Yes, I’m a personal finance reporter with over 7 years of experience telling readers how to manage their money wisely. Yes, I also had credit card debt basically all the time.
I’ve carried balances on one or more credit cards for almost all of the 10 years I’ve owned them. Especially in the early days when I was still in college, there were times when I didn’t have enough cash to pay everything back. But most of the time I didn’t have the discipline.
Even though I was paying more than the minimum amount each month, I didn’t make an effort to clear the balance completely because I felt like it was normal to have credit card debt. When my colleagues borrowed money, I assumed they wouldn’t pay it back right away, but in reality, many of them did.
When I applied my Covid-19 stimulus check to my debt in 2020, I paid off the card for a short period of time. But then I got a dog, moved into my own apartment, continued to travel, and continued to spend at a level I felt I could manage. Soon I was carrying a balance again, which gradually increased until it reached a peak of $11,310 in March 2025.
However, as of September 18th, I have no credit card debt. I’ll show you how I took a five-figure debt and paid it off in full within two years.
Girl calculating my credit card debt
My debt was a combination of real needs and petty pursuits. In addition to veterinarian visits and dog supplies, I also charged for travel tickets and hotels when I felt I could afford it, and I admittedly rewarded myself with dinner and new clothes too often. Rather than intentionally making payments to reduce my balance, I often used the so-called “girl calculation” to justify continuing to use the card. I would make a mental note of how much I spent when I swiped my card, and I would pay off what I thought was more than the total amount I paid, without actually tracking or caring about the interest total.
For example, in October 2024, I spent $764 on one of my cards on dog sitting services, hotels, and dining out for a total of $838. This appeared to be a net positive. But considering the $60 in interest charged during that period, it was as if I had barely paid anything.
Even though I paid more than I owed to my credit card company for months, the balance continued to grow due to interest rates of at least 21%. My strategy was purely based on vibes, spending when I wanted to, and just putting a ton of money from my paycheck into my balance every other week. I never actually sat down and looked at the numbers to see how much my balance was moving each month or what direction it was heading.
The end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 was especially expensive as I traveled several times and attended my best friend’s wedding. I got a little carried away and my balance exceeded $10,000. I checked my accounts regularly, but I never thought about how dangerous it was to have so much debt. If you were temporarily out of work or had an expensive emergency at the time, you may have struggled to keep up with minimum payments or meet other financial obligations.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen. I was able to manage all of my recurring monthly bills, including rent and student loan payments. I was still contributing to my 401(k) and some emergency savings. Gradually chipping away at my credit card debt felt like an obligation, not something I was actively holding back from.
I started dating my current fiance in early 2025. He was kind enough to tell me just how significant, if not uncommon, this level of debt is. About 45% of credit card holders carried a balance for at least one month in the past year, according to a LendingTree analysis of Federal Reserve Board data. According to a LendingTree analysis of more than 400,000 of its users, the average American with some form of debt had a credit card balance of $7,756 as of the first quarter of 2026.
I sat down with my budgeting spreadsheet and crunched the numbers. When I pulled up my monthly credit card statement to see how much I owed each month, I was quite surprised to find that my balance hadn’t actually gone down over the months, instead it had been increasing, albeit slowly.
Lock-in: No more “atmosphere-based” repayments
There are many tactics people use to deal with credit card debt, from putting credit cards in the freezer to having “no use” periods. Fortunately, I didn’t have to take any drastic steps when I seriously considered paying off my debt.
I cut back on some expenses, mainly eating out and shopping for clothes. Living in New York, it’s easy to drop $100 on dinner and drinks with friends. I voted for fewer nights out and skipped, say, $15 cocktails when I went out to dinner. I stopped taking Ubers home as often as I used to, so I saved about $40 more when I went out.
I can be a very impulsive shopper when it comes to clothes, so I’ve started being more intentional about choosing items in advance and making sure I really need or want them before I buy them. Instead of going to Target and mindlessly adding items to my cart, I ordered online and got only what I needed. I put a lot of effort into saving up for the trip in advance and paid for it right away instead of taking months.
And instead of putting a ton of money into debt in hopes of getting more than I spent in a month, I actually started recording my monthly statement balances in a spreadsheet. This way, I couldn’t deny the months I added to my balance even though I was still making payments. For example, I moved in May 2025 and my balance increased slightly because I paid the moving company that month without putting any additional cash towards my debt.
Most of the time I used my debit card for purchases, but I didn’t completely give up credit cards.
The importance of emergency savings
I followed the classic budgeting advice of “pay yourself first” and reduced my credit card balance while saving some for emergencies. Every other payday, I paid off my credit card balance and it was automatically deposited into my emergency savings fund. Then spend what’s left in your checking account on groceries and other necessities. If I had cash left over after paying for my necessities, I would often make extra payments during the weeks I didn’t get paid. From October 2025 to September 2026, I was able to put nearly $600 a month into my debt on average.
This emergency fund was especially helpful when my dog had an expensive vet visit in May 2026.
This is something I often write about, which is that it’s wise to have emergency savings even while you’re paying off debt, and it was a good learning experience to actually do it. It kind of hurt to have to tap into the cash savings I was so proud of building up. But in the end, I was glad I didn’t have to add the $6,000 vet bill to my credit card debt. My progress slowed a bit that month, but ultimately I didn’t give up. And now that I’m no longer spending $500 a month on credit card debt, I can focus on rebuilding my savings and other financial goals.
Personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary recently told me, “Debt limits your potential.” I didn’t feel that way during my vacation when I charged my card. But as I recently turned 30 and started planning my wedding and thinking about my future, I started to feel like debt payments were a monthly bill I didn’t need or want to pay. And I feel lighter without it.
