Have any of you tried a cash only budget?
I am constantly trying to create a more effective budget, and manage to stay with it and not go over it. It's hard! Things always come up and my kids seem to SENSE if I have any extra money (or not) and need some. It's never-ending. I read about this cash only budget where you budget and then take out cash for your budget. Then when you've spent the cash, that's it. You aren't allowed to dip back into your checking account until the next pay period. My husband gets paid weekly so that's pretty easy but this can work for any pay period. Of course, once I decided to do this, I got on Etsy and found this cute laminated envelope/billfold that I had to buy. (: I know.... Anyhow it is made up of ten categories, each with its own envelope. The categories can be personalized to fit your particular budget. Mine are: groceries/household, fun, kids, clothing, date night, car, housecleaning, tithes, gifts, and other (for something that I might think of later). I'm excited to try it. Some people say that they spend less because its harder to fork over cash then swipe their debit card. I think that will ring true with me as well. Most of the time I swipe my debit card, I don't even look at the amount so now I will be checking that more. I'll let you know how it goes. I'd love to hear if you or someone you know has tried this!
2 comments:
Do you have the link for the item you found on etsy? This sounds like a great plan. Cory and I are focusing on paying down and paying off a lot of debt in 2013. I used to be a credit card girl, but recently got rid of them! I am in a major habit of using my debit card for everything (and probably still will for things like gas so I don't have to run inside) but for everything else I think that using cash sounds like a great idea. Thanks and good luck Jaime!
We have done this it works great! You are a lot more careful about what you spend because there is a limit so you tend to buy only what you need.
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