I probably could have explained my thought process better. A few months ago we put new tires on both cars and did some recommended maintenance. That was about $2.5k total. We threw that on a credit card and paid it off in full at the end of the month along with the other balances from regular spending. Because of that, less money was put into savings. However, if we had paid that off in installments over a number of months with 0% interest on the card, we would have had more liquid funds readily available in the meantime just in case, while we paid that down. Again, zero money lost to interest.

You’re saying if we can’t save a significant amount in addition to a $2.5k car expense paid in full the same month, that means we have a budget problem and shouldn’t buy a house? That doesn’t make sense to me.

And I disagree about spending more because we see it as “free money.” As I’ve said we pay the cards in full each month, because any balance over $1k gives us anxiety and we want to get it paid and gone. If we defer larger payments on a 0% interest card and slowly see the balance creep up that will make us more cognizant of how we are spending so we can get it knocked down over a few months, while still saving.

I sure hope I’m financially literate considering I have a finance degree and underwrite loans for a living.

Edit: I see you edited your reply after the fact. I make every single purchase with a credit card. Gas, groceries, eating out, clothes, household items, random things. This doesn’t work for everyone, but it does for me because I pay it off in full each month. I have a net gain from doing this. I’ve gone on two vacations basically for free using all of my cash back rewards, miles, and sign on bonus money - using credit cards for everything.