Cash Only - why I love it!
Good Morning! Today I want to talk about something that I touched on in a previous post, using only cash whenever I buy something. I know this sounds difficult and almost extreme in this day and age but I have very good reasons for it and it has saved me more money than any other money making technique. Around two years ago a major retailer was hacked during the holiday season and I had used my debit card there twice during the hacking period so I decided that was enough. I decided that I would rather be proactive that reactive and starting in January 2014 I went cash only. At this point I loved my debit card, I used it constantly and absolutely never had cash on me. One great example of this is when I used my debit card to put air in my tires because I didn't have 50 cents on me, people in their 30's shouldn't have those problems. So I decided to do a lot of research on this topic as my biggest fear of switching to only cash was that if I carried around cash constantly I would spend it constantly. I decided to carry around a notebook and track every dime that I spent. This was also extremely helpful come tax season, as I could just open my book and match the receipt to the amount that I had written down.
So I am going to break down (in a list form) exactly my steps for using cash only and the benefits.
1) How Much? - Look over your expenses coming up; Are you going to the grocery store? Do you need gas? Are you going out to dinner? Make sure you have enough that you can cover all of those necessary expenses and a little more for extras that you don't anticipate. You don't have to carry $1000, that is unsafe and you can always go to the ATM if you need more.
2) Write Down Your Spending - At least in the beginning this really helps, there were so many times I wanted to buy something stupid and frivolous but I didn't want to write it down so it curbed a lot of needless spending. It really doesn't take that much time if you stay on top of it.
3) Bills - I don't do this for my bills, my bank has a great bill pay and it would be silly to go around to each individual business and pay in cash. I don't have that kind of time.
4) Discounts for Cash - You don't realize how many businesses will give you a discount if you pay cash, until you start paying with only cash. First off, you almost always get a discount for cash (or debit) at gas stations and with gas prices how they are that is really important. Also when you have repairs done on your house or are at a small business make sure and ask if they have a discount for cash, lots of places do. Before I started my cash only journey, I was locked out of my house and had to call a locksmith, he told me up front that it would be over $20 cheaper if I just gave him cash, unfortunately I didn't have it and had to pay much more than if I just had a little cash around.
5) $5's - Another tip and trick that I picked up is to save every $5 bill that would come into my possession. When I first came up with this my husband was not on board, so I just did it. After two months he jokingly asked how much I had in $5's and when I told him over $500 he got on board really quickly. You don't realize how many times we have $5 bills in our possession, a lot of times these are the bills that we waste on Fancy Coffee, Fast Food, Magazines, etc. We saved our $5's and put them in the bank and it became our travel fund. This was really helpful as six months after we started this my Aunt passed away and we had to buy two plane tickets to Iowa (at the last minute on Easter weekend), but since we had the $5's we paid for the $1200 tickets with no problem and still had money in our travel fund. The $5 savings plan only works really successfully if you use cash only.
6) Coins - We save all of our coins and at one point we had a lot so we brought them to a local casino (there are a lot of casinos where I live). They told us they only take the nickles and quarters. We were bummed. Most banks do not take coins anymore, rolled or otherwise so we went to the Coinstar machine bracing ourselves to lose 10%. When we got there we noticed that if you put your change onto a gift card you wouldn't have to pay the fee, we were ecstatic. There were a lot of options but we chose a Southwest Airlines gift card and it paid for over half of Tom's round trip flight to Chicago. Just Coins!! Every penny really does add up.
I could go on longer about this but I will stop here, give it a try if not now then in January. It is a really great journey and becomes second nature in no time.
Happy Saving (or I guess spending)!
So I am going to break down (in a list form) exactly my steps for using cash only and the benefits.
1) How Much? - Look over your expenses coming up; Are you going to the grocery store? Do you need gas? Are you going out to dinner? Make sure you have enough that you can cover all of those necessary expenses and a little more for extras that you don't anticipate. You don't have to carry $1000, that is unsafe and you can always go to the ATM if you need more.
2) Write Down Your Spending - At least in the beginning this really helps, there were so many times I wanted to buy something stupid and frivolous but I didn't want to write it down so it curbed a lot of needless spending. It really doesn't take that much time if you stay on top of it.
3) Bills - I don't do this for my bills, my bank has a great bill pay and it would be silly to go around to each individual business and pay in cash. I don't have that kind of time.
4) Discounts for Cash - You don't realize how many businesses will give you a discount if you pay cash, until you start paying with only cash. First off, you almost always get a discount for cash (or debit) at gas stations and with gas prices how they are that is really important. Also when you have repairs done on your house or are at a small business make sure and ask if they have a discount for cash, lots of places do. Before I started my cash only journey, I was locked out of my house and had to call a locksmith, he told me up front that it would be over $20 cheaper if I just gave him cash, unfortunately I didn't have it and had to pay much more than if I just had a little cash around.
5) $5's - Another tip and trick that I picked up is to save every $5 bill that would come into my possession. When I first came up with this my husband was not on board, so I just did it. After two months he jokingly asked how much I had in $5's and when I told him over $500 he got on board really quickly. You don't realize how many times we have $5 bills in our possession, a lot of times these are the bills that we waste on Fancy Coffee, Fast Food, Magazines, etc. We saved our $5's and put them in the bank and it became our travel fund. This was really helpful as six months after we started this my Aunt passed away and we had to buy two plane tickets to Iowa (at the last minute on Easter weekend), but since we had the $5's we paid for the $1200 tickets with no problem and still had money in our travel fund. The $5 savings plan only works really successfully if you use cash only.
6) Coins - We save all of our coins and at one point we had a lot so we brought them to a local casino (there are a lot of casinos where I live). They told us they only take the nickles and quarters. We were bummed. Most banks do not take coins anymore, rolled or otherwise so we went to the Coinstar machine bracing ourselves to lose 10%. When we got there we noticed that if you put your change onto a gift card you wouldn't have to pay the fee, we were ecstatic. There were a lot of options but we chose a Southwest Airlines gift card and it paid for over half of Tom's round trip flight to Chicago. Just Coins!! Every penny really does add up.
I could go on longer about this but I will stop here, give it a try if not now then in January. It is a really great journey and becomes second nature in no time.
Happy Saving (or I guess spending)!
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