May God help me when I get ready to buy a car next year, if I can't even bring myself to buy this computer.

Debt scares me. It just does. Even though I ran the numbers last night, and even with making payments on my hospital bill, I can absolutely, easily, afford it, I can't seem to make myself click the "buy" button.

Now, I know that you can't build better credit without incurring debt. That's the way the system works. That is why I finally gave in on getting a credit card again, and it has improved my credit score over 100 points in less than a year. I need to get into the the "good" range so that I will be able to get a new car next year. As much as I love my 1997 Plymouth Breeze, I have to acknowledge that it isn't going to last forever (and with 150K miles on it, it probably isn't going to last much beyond next year). It's getting to the point where the repairs it will inevitably need within the next year or so are more than it's Blue Book value. If I want to get anything close to a manageable interest rate, I need to have that good credit (the most recent rate I was offered for a car loan was 15%. That's an improvement over being laughed out of the finance office, but crazy high).

So I need to buy this computer. I figure that with overtime (and there is always overtime), I can pay it off in a year. By then, I'll be ready to take on the debt of a car.

If I'm so afraid of $1500 of debt for a computer, can you imagine how I'll be with $10000 in debt for a used car? I don't want to think about it!