Every week in 2013, I’ll be sharing a different way you can save $100 this year. If you do all of these things, you’ll be able to save over $5,000 this year alone! Many of these things will likely be things you’re already doing, but hopefully all of you will pick up at least a few new ideas or some inspiration from this series.
Week 30: Shop With Cash
I know all of you “But-I’m-So-Responsible-With-My-Credit-Card” people probably aren’t going to be happy with me for saying this, but I really believe it…
You will very likely see significant savings if you shop with cash.
You see, when you shop with a credit card (or even a debit card, for that matter!) you can have your budget in your head and you can do the best to stick with it when you check out, but it’s so much easier to go just a little bit over here and there when you’re swiping. You can justify that $2 you went over your budget to buy something that was a “great deal” when paying with your card.
$2 might not seem like much, but if you spend $2 to $3 more every week, that adds up to around $130 in extra spending over a year’s time!
Paying with cash forces you to stick to your budget.
When I know that all I have to use at checkout is the cash in my cash envelope, you better believe I carefully evaluate every impulse purchase or great deal I come across: “Do I really need this?” “Is this in the budget?”
Sometimes, it truly is a great deal and I have the money in my cash envelope to pay for it so it goes in the cart. Other times, I decide it’s a good enough deal that I skip buying something else on my list that we can do without in order to afford it. Or, many times, I put it back on the shelf.
Need more convincing? I highly recommend that you read these articles: 4 Reasons I Use Cash Instead of Credit, 6 Reasons People Argue Against Cash Envelopes — And Why I Don’t Buy Them, and 5 Ways a Cash Budgeting System Will Change Your Life.
The Cash-Only Challenge
Maybe you’re one of those extremely responsible–and very rare!–people who can stick to your budget while swiping a card. If you are, kuddos to you!
However, if you find yourself struggling financially and wishing you could figure out why your grocery budget is so high, can I challenge you to take a Cash-Only Challenge for 3 months and see if it impacts your spending over the course of a three-month period?
Here’s how the Cash-Only Challenge works:
1) Commit to only spend what is in your cash envelopes when you shop for the next 3 months.
2) Go to the bank and withdraw cash in the amount of your pre-determined Cash Budget. For more on cash-only shopping, read The Envelope System Experiment.
3) Leave your credit/debit cards/checkbook at home and only bring your cash envelope and a calculator with you to the store.
4) Calculate your purchases on the calculator as you add them to your cart. This will motivate you to carefully evaluate all purchases, will make you aware of how much items actually cost, encourage you to look for the best deal, and force you to get creative if your list is longer than you have room for in the budget.
5) Pay with cash when you checkout and see significant grocery savings–hopefully!
6) Decide you’ll never go back to paying with your credit/debit card. Well, okay so you might not get quite that drastic, but I can almost guarantee you that going cash-only for a short-time will have taught you something worthwhile!
By the way, if you want to stick with a budget, but you tried the cash system and it didn’t work for you, I’d heartily recommend checking out Mint.com then. It’s a great way to stick with a budget, while not having to mess with cash envelopes.
Have you tried a cash-only system? If so, what benefits have you found from doing so? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Read 3 chapters of 
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it 
