Kelly Richards stood at the grocery checkout, frantically digging through her purse. Her one-year-old son, Steven, sat in the cart leaning his head against her arm. He’d been running a fever all day and was beginning to fuss. Steven’s three-year-old brother, Brandon, was whining for the neon package of gum just out of his reach on the checkout shelves. Kelly knew that she had used her last check that day at work, but she wasn’t concerned because she could just put the groceries on her credit card. However, the clerk was now handing back her card with an apologetic look on his face.
“Sorry. Declined.”
She handed him another with the same result – and then a third. After a long day of teaching high school and then picking up her two boys from daycare, she just wanted to go home and sink into a chair. This was the last thing she needed.
Kelly and her husband Luke are not in a financial crisis. They both make good salaries, and they don’t live extravagantly. They’re keenly aware that paying off interest is not a wise use of their money, and they’ve been making efforts to get out of debt. To do that, they’ve been shifting credit card balances from one account to another in order to consolidate payments and lower interest and finance fees.
But this day the timing was off. The necessary transactions had apparently not gone through and therefore the money from one account had not yet arrived in the other.
Does this situation sound familiar? Where the credit card shuffle suddenly becomes a fumble? Or do you have similar situations that arise? This story comes from the first chapter in our book Money is the Smallest Part of Your Finances. This book takes a look at the big puzzle that finances fit into and how you can both get your nickels and dimes in order as well as get on track towards living a life you love. Order the book now or check out our home page to see what we are all about.
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