2 of 10
BACK NEXT
The Hutters
Matt, 36, Engineer
Gina, 36, Teacher
Cleveland

The Moment: Matt Hutter tracks his spending to the penny, has read "The Millionaire Next Door" three times and keeps five copies of the book at home for gifts. So it's no surprise that Matt and Gina always lived below their means.

But when their third child arrived two years ago, Gina wanted to stay home. To help them get by on half their income, they ditched the cards. Though they never had a balance of more than $500, Matt felt they tempted them to spend money they didn't have. "Even if you pay your card off, you're still flirting with disaster," he says.

The Method: They canceled their low-rate USAA credit card as well as their Macy's and Target store cards, even though they never used them. They still have Kohl's charge card - Gina likes the card's discounts - but Matt wants that to go as well.

The Glitches: When Matt tried to buy a $5,700 PC online with a debit card, he ran into his $2,000-a-day spending limit. Because he has good credit, his bank lifted it.

The New Life: "We knew when Gina quit that if we ever got in over our heads, we could be in trouble," says Matt. "Getting rid of the credit cards gave us more control."

NEXT: The Sangls

Last updated June 18 2008: 1:55 PM ET
More Galleries
10 of the most luxurious airline amenity kits When it comes to in-flight pampering, the amenity kits offered by these 10 airlines are the ultimate in luxury More
7 startups that want to improve your mental health From a text therapy platform to apps that push you reminders to breathe, these self-care startups offer help on a daily basis or in times of need. More
5 radical technologies that will change how you get to work From Uber's flying cars to the Hyperloop, these are some of the neatest transportation concepts in the works today. More

Special Offer

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.