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A 5-minute conversation with my grandmother helped me get out of the post-divorce debt that plagued me for years
After getting into debt to start over after divorce, the author’s grandmother had a solution: a balance-transfer credit card.
When I got divorced seven years ago, I started my life over from scratch. I didn’t own a lick of furniture, and my savings had been decimated by a house I nearly bought with my ex before pulling out of the deal at the last minute. After we split, I signed a year lease on a new apartment and was ready to start fresh and design my own happy place, but I didn’t have cash on hand to do it. So I turned to my trusty credit card.
I bought what I needed: a couch, a bookcase, a desk and chair, a tiny kitchen table with two seats, towels and miscellaneous bathroom items, and my (still) beloved orange rug. I was good at shopping, so the total for all my new goodies was about $1,400. But with my housing costs now double what they were when I shared an apartment with my ex, I didn’t have the means to pay off my card in full, or in half, or even a quarter at the end of the month. I started making whatever small payments I could, usually just a few dollars more than the minimum due.
