x2 Tom, many have been there at one point mostly when young. When I was first trying to keep up I had a breif spell where I was dumb about it too, had nothing else to pay for but still got in to deep, but not to the point I couldn't bail myself out. It was mostly, well this part is needed for this part to work best, while your in there do this..... I will never miss those feelings of not being able to pay for some things, not wanting to answer the phone etc. It was only for a month, but it sucked. Shortly after I just quit. I don't really have any more "extra" money now than I did then but at least I have a lot to show for it (house, vehicles I can actually drive, fiance, tools, other hobbies).
Sure I miss it a lot and feel there is nothing wrong with doing it, just don't resort to poor financial decisions to get by. Its just my opinion, but credit cards, short term high interest loans or even worse pay day or auto title loans are not a good investment ever. These all carry extremely high interest rates, if you have nothing and need to get by they may be your only option, but for a luxury like truck parts, not wise.
Note: Credit Cards are a tool, I do not mean you should not use them. I sign up for a new 0% intro credit card often, however I use them as a tool to help extend my funds for the free period, then pay it off when the period is up. As long as you do not carry a balance on them they can be a great tool, do not use them as money you do not have and you will not get into trouble with them.
There seems to be a fine line between the old school penny pinchers who want to do everything in cash and the younger generation who spends outside their means on credit. Too many people cannot figure out there is a happy medium it just involves effort, you have to use credit to your advantage.
I remember always wanting to be able to have the nice pulling tractor and hauler someday, but there more you look around and pay attention to the sport, the more you see that very few people do it without major consequences. Many have large loans borrowed against everything they own to support the hobby, their personal farm/business suffers drastically due to the time and money commitment of the sport, then there are plenty of repos, forclosures, bankruptcys etc etc that surface every year. Pulling is not a sport for those without money, it has very little sponsor money available, prize money barely gets you to the event and it is severly expensive to keep a tractor/truck running on top.
