Many families, including mine, have spent years in credit card debt.   So much temptation out there, so many "things" that become needs really quickly.  Needs we cannot afford.  God knows I have struggled to bring up my family in a way where they didn't go without.  We all seem to have this belief that we need to provide a world for our children that is better than what we had.  Why?  My childhood was perfect, I don't think I went without, but if you ask my mum, she would tell you we always needed more, and things could have been better.  As mothers it seems to be embedded in us, we need to supply everything our children could possibly want.   This, almost always, results in us getting credit cards, and/or store cards.  Then we proceed to pay the minimum payment each month, in fact, some months we struggle to do that and suffer the penalty rather than go without anything for fear of someone finding out!  We always believe that ...