Jun 28th, 2008
The Power of Temptation
No one, including me, is immune to temptation.
I have wanted a GPS for some time. Recently I learned of this offer via a blog post at Frugal Shopping With Julie. No, I didn’t need a third Discover card (I have a regular one I’ve used forever and a day and the Discover Open Road for 5% back on gas), but I figured one more wouldn’t hurt, so I applied and got the card.
In order to qualify for the GPS offer, I actually had to use the card! This doesn’t surprise me, but I had to read the fine print to figure that out; of course, at the same time I noticed the 0% balance transfer offers (with 3% fee, so much for 0%) and 0% interest on purchases for a few months.
All of this while I’m trying to figure out what to buy to activate the GPS promotion. What to buy with the card?
The best answer: something I would normally be charging anyway, like groceries at the store this week.
The answer running through my head: something I really want, like a Cradlepoint router or an Apple Airport Extreme or a Nikon D40. Something I don’t have the money to pay for right away.
Stop. Breathe. Think.
Buying stuff that I can’t yet pay for with offers like, “0% interest for the next year!” is exactly the kind of thing that got me into financial straits years ago. The way to stay out of those kinds of straits is to avoid going down that same trap. I’ve been fooled once; I’m not going to be fooled again.
That doesn’t mean I am not tempted. The difference between now and then, however, is I can manage that temptation without giving in to it.
In the meantime, I got some organic peanut butter and crackers at the store the other night, and used that new Discover card then. I’m hoping that I get a new GPS in the mail soon, but what I definitely won’t get is into debt, zero percent or not.
