I bought my home when I was 19 years old. People didn't believe that I could buy a home then and when people find out I own my home now and that I was 19 when I bought it, they still can't believe it.

The thing is, property values in this area were REALLY low in 1998. I purchased my 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 car garage with a pretty big yard for $36,000. It was completely move in ready, only needing a washer, dryer, and some color on the walls.

Before I had credit cards (Wish I had never gotten any of them!) my ex husband and I lived a "great" life. We slowly added to our aresnal of "stuff" - everything was paid for in cash. I remember not buying a potato peeler for 3 years because a knife worked just fine.

If I remember correctly, we brought home together less than $2500 a month, both drove paid for cars (why did I ever trade in that car? Silly!) had decent furniture, took vacations two times a year, had a big screen television and a DVD player (we got ours when the prices fell to $289 - it promptly broke a year later and it was cheaper to get a new one than to fix that one. I simply didn't own another DVD player for 3 years, when I bought one at Walmart for $29 for Christmas. I have had that player for 4 years now, it has been shipped around the world and back, and still works.) We bought our washer and dryer second hand (they were OLD, I tell you. But they worked great. I would still have them if the renters hadn't stolen them when I was in Germany!) We had one child at the time, so we were also paying daycare costs as well as normal utilities, mortgage, gas, and food. Oh, and diapers. (I was in the Army and the daycare would not use cloth diapers)

But I remember back then most of our friends always mentioning to us how they couldnt believe that we could afford what we had when they were barely able to put food on the table. In our group of friends, 5 of us bought houses around the same time. Within a year, only 2 still had the houses. Within 2 years, only we still had our house.

We would either eat out every weekend or we would have a bar b que and invite all of our friends over. We went to movies all the time.

When I think back on it, even *I* wonder how in the heck we managed without credit cards. Yes, $2500 a month is more than some people make today, so, I know we did have a bit more money than a lot of people. We were also just starting out and when we moved into this house we bought our first bedroom set (which I still have - the only thing I have replaced is the mattress and the bed frame because the original frame broke during the move and the mattress needed replacing. I still have all the other pieces and the box spring).

Before we bought the house we lived in an one room apartment, furnished, for $275 a month. At that time, we were bringing in $1600 a month. During that time we got a used sofa and loveseat, an $100 table and chairs set from Kmart, and a $50 entertainment center from Walmart. We also upgraded from my 13 inch television my parents bought me when I was 12 to a 27 inch. Both of us had bookshelf stereo systems that we had purchased when we lived in the barracks.

The first Christmas we lived in the house, my exhusband gave me nonstick pans. Before that, we used a $19 set I picked up at big lots. Cooking eggs was horrible. lol. I still have those pots. Whenever I think things are bad, I look at them and tell myself "at least you dont have to scramble an egg in that!"

I guess what I am saying is when I think back to then and the amount of stuff we had and the things that we did, I wonder how we did it all without credit card debt. If I think to now, and the amount I make and what I have and what I do, I can't understand how I have the amount of debt I do. Sure, some of the big stuff (furniture) has been upgraded or changed, but everything was paid for with cash except the entertainment center, a dresser for the children, and a computer desk, which I used a 12 months same as cash option and did indeed have it paid off within 12 months.

That's why I really don't make assumptions about other people's finances. I lived a pretty good life without credit cards and I am living a not so great life with the credit cards.