How Marriage Got Me Out Of Debt

The fifth time took me by surprise, the balance on my card shooting up rapidly due to a high interest rate and an overwhelming need to make our condo perfect. This took hand-painted furniture, artwork for the walls, and additional alleged accoutrements of housewifely success. When it became obvious to me how deep I had buried myself — again — I felt nauseous. I didn't want to tell Michael, but I knew that he had to know.

I cried when I told him. My struggle with money was no longer about my ability to purchase a car, pay off my student loan debt, or replenish my winter wardrobe. There was so much more at stake. For the first time in our lives, we were both putting huge chunks of our income toward mortgage payments on our one-bedroom condo. We were saving to buy a house in two or three years and, when that happened, we planned on starting a family.

Big goals, made even bigger by the fact that, almost a year before, Michael had put his trust in me, giving me the go-ahead to leave my full-time job and pursue the freelance lifestyle I had always wanted. I was disgusted with myself, remembering all the confidence he had placed in me. Every frilly skirt, every piece of hand-painted furniture, every pair of Alfani peep-toe shoes had taken us further away from our most important goals.

As someone who purported to be self-sufficient, I knew I had to fix this problem myself. And in order to do that, I had to surrender my financial autonomy. I handed all my credit cards over to Michael.

In the end, getting closer to debt-free took several steps.

The first thing I did was transfer all of my credit card debt away from my high-interest card and onto a card that offered a 0% interest rate for one year. I had been trapped by my high interest rates, my bill becoming more and more insurmountable with every month that I did not pay my balance in full. If you're similarly money-challenged, you can get credit card suggestions from BillShrink. The site allows you to plug in your personal info—such as how much you spend each month, which areas you spend the most in, and what your credit rating is—and then suggests several credit cards to compare and contrast.