Hey guys! I want to share my story of switching to "Cash Only" for grocery, spending, and entertainment money.
First I want to say that I am (was) a strong believer that if you are extremely good at budgeting, there isn't much difference between spending physical cash and using a debit card. I have been budgeting hardcore for over 3 years now. I watch every last penny. My YNAB budgets are impeccable. I can count the number of times that I went over budget in a month on one hand. I always spend every last dollar in my entertainment, grocery, and spending budget line item, but I do so from the freedom of the budget - as in I told myself I could spend x amount, so I will spend x amount and not feel guilty. Truth be told, as long as I am hitting goals, I shouldn't feel guilty about it.
However, I decided what the heck and my wife and I went and pulled all of our spending, grocery, and entertainment budget out in cash. Straight 20s. I never would have imagined the result. I took it home and stuck it in an envelope in my sock drawer. Anytime we needed to go to the grocery store, wanted to go out to eat, etc, I had to go grab physical cash out of my sock drawer and bring it with me. When I went to the grocery store, I only took the amount of cash to pay for the items I needed. If I wanted to splurge and get something extra, I had to feel like a failure and swipe my debit card. I didn't let myself do that. Every time I wanted to go out to eat, I physically felt the painful thoughts of letting go of 5-10% of my money for a meal I would enjoy more at home anyway.
Long story short: Me, an avid budgetor, switched to all cash in January and for the first time in idk how long, had 15% of my remaining grocery, entertainment, and spending money left at the end of the month. I threw the extra money toward my goals. I recommend everyone try to go all cash for what they can for one month and see if they have results.
I also discovered I really like cash. It makes me feel like a "baller".
Submitted February 01, 2018 at 12:04PM by BankruptcyLawGuy http://ift.tt/2DTf1MZ
