USA Today: Credit Card Spending Up

From the USA Today:

Rising living costs, along with cheap and plentiful credit, have led consumers to rely more on plastic to pay for necessities they can’t live without — and luxuries they don’t want to do without. But as the economy weakens, consumers are starting to spend less on discretionary items, such as furniture and electronics, and more on such necessities as groceries and gas, according to government data. Such items increasingly are showing up on credit card bills.

“Everything’s going up — dairy, gas, home taxes,” says Christie Carlson, 34, a single mother of five children, ages 5 to 14, in Tomah, Wis., who enrolled in a debt-management program after racking up $20,000 in card debt. “I’m trying to pay more for everything in cash, but it’s just impossible. It’s not feasible right now to stop spending on the credit card.”

During the past year, credit card debt has ballooned most rapidly in parts of the nation where the economy is particularly weak, including California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com.

At least our state made the article.