Interesting Point

First and foremost, I have to say, yesterday marked the second pay period where my entire check went to other things.  In other words, we lived off of just Dh paycheck.  The last paycheck was used to pay off the car. WooHOO!  This paycheck is socked away in savings to go toward the repair of Dh truck or the purchase of a second car.  Plan "A" is to repair the truck.

Being in "Debt Free" mode, Dh and I were pleased to be able to see a Dave Ramsey video at church the other day.  Our Pastor was discussing stewardship; using our Time, Talent and Treasure for God.  Interesting series I must say.  Anyway, the treasure part of the series was last Sunday.  One would think this would be a sermon on tithing.  It wasn't.  Instead it was a biblical look at how to properly manage money. I bring all of this up to talk about an important point Dave Ramsey made in this video.   He said when you use cash, as opposed to a credit or debit card, you feel the "pain" of the expense.  In other words you have an immediate concept of how much you're spending.  As a result you will spend less when using cash.

Now I do budget.  I will set aside things like grocery and gas money in the checking account, but I never withdraw the money to just use cash for these expenses.  That is until recently. Now I'm rethinking that.  Well at least the grocery money part.  Gas is easier to get with a debit card, I just make sure to deduct it from the account and the budget once used.  Grocery money is trickier.

We had an extra paycheck in January and while that's great, it throws off my day to get groceries.  As a result instead of grocery money this check, I needed to get grocery money on the 10th.  So last (as in 2 weeks ago)paycheck I budgeted $100 to carry us over.  $50 of this $100 was in cash.  This last 50.  It makes for a good comparison. As a need arose we used that $100 to get us to the 10th.   The last 50 was the most careful though because it was cash.  I have to say Dave was right.  Each time I purchased items I needed with the cash money, I was extremely cognizant of how much I was spending and how much I had left over.  It made me rethink purchases, and prioritize others.  It also made me buckle down and make at home what I could.   So far so good.  I have $6 left over. (smile).   BUT!  We really have no immediate needs.  Today is baking day again.  Bread, Granola, Ranch Dressing, and even doggie treats are on my list.  A wonderful side advantage of this would be to see if this discipline pays off with an even lower grocery bill.  Would that not be awesome?!  So on the 10th, my first stop is to withdraw that cash and use that alone for groceries.

Many hours later......

So here are the fruits of my labor: From top to bottom we have potato chips (to go with lunch), Ranch dressing and bread, and doggie treats.  I also made two batches of Granola,  but forgot to get a pic.  My bad.

This is what the girls looked like while I worked on their treats:

Needless to say the treats are a big hit.  Jesse's pic is a bit blurry because she kept moving back and forth, but you get the jest.  So all in all a good day.    A penny saved is a penny earned!