No, not my accounts. The actual cards are frozen. Well, technically, they’re still freezing, since I just put them in the freezer 10 minutes ago. Yes, I’m freezing my credit cards. Why? Because it will make them very hard to use, but they’ll be available in the case of an extreme (and I do mean extreme) emergency.

Day 8 of 33 Days and 33 Ways to Save Money and Reduce Debt is all about not using credit cards. Freezing my credit cards is one of those things I’ve always meant to get around to, but never actually did. With my credit card readily available, I’d charge an online purchase, telling myself I’d pay it off when the bill came. The problem is we never had the money to pay it off.

I decided I was finally going to take the plunge. I transferred the balance of my mastercard to a new 0% APR card with no transfer fee. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Now it’s done.

Then I changed our Blockbuster online account to take the monthly fee off our debit card, rather than the credit card. Finally, I filled up a little freezer container with water, dropped the two cards in, and put them in the back of the freezer.

You know what? It feels really good to have those cards out of my wallet! Here’s to my new, credit card-free life!