A week ago I was doing my routine budget management and found something very non-routine. A strange charge that appeared to have come from Bogota, Columbia was showing up on my online statement. At first I wasn't too concerned. Brent sometimes buys computer equipment or other tech stuff from random places, so my first order of business was to ask him. Unfortunately this time he had no idea what the charge was from.

So with my parents on their way to our house for the weekend activities, and a house that still needed to be cleaned, I ended up side-tracked with phone calls to the bank and the hassle of canceling my debit card & changing all of our automatic payments over to Brent's card instead.

As a result of this little inconvenience, I've been going cash-only for the past week. It's interesting! I can see why Dave Ramsey is such a big fan of using cash. It's a built in discipline system. If I only have $40 with me when I go to the store, then I can't spend more than $40. Just that simple. It has almost felt like a bit of a challenge. I withdrew $100 in cash and I'm trying to see how long I can make it last.

My new debit card should arrive next week, and I'd be lying if I say I won't be thrilled to have it again, but for now I'm having fun using just cold, hard cash.
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1 Response
  1. Lana Says:

    Sarah, It does take a lot of discipline to do the "cash only" system. We have tried it on and off over the past year and I enjoyed the challenge as well. However, I love having that debit card in my wallet as well! I'm glad you were on top of things and were able to discover the charge before things go way out of hand! :)


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