Cash not Card

taplady

I think using cash is a great idea! Good luck Mariel!

I used to do that but now we are taking part in the grocery challenge I have a set monthly budget and do a once a week Tesco online shop - using the discount codes from this site so I never have to pay for delivery:j This means we pay on our debit card but I keep a close eye on it with the online spending diary which is great and I add on any small top up shops for fruit etc as I go along.
I withdraw cash for everything else such as personal spends and petrol then its easier to see how much you are spending.
I think that doing the GC has saved us a fortune so I'd recommend giving it a try if you havent already!:T

amanda40

I have also started taking money out on a Friday ( £120) for petrol for 2 cars and food shopping and anything else throughout the week really. On my secondweek now - first week went good even had £10 left in my purse. The kids had a couple of days out - once to the pictures Kids club so only £3 and we took the goodies with us, then on a day out at a festival. Took a picnic so it only cost us for the parking ( couldn't get a free space anywhere!!)

So all in all a good first week - this week may be harder as we have guests coming for chinese, but if I really watch should manage. I have really been watching petrol too, so shouldn't need any this week. When the weather is this good it is easy to stay home and let kids out to play all day - saves a fortune too!!

Mariel

I was considering joining the GC. Maybe I will. I do my best to live off yellow stickers anyway!

Magentasue

I've found keeping fruit in the house is easier now that I live a few minutes walk from a twice weekly market. Anything in the fridge (strawberries, melon and the like) are served but there are always oranges and apples for the taking. Fruit like grapes, cherries etc disappear the day they're bought. I can't believe tinned fruit is any good but I do keep rhubarb, cooking apples etc in the fridge to make a pudding on low fruit days.

Yogurt is a pudding here, not a snack. I agree with moanymoany about snacks - scones and bread and summat happen here more often than fruit. I don't see why snacks have to be healthy if meals are and we always have three or four fresh veg or salad over lunch and dinner. I'd rather snacks were low sugar for the sake of their teeth and snacking on fruit and yogurt all the time isn't the way to go for that. Fruit snacking is big on market days, occasional otherwise. When I bought fruit at the supermarket once a week, I could never make it last all week.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Since using cash as much as possible,I've saved about two hundred pounds in the past 5 weeks.I found it too easy to just hand over my card and spend on things I just did'nt need.It's just so easy to go round the supermarket and pick up the same things everytime I go in just incase I run out of them and I realise I rarely ever do but end up throwing out a lot and it just breaks my heart seeing my money getting tossed away.So it's cash for me from now on.

crockpot

I have a cash purse for supermarket shopping and hubbie gets cash for spend and petrol, he has not had an increase for prices going up, as we did not have the extra!

I always tell girl on till how much cash I have, it`s easier not to scan it than have to take stuff off at the end.

If I only have cash it easier not to be tempted by non food items as I know I do not have the spare money, if I think something is a bargin then I will put it through at the end when I have got what I realy need.

If I run out of bread I will go to local shop, it might cost 5p a loaf more but I only buy that and nothing else so cheaper in the long run.

moanymoany

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Since using cash as much as possible,I've saved about two hundred pounds in the past 5 weeks.I found it too easy to just hand over my card and spend on things I just did'nt need.It's just so easy to go round the supermarket and pick up the same things everytime I go in just incase I run out of them and I realise I rarely ever do but end up throwing out a lot and it just breaks my heart seeing my money getting tossed away.So it's cash for me from now on.

The psychology of handing over cash is very interesting. Oprah did a programme years ago with young men and women who had got into massive debt. Part of the recovery was they had to use cash.

What they all said was that they found handing over dollar notes was FAR more difficult than handing over the card. All but one had either paid off or nearly paid off their debts in three years.

Interestingly, out of 20 or so people the only one who was in as much debt as at the start was a man whose parents paid the original debt and he had run up the same again! Nuff said!

LumpyCustard_2

I much prefer to use my credit card, because a) I get vouchers back and b) since I look at my online statement often it enables me to track my spend easily. If I use cash (at the market, or Lidl), then I often don't remember to write my spends down, and I have to keep getting money out when I like to keep my current account as near as 0 as possible as it doesn't earn any interest. So cc is much, much better for me.

Bella79

i know what you mean about cash it does make you think more , For eg yesturday i nipped into tescos for milk bread i ended up spending £45 !! i brought a fan , tea set for lo , teabags were on offer so got a few of those, then dishwasher tablets were on offer so got some of those !!!!

lambanana

I do that too withdraw the food budget when we get paid and keep it safe then use cash in shops, I don't take the whole lot out with me at once. It's just so much easier to control spending that way