tduby1
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,979
Jun 27, 2014 18:32:45 GMT
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Post by tduby1 on Apr 21, 2016 19:07:31 GMT
I use cash all the time, I could easily do this. To be totally honest, I don't really understand the whole going cashless thing... it's so much easier to overspend when you don't have something tangible in your hand. First thing I do every payday is take out cash to use. I may do this for our upcoming trip. See how much I/we can save between now and August. While we use our debit card for mostly everything I do agree it does make it easier to overspend. In fact, when we vacation we always do it on a cash basis. Because otherwise we would swipe, swipe, swipe with abandon. It is much easier when you have the actual visual of the dollars for us.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Apr 21, 2016 19:16:17 GMT
Every payday (2x month) I take out my 'fun money' and keep in my wallet. It covers things like Starbucks, lunches out, quilt store runs. I started doing this years ago after hearing "you spent how much at Michael's/JoAnn's/Hobby Lobby?" one time too many. Cash doesn't leave a trail! Personally, I find that having to hand over cold hard cash makes me think twice before buying more fabric, magazines, etc. Debit/Credit cards definitely allow overspending for me. In addition to saving all my change daily (I usually have between $200-250 at the end of the year), I now set aside any bills I have left when the next payday rolls around. Sometimes that may be $20 and other times it will be $100. I've manage to sock away over $300 since January. This and the coins will all go towards a big trip I'm planning next spring for my 60th. I should think about adding the $5 bills to the mix.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 29, 2024 22:22:19 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2016 19:16:45 GMT
I hardly ever carry cash. If I did that, I'd probably have $25 at the end of a year
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Post by gmcwife1 on Apr 21, 2016 19:16:51 GMT
We rarely use cash and have zero debt. We put absolutely everything we can on a rewards credit card, keep the balance paid off, and get free stuff because of it. IMO if people aren't good with money, it really doesn't matter what form that money is in. I agree, it doesn't really seem to matter what form the money is! I have direct deposit, actually all of our incomes are direct deposit. I rarely carry cash but have started to carry a bit more for dd. She is getting more social and does use cash more often than I do. Right now I have cash because I was just part of a scrapbooking garage sale and it was cash only. I will keep that for a while to give her for her activities.
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Post by jeremysgirl on Apr 21, 2016 19:16:58 GMT
I use my debit card for almost everything. I do give the kids cash for lunch money and allowance. But what I do is log into my bank everyday to check my transactions on my lunch hour. I take the "change" and throw it in my savings. So if I look and my account balance is $250.33, I take the 0.33 and throw it in my savings account. I do this everyday and it isn't much money, but at least I feel like I am saving extra. And keeping my checking account to a nice, round number, as well.
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tduby1
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,979
Jun 27, 2014 18:32:45 GMT
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Post by tduby1 on Apr 21, 2016 19:19:52 GMT
We don't use much cash...but everytime I stick any in the jar, within a day or two the kids need $5 or $10 for a school thing or field trip or something, so it never gets the chance to add up! Same here. I always tuck cash in my drawer to put aside for something fun and so sooner do I do that, the kids need it.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 29, 2024 22:22:19 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2016 19:19:57 GMT
I use cash all the time, I could easily do this. To be totally honest, I don't really understand the whole going cashless thing... it's so much easier to overspend when you don't have something tangible in your hand. First thing I do every payday is take out cash to use. I may do this for our upcoming trip. See how much I/we can save between now and August. I'm the total opposite. When I spend with a card, every cent is accounted for online and classified in our financial software. I know exactly what our cumulative spending in different categories is, what our spending trends are, where we are at with various savings goals, and so on. When I have cash, I just fritter it away and it never gets tracked. I hate it.
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tduby1
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,979
Jun 27, 2014 18:32:45 GMT
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Post by tduby1 on Apr 21, 2016 19:21:50 GMT
I use my debit card for almost everything. I do give the kids cash for lunch money and allowance. But what I do is log into my bank everyday to check my transactions on my lunch hour. I take the "change" and throw it in my savings. So if I look and my account balance is $250.33, I take the 0.33 and throw it in my savings account. I do this everyday and it isn't much money, but at least I feel like I am saving extra. And keeping my checking account to a nice, round number, as well. This is a great idea! I am so particular about keeping a ledger though (and reconciling it two to three times a week), I wonder how crazy I would make myself doing this.
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tduby1
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,979
Jun 27, 2014 18:32:45 GMT
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Post by tduby1 on Apr 21, 2016 19:26:07 GMT
So I had lunch with a friend yesterday. She mentioned that she has saved almost $3K that she wants to use to go on a girls' weekend. I think it's a great idea. However I was surprised she had saved so much as I know her yearly income. She laughed and said it's due to a new savings plan she found online. She explained that for a year she set aside every $5 bill she came across. Then at the end of the year she added them all up and it's just under $3K!! So if you do the math: $3K divided by $5= 600. In a year's time she's come across 600 $5 bills. I came to this country in the mid 90s. If I saved every $5 bill from the seconde I stepped off the boat until this very moment I'd have roughly $40. I just don't use cash. When in public I don't see many people using cash.
So my question is, do you use cash? Would you be able to save a lot of money if you used this $5 plan? It would never work for me. At the end of a year I might be able to afford a trip to McDonald's. About the only time we have cash anymore is when DD16, who loves shopping online, orders something using our debit card and gives us the cash. Or my SIL orders something online (her bank freezes her card every time she orders something online) and uses my debit card. Her purchases are usually larger though so that money goes right back into the bank. But the money DD usually gets piddled away.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Apr 21, 2016 19:31:42 GMT
I always have cash. I don't like to use a credit card for small purchases, especially at small businesses (no matter how convenient it may be for you, general you, those small businesses are not making a profit on your purchase), and I don't carry checks anymore. Also, since my debit card got hacked a few years ago, I don't like to use it for shopping. So, no problem finding $5 bills here. But that's a lot of $5 bills in one year. She must have been asking for them everywhere she went. I can see it becoming a personal challenge and managing to save quite a few. It's almost like a hobby, saving $5 bills. This is us too, exactly. DH usually has more cash than I do, but I typically have at least some cash in my purse. I hate having to use a debit/credit card for small purchases. I *WAS* that small businessperson not making anything on those small sales when I had my store back in the day, and I refuse to do that to other small businesspeople if I can help it. In some cases it was cheaper to just give the person the item they wanted for free than it was to charge their card for it. I also don't like using a debit card for every little thing for the added reason that it makes balancing my bank account a huge PITA when the bank statement is three pages of transactions under $20 to reconcile, even though we're using Quickbooks, etc. to do it. (And yes, I still reconcile my checking account monthly. As a former bank employee who had to balance other people's hot messes that got out of hand, it's something I won't skip.) Currently, I'm bumping into a problem on the other end of the spectrum with debit cards for another situation. We have a high deductible health insurance plan and an HSA with only debit cards. When we opened the account, DH decided not to order any checks because we almost never write checks for anything. He thought that we'd just use the debit cards to pay for whatever came up. Okay, makes sense. Except now I have thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay, money in the account to pay them, but there is a daily limit of how much I can pay at once with the card! Huge hassle. Never in my life have I wished to have a booklet of checks as much as I do right now. Totally annoying.
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Post by 950nancy on Apr 21, 2016 19:41:45 GMT
I'd be taking that trip with her. I heart cash.
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Post by Bitchy Rich on Apr 21, 2016 19:50:34 GMT
I use cash all the time, I could easily do this. To be totally honest, I don't really understand the whole going cashless thing... it's so much easier to overspend when you don't have something tangible in your hand. First thing I do every payday is take out cash to use. I may do this for our upcoming trip. See how much I/we can save between now and August. I'm the total opposite. When I spend with a card, every cent is accounted for online and classified in our financial software. I know exactly what our cumulative spending in different categories is, what our spending trends are, where we are at with various savings goals, and so on. When I have cash, I just fritter it away and it never gets tracked. I hate it. Ditto. I'm a fellow saver and cash fritter-er. I enjoy reconciling my check register and I like being able to look over my credit card statements to review that month's purchases.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Apr 21, 2016 19:56:49 GMT
I use cash all the time, I could easily do this. To be totally honest, I don't really understand the whole going cashless thing... it's so much easier to overspend when you don't have something tangible in your hand. First thing I do every payday is take out cash to use. I may do this for our upcoming trip. See how much I/we can save between now and August. I'm the total opposite. When I spend with a card, every cent is accounted for online and classified in our financial software. I know exactly what our cumulative spending in different categories is, what our spending trends are, where we are at with various savings goals, and so on. When I have cash, I just fritter it away and it never gets tracked. I hate it. That, exactly, is my issue with carrying cash. Besides, we're trying to save up miles on a Hawaiian Airlines credit card... my BF was really bummed to find out that the housepainter we just had paint the exterior of our house DIDN'T take credit cards; he was actually looking forward to adding that charge to the account for the points / miles, lol! I also agree that it doesn't matter whether it's cash or a credit card-- if you know what works best for you and your individual spending habits and savings goals, then do it. (or conversely, if you know what doesn't work for you, then DON'T do it.)
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scrapaddie
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,090
Jul 8, 2014 20:17:31 GMT
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Post by scrapaddie on Apr 21, 2016 20:00:46 GMT
I use my credit card for nearly everything and rarely use cash. My credit card Paisley points on actually make money on using it. use cash. My credit card Paisley points only actually make money I'm using it
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Post by mellowyellow on Apr 21, 2016 20:10:15 GMT
We have a lot of chickens so I started selling eggs. All the money I get I've been socking away. I have no idea how much I have right now as I just started saving the money recently.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Apr 21, 2016 20:16:07 GMT
I'm essentially completely cashless. It's been so long since I've used my ATM, I'm not 100% sure I'd remember the number. I actually have $10 in my wallet - which is highly unusual - only because my son had to pay me to buy something on Minecraft with my paypal account. That $10 will probably be there for weeks/months. I very, very rarely make small purchases. I probably go to Starbucks once or twice a year, and eat out for breakfast or lunch extremely rarely, and if I do it's usually with one of my kids or husband, so $10 wouldn't pay for it anyway. My husband easily spends $80 a week on small cash purchases - it's just not the way I spend money. I do remember a week or two buying my daughter a jamba juice after a particularly grueling rehearsal - that was probably under $10.
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Post by giatocj on Apr 21, 2016 20:22:49 GMT
We are moving to another state in just under two years. About 3 years ago I started putting a minimum of $ 5.00 a week aside in my "coffee can" (it's really just a raggy old hidden envelope, but I like the idea of a coffee can better ) and I'm pretty amazed at how quickly it's accumulated. I'm hoping to use it to stock our new home with essentials once we move, since we will be taking a pretty significant pay cut on my part at the beginning.
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Post by ChicagoKTS on Apr 21, 2016 20:30:19 GMT
I try to use cash and I have been stashing away $5 bills for a few years. I use it to buy something to treat myself especially to feed my new gadget habit. Then I got an AMX Serve card which is a debit card. I have it tied to my checking account and can reload it easily from my phone. I use it for most everything and like that I can use it for lunch and other small amounts without having to review a statement with a lot of small amounts deducted/charged. I like the card because I am in essence using cash but not having to deal with balancing an account or handling small change and such.
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Post by gmcwife1 on Apr 21, 2016 20:38:29 GMT
I use cash all the time, I could easily do this. To be totally honest, I don't really understand the whole going cashless thing... it's so much easier to overspend when you don't have something tangible in your hand. First thing I do every payday is take out cash to use. I may do this for our upcoming trip. See how much I/we can save between now and August. I'm the total opposite. When I spend with a card, every cent is accounted for online and classified in our financial software. I know exactly what our cumulative spending in different categories is, what our spending trends are, where we are at with various savings goals, and so on. When I have cash, I just fritter it away and it never gets tracked. I hate it. Same for me
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Post by krc11 on Apr 21, 2016 20:48:34 GMT
I don't use cash because I want my rewards points. So I will use my discover card whenever I can and then just pay off the balance every month.
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Post by krc11 on Apr 21, 2016 20:50:30 GMT
For the cashless people, I find it very effective to set up an automatic draft to my savings account. My bank doesn't charge for that. I save a tremendous amount of money that way. Because I physically don't have to do anything - or even remember to do anything, it works. I'm used to it leaving my account so I don't feel short. If I had to remember to move the cash to another account, I'd likely not do it as often.
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raindancer
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,095
Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by raindancer on Apr 21, 2016 21:35:16 GMT
I never carry cash, but we pay ourselves first. I've found that we can save a shocking amount of money that way. By setting aside what we know we don't need to pay bills/eat/etc. first, we don't fritter it away.
I like this idea if you carry cash. My grandfather wrote checks for everything. From the time he opened his account he would round up the amount so he only ever balanced his check book with zeroes. If it was 19.02 he recorded it as $20 If it was 20.99 he recorded it as 21. Ultimately for nearly 2 years after my grandma passed he was able to pay for full time assisted care from that money. I never found how how much it was, but apparently over 60 years it *really* added up.
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raindancer
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,095
Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by raindancer on Apr 21, 2016 21:45:06 GMT
I use cash all the time, I could easily do this. To be totally honest, I don't really understand the whole going cashless thing... it's so much easier to overspend when you don't have something tangible in your hand. First thing I do every payday is take out cash to use. I may do this for our upcoming trip. See how much I/we can save between now and August. I'm the total opposite. When I spend with a card, every cent is accounted for online and classified in our financial software. I know exactly what our cumulative spending in different categories is, what our spending trends are, where we are at with various savings goals, and so on. When I have cash, I just fritter it away and it never gets tracked. I hate it. I have tried a few different things, what software do you like if you don't mind?
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Mary Kay Lady
Pearl Clutcher
PeaNut 367,913 Refupea number 1,638
Posts: 3,082
Jun 27, 2014 4:11:36 GMT
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Post by Mary Kay Lady on Apr 21, 2016 21:46:51 GMT
I use cash for most things i. e. groceries, cleaning supplies, dining out, etc. It prevents me from going over budget.
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Post by gmcwife1 on Apr 21, 2016 22:03:40 GMT
I always have cash. I don't like to use a credit card for small purchases, especially at small businesses (no matter how convenient it may be for you, general you, those small businesses are not making a profit on your purchase), and I don't carry checks anymore. Also, since my debit card got hacked a few years ago, I don't like to use it for shopping. So, no problem finding $5 bills here. But that's a lot of $5 bills in one year. She must have been asking for them everywhere she went. I can see it becoming a personal challenge and managing to save quite a few. It's almost like a hobby, saving $5 bills. This is us too, exactly. DH usually has more cash than I do, but I typically have at least some cash in my purse. I hate having to use a debit/credit card for small purchases. I *WAS* that small businessperson not making anything on those small sales when I had my store back in the day, and I refuse to do that to other small businesspeople if I can help it. In some cases it was cheaper to just give the person the item they wanted for free than it was to charge their card for it. I also don't like using a debit card for every little thing for the added reason that it makes balancing my bank account a huge PITA when the bank statement is three pages of transactions under $20 to reconcile, even though we're using Quickbooks, etc. to do it. (And yes, I still reconcile my checking account monthly. As a former bank employee who had to balance other people's hot messes that got out of hand, it's something I won't skip.) This is exactly why I don't frequent a couple of local coffee stands. If my $15 coffee purchase is too small for them to want because I don't carry cash, then I won't stop. I'm not going to go to the bank every time we might want a frap or coffee. So off to Starbucks or one of the other stands that does not tack on a fee for using a card. When asked, I always tell the business it doesn't matter to me if they do debit or credit, it's whatever is best for them. Most businesses seem to appreciate that and don't turn my business away.
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Rainbow
Pearl Clutcher
Where salt is in the air and sand is at my feet...
Posts: 4,103
Jun 26, 2014 5:57:41 GMT
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Post by Rainbow on Apr 21, 2016 22:10:27 GMT
IMO if people aren't good with money, it really doesn't matter what form that money is in. This is why redistribution of wealth won't work. Even if you gave everyone exactly the same amount of money on the same day at the same time, shortly thereafter you would see the ones who aren't good with money would soon be broke again and the ones making wiser choices would still have money.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 29, 2024 22:22:19 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2016 22:14:59 GMT
Except for online purchases I pay for everything with cash. I don't get how having and using cash is difficult. Any change I get that's under a pound gets put aside and it adds up nicely over the year.
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Post by auntkelly on Apr 21, 2016 22:17:42 GMT
I use cash for small purchases. I find that I spend less money that way.
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Post by hop2 on Apr 21, 2016 22:27:46 GMT
I use cash but I doubt I come across an average of about 2 $5 bills per day.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Apr 21, 2016 22:57:57 GMT
This is us too, exactly. DH usually has more cash than I do, but I typically have at least some cash in my purse. I hate having to use a debit/credit card for small purchases. I *WAS* that small businessperson not making anything on those small sales when I had my store back in the day, and I refuse to do that to other small businesspeople if I can help it. In some cases it was cheaper to just give the person the item they wanted for free than it was to charge their card for it. I also don't like using a debit card for every little thing for the added reason that it makes balancing my bank account a huge PITA when the bank statement is three pages of transactions under $20 to reconcile, even though we're using Quickbooks, etc. to do it. (And yes, I still reconcile my checking account monthly. As a former bank employee who had to balance other people's hot messes that got out of hand, it's something I won't skip.) This is exactly why I don't frequent a couple of local coffee stands. If my $15 coffee purchase is too small for them to want because I don't carry cash, then I won't stop. I'm not going to go to the bank every time we might want a frap or coffee. So off to Starbucks or one of the other stands that does not tack on a fee for using a card. When asked, I always tell the business it doesn't matter to me if they do debit or credit, it's whatever is best for them. Most businesses seem to appreciate that and don't turn my business away. I wasn't talking about $15 purchases and wouldn't have a problem with that. I was talking about the people who would hand me a card to pay for a couple sheets of paper or a pen that was under $2. On purchases that small, I would actually lose money on the sale after paying the 3% discount rate and a 30¢ per transaction swipe fee on top of all my other overhead. And that was in the days before merchants *could* tack on a fee for using plastic. There was a clause in the merchant agreement to accept the cards for payments in ANY amount regardless of how small it was. I once had someone want to pay for a 53¢ purchase with their credit card. I told the lady to just take it and pay me next time. Honestly, for a purchase that small I could probably find enough coins under the seat of my car.
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