Week 3 Budget Wrap-up – 1/15/10 thru 1/21/10
Jan 23rd
DAMN!!! Well, I can’t say my budget was on point this week. Birthday dinner for my wife, and little purchases took its toll on my funds but hey…I’ll do better next time. However, I have been putting a great dent in my largest credit card debt. Regardless of the expenses I’ve been nailing myself with, I’m still on track.
| Week | Item Description | Amount | Remaining budget ($100) |
| 1/21/2010 | Groceries | $ 23.64 | $ 76.36 |
| 1/21/2010 | Gas – civic | $ 18.23 | $ 58.13 |
| 1/21/2010 | Birthday dinner – sushi | $ 115.00 | $ (56.87) |
| 1/21/2010 | Dinner – Toastmasters | $ 20.00 | $ (76.87) |
| 1/21/2010 | BART ticket purchase | $ 20.00 | $ (96.87) |
| 1/21/2010 | Home Depot | $ 2.34 | $ (99.21) |
| 1/21/2010 | ATM fee | $ 2.50 | $ (101.71) |
Budget with real cash, not credit/debit cards
Jan 11th
During the course of my budgeting adventures I have found that using my credit/debit card to make purchases might be easy…but its just too easy. This has led me to the idea of only paying in cash for everything, and having to carry all the cash on me at once. But why do this??
1. Carrying all your budget cash forces you to look at your cash on hand everytime you buy something.
2. You can’t say, oh well I could just buy it because I have more than my budget in the bank anyway.
Why do this? There are many good online services like Mint for tracking all your expenses via your debit/credit card. It’s just too damn easy to buy stuff with your credit card. Cash is harder because you have to pick it out of your wallet, manage the change and you see every single time you open your wallet how much cash you have on hand. With your credit card, you dont see a ticker on there saying $152.57 remaining in your budget. You have a credit line or a much larger debit account balance than your small weekly budget. You just cant get into the habit of not being familiar with your cash on hand.
Yes…its tough. Yes…it sucks knowing you only have a hundred bucks a week to spend total. How bad do you want that goal thou? Wouldn’t it be nice to instead of spending 25-50 of that 100 dollars a week on interest, you could pocket it and actually do something better with that cash?
Carrying cash is cumbersome, impractical if you like to dress in tight clothes or whatever. I’m contending that cash is king, and you should be intimate with your cash. Become familiar with you cash on hand, and dont deviate. You’ll be fine, and you will thank yourself when you aren’t paying 15-25% of your cash on hand in interest on a credit line.
