I double oopsed yesterday, I used my debit card and I raided the coin jar. Both were due to nothing less than lack of planning on my part. In my haste to get out the door yesterday morning, I forgot to grab a couple dollars for the coffee date I had after work. Oops. $3.50 on debit. I also had to wrangle $2.75 from the mortgage extras jar so that I would have bus fare to get down to the university and pick up my bus pass. *facepalm* So, I owe that money back to the jar next time I'm distributing it through the envelopes.
I'm not going to give up and say cash only is too hard and go back to using debit. Nope. This was a hiccup, and I learned a few things from it:
1) I have to put the money I need into my wallet the night before I actually need it. Relying on my foggy spaced out morning brain is just a disaster waiting to happen.
2) I need to leave about $4.75 in loose change outside of the coin jar, for small cash only expenses like bus fare, where I can't use dollar bills.
3) I need to find my glue gun and actually glue the lid of my mortgage extras jar down so I don't raid it in the future.
Thankfully these were small expendatures. I'm glad I learned my lesson on something reasonably painless like this. The first few weeks were going to be the toughest anyway. Onwards and upwards.
4 comments:
Try keeping a $10 or a $20 stashed away for emergencies. Helps me a lot.
I should. Wrap it up in a couple post it notes so I don't spend it. My "Oh Shit" jar is my emergency money for larger emergencies. I just need to remember to keep a few coins out for things like parking meters. I picked up my bus pass, so I'll be good in that department for a couple months :) Thanks for the advice.
Hello,
If your an employed mechanical engineer then you are doing pretty good compared to most. I'm a fellow engineer (Computer Scientist) =)
Sounds like you are trying to stick to cash only. I'm not sure why (just happened across your blog)... maybe because you let credit cards get out of control?
If you can't seem to control spending with plastic, then yes I support using cash.
However, once you have discipline, then I highly recommend you move back to credit cards. Just pay them off in full every month. Not only are credit cards very convenient, but they protect you as well. One of my credit cards, if I purchase an item with it, it will double the manufacturers warranty up to 1 additional year.
If I pay for a car rental with my credit card, it automatically insures me. It gives me travelers insurance when tickets / hotel stays are purchased with it.
If I ever have a dispute with a merchant over some merchandise, usually you can get your money back from your CC company (VISA, MasterCard, Discover).
And IMO the best reason: You can get a credit card that pays you cash back on all purchases. I have one that pays 2% cash back on all purchases. So I actually save quite a bit of money with it now. Typically several hundred dollars a year!
Can't edit my prior comment. I just noticed you have several thousand dollars in CC debt.
My advice: stick with cash. Once you get your debt and spending under control and are confident that you are stronger willed and better at controlling your spending habits, and make a solemn promise to yourself that you will always pay your credit cards off in full every month NO EXCEPTION - then and only then can I recommend credit cards.
Otherwise stay away!
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