never been to Budgets are Sexy, you are missing a great read. Make sure you head over and check it out. Thanks J. for helping me out with a guest post while I'm out of town.

Words of wisdom from the Queen of Finance herself - Suze Orman (who seems to be popping up everywhere these days!) I don't know much about her, but it sure seems like she wants me to :) She's on every other magazine, or financial show I check out - my favorite being the SNL skits they always do on her! haha.... she's got one helluva marketing strategy! She even has her name on a credit scoring product from MyFico called the "Suze Orman FICO Kit Platinum".

But this quote of hers, "You have to look at what you have, not at what you had." is really something to think about. It's SO enlightening, yet so simple. I love it! With all my bitching about sucky cab rides, friends trying to "split" the tab, and those whacked-out investors feeding off of emotions, it's a nice slap in the face to get back to reality. (you can check out her wiki here)
The truth of the matter is that I have a LOT more than I sometimes think, and I'm willing to guess the same goes for you too. Having stable jobs, good families, and nice financial safety nets (even if in theory), beats out those trivial complaints by far. The only problem, of course, is REMEMBERING that you are fortunate enough to have these things - something I should probably focus a bit more on.

That being said though, a little financial bitching every now and then never hurt anyone ;) In fact, it makes life (and blogging) even MORE interesting, not to mention accurate. Not everything that happens to us can be positive, I don't care if you're George Bush or Barack Obama......haha sorry, I'm really not sure where I'm going with this...the words just typed themselves out :)

I think there's a healthy mix of appreciating what we all have, and learning from the reasons why we don't have what we did yesterday ... sprinkled with rants and raves throughout! As for this Suze chick, I'm gonna have to do a little more research and find out how she got this cult following. I heard "The Money Book for the Young Fabulous & Broke" was pretty good, anyone read it?

I had to borrow money from my Emergency Fund last week to pay for my contacts. I have to wear a toric contact lens because I have an astigmatism. Because I have to wear a special contact lenses, they cost alot more than usual; even with my vision insurance.

I failed to plan for this expense so instead of putting the $300 on my credit card, I borrowed the money from my Emergency Fund. To punish myself for the poor planning, I had to pay myself back with interest.

When I fail to plan for purchases and I have to borrow from myself, I need to make it hurt. Since I borrowed $300, I was required to put $400 back in the account. Borrowing from myself is much better than borrowing from a bank and paying interest for the priviledge.

I paid myself back today so I no longer owe myself any money. I won't have to send anyone to break my legs for nonpayment.

-----
Free Money:

• $25 from Revolution Money Exchange. Like Paypal but without all the fees.
• Easy $25 ING Orange Savings Referrals. Be sure to open with at least $250 to get bonus.