A long time ago I started a personal finance blog right because I wanted to hold myself accountable and was deep in debt. I figured if I wrote it down and made it public then I would do better with my finances. This is Part 1 of my story, originally posted to the world 10 years ago.

It all started in high school. My grandmother would always receive Fingerhut catalouges in the mail and I was amazed by the GREAT deals (eye roll here) that they would advertise. I’m not sure if they are still around, but Fingerhut had low quality products at high prices, seeming like a good buy because they always listed the prices as “$5 a month” or something like that. One day, one of those catalogues arrived at the house with MY name on it. In it I saw a pair of Asics tennis shoes and an electric razor that I wanted, so I signed up for my first credit card at the age of 17. It took me more than a year just to pay for those two things. I did not know about how you should pay more than the minimum payment.  I also did not realize how stupid it was to have a credit card, especially at that age when I didn’t understand credit AT ALL.

When I was 18, I signed up for a bunch of department store cards that included Zales, Wal-Mart, Goldsmith’s, Lane Bryant, and Fashion Bug. I also had two credit cards: First Financial Bank and Yahoo! Visa. With all these cards and a freshman year in college with no job, I ended up with bills that I could not pay. I used my credit cards for clothes, food, gas, basically everything. The next year, I came upon a huge sum of money, and used it to pay off my cards. Then I got a Chase credit card and all of my balances rose once again.

During the middle of my 2nd year in college, I moved out on my own and found myself in more trouble because I had credit card debt on top of rent. This is when I became introduced to payday advance centers. I remember that for several months I had up to 7 payday loans out at the same time! This is when I really began to notice that things were getting out of hand, so I moved back home and signed up with a credit counseling service. With my new debt plan I was scheduled to pay off my debts in 5 years, but I found myself not even having enough funds to pay the required payment.

In 2004 I decided that it would be best for me to file chapter 7 bankruptcy. With my jobs I was not making enough to cover my debts and my parents were not able to help me. Plus, I figured that by the time I plan on making a big purchase, the bankruptcy would be gone from my credit report. Due to my VERY slow attorney, my bankruptcy was not discharged until Jan. 2006.

So here I am trying to bounce back from the huge mess I created. When I went to college the first time, I had a full scholarship, but then I transferred to a new school, completely changed majors, and was without a scholarship so now I have student loans and only 2 credit cards. I just graduated in December 2007 and am jobless. I’ve moved back home and recently found a job at a call center. It’s not much, but it is a whole lot better than nothing and it’s full time. But I really want to teach and I hope I’ll have a teaching job in August!

If you are reading this and have your own debt story or personal blog please feel free to share! I would love to hear from you and need some blogs to follow!

(Part 2 coming next week)