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"&nbsp;    Young love can be a dangerous thing. When I started dating my now ex-husband at 17, I learned this the hard way. We married after dating for two short years. We were both still in college with a lot to learn about life... and money.        My husband and I grew up with very different financial backgrounds, and we did not discuss money before we got married. As a result, finances were always at the center of our arguments as a couple. We argued about how to spend money and about how little we were saving. We even argued about who was going to pay the bills and when.    &nbsp;    My husband handled handled all of our finances. My only financial responsibility was to work as many hours as possible at my part-time job while juggling school and trying not to spend too much money at the grocery store.    &nbsp;  When we got divorced 10 months later, I experienced a rude awakening.  &nbsp;    This App Makes Managing Your Finances Easy — Start Budgeting Today &gt;&gt;    &nbsp;    I had gone from being a high school kid living with my parents, to a college kid living in a dorm with roommates, to a wife living with my husband. Since he handled the ins and outs of paying the bills and balancing the checkbook, I had never made financial decisions for myself in my life. Now, I was responsible for paying all of my own bills, including rent for my apartment.    &nbsp;    Things were never terrible for me financially. I always had food in the fridge, and electricity and water in my apartment, but I did make a lot of financial mistakes in the year after I got divorced.    &nbsp;    After the divorce, I spent more than I made every month. What's worse is that I didn’t slow down when I realized I was in trouble. The biggest problem wasn’t in affording my basic needs, but in my emotional shopping.    &nbsp;  I shopped the pain of my divorce away, and I had the credit card statements and bank overdraft fees to prove it.  &nbsp;    Instead of crying myself to sleep or staying home in the apartment I used to share with husband, I would go shopping.    &nbsp;    After the divorce, It started off innocently enough. I bought a new shirt first. I felt that I deserved it before going out with my girlfriends on a Saturday night. After all, I only owned enough clothes for about a week, so there was no harm in getting one new shirt. But it didn’t stop there.    &nbsp;    Get a Free Credit Repair Consultation — Visit Site &gt;&gt;    &nbsp;    The next week, I opened my first credit card – a store card that I promised myself I’d pay off every month. But I didn’t. Soon enough, I was spending money on my card at the mall every weekend. I ordered things online, too, so that the store’s employees wouldn’t notice how often I came in to shop. Every time I got close to the limit – not infrequently, since I was only paying the minimum – the credit card company would give me an increase without my having asked for it.    &nbsp;    After eighteen months of reckless spending, opening and maxing out multiple credit cards, and overdrawing my checking account on a regular basis, I couldn’t stand it anymore.    &nbsp;  I wasn't sleeping at night because I was so worried about money.  &nbsp;    That’s when I turned to personal finance blogs to help me get my finances back on track. One fateful night, a panic-induced Google search led me to read my first personal finance blogs. Since then, I’ve been budgeting and blogging about my own experiences with money.    &nbsp;    I’m still not debt-free. But it is comforting to know how much money I’m earning, how much I’m spending, and how much I’m saving each month. I love looking over my numbers after each month and seeing my debt decrease and my savings increase.    &nbsp;    Settle Your Debt - Get Your Free Consultation Here &gt;&gt;    &nbsp;    I probably would have gained financial savvy even if I hadn’t gotten married and divorced. But these events that I sometimes consider “mistakes”  brought me to where I am today.    &nbsp;    In some ways, I’m thankful for all that I learned through the process of  marriage, divorce, and emotional spending. I still struggle with emotional spending sometimes. I don’t know if that “urge to splurge” will ever fully go away. But now that I'm aware of it and know how to battle it, I can sleep peacefully at night.    &nbsp;    &nbsp;    &nbsp;"
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