Cash or Debit Card...........

livinginhope

I agree with pennylane and puds,I always only have the bare minimum of cash in my purse,usually less than £1.00,if it's there I can always find something I need,where as if I use my card I'm always worried there isn't enough money in the account,so spend less that way.
I only ever spend about £15/month on bits and bobs.

steve700

livinginhope wrote:

I agree with pennylane and puds,I always only have the bare minimum of cash in my purse,usually less than £1.00,if it's there I can always find something I need,where as if I use my card I'm always worried there isn't enough money in the account,so spend less that way.
I only ever spend about £15/month on bits and bobs.

£15........... I was thinking more like £200.....
Perhaps a 'spending diary' is in order........

tryhard_2

regarding your original question steve it really depends on you. maybe you could do spending diary using debit card for 15 days and cash for next 15 days (or a month). bear in mind it will be christmas soon and spending differs unless you are very organised and have done all shopping in jan sales

Miss_Moneypenny_6

Hi there,

For me I prefer cash as the DC is too similar to the CC I work out my cash like this, it might sound a bit complicated but it works for me.

I take out all the money on payday & divide it into tubs labelled food, childcare, petrol, school dinner, birthdays/shoes & clothes and finally Home Heating oil. Because we get paid monthly we have worked out everything monthly we take out the extra each month to cover a 5 weeks month for the child minder & shopping (i.e. childminder costs £39 a week so we take out £169 a month £13 extra to cover the 5 week month which happens roughly every 3rd month).

I then take out the money when I go shopping in my "Shopping purse" Petrol in my "Petrol" purse (you get the idea) & when I come home in the evening put the money into a tub labelled "underspend" in other words if I have a budget of £50 for food for the week & I only spend £40 i put the £10 into the tub & at the end of the month take it to the bank & pay it off my cc.

Good luck

steve700

Miss_Moneypenny wrote:

Hi there,

I then take out the money when I go shopping in my "Shopping purse" Petrol in my "Petrol" purse (you get the idea) & when I come home in the evening put the money into a tub labelled "underspend" in other words if I have a budget of £50 for food for the week & I only spend £40 i put the £10 into the tub & at the end of the month take it to the bank & pay it off my cc.

Good luck

Do you go shopping with a suitcase for all of your purses......

Just Kidding - All comments gratefully received

adypem

I wouldn't dream of withdrawing a fulls months cash, with the view of when its gone it gone... but that's just me.

I transfer an small amount into another account and then I withdraw £20/week for day-2-day living etc... and the reset i switch.

Any left overs goes into a jar for treats

taplady

Miss_Moneypenny wrote:

Hi there,

For me I prefer cash as the DC is too similar to the CC I work out my cash like this, it might sound a bit complicated but it works for me.

I take out all the money on payday & divide it into tubs labelled food, childcare, petrol, school dinner, birthdays/shoes & clothes and finally Home Heating oil. Because we get paid monthly we have worked out everything monthly we take out the extra each month to cover a 5 weeks month for the child minder & shopping (i.e. childminder costs £39 a week so we take out £169 a month £13 extra to cover the 5 week month which happens roughly every 3rd month).

I then take out the money when I go shopping in my "Shopping purse" Petrol in my "Petrol" purse (you get the idea) & when I come home in the evening put the money into a tub labelled "underspend" in other words if I have a budget of £50 for food for the week & I only spend £40 i put the £10 into the tub & at the end of the month take it to the bank & pay it off my cc.

Good luck

We do a system similar to you and it works for us! :T

climbgirl

I'd second what Yung said - if you're in a good position financially now, just use a cashback credit card to pay for everything. I put everything on my card and transfer the money across every night (if I've spent anything) so I'm not tempted to spend it before the card is paid.

I've got over £200 coming to me in February, all for using a different piece of plastic. Be disciplined about it and it'll really work in your favour.

Miss_Moneypenny_6

Hi again,

You have to find out what works for you, we got into our debt by putting it on CC & not transferring the money straight away therefore spending the money as well. (OH has a bad habit of taking out money whenever/whereever) so taking all the money at the start of the month works best for me - no money left for OH to take out

Good luck in whatever method you chose.

crawley_girl

taplady wrote:

We do a system similar to you and it works for us! :T

I am about too try using this method and hope it will work for me.

I disagree with most of the others. I prefer to use cash as it pains me to hand it over! Using a debit card doesn't feel like 'proper money' to me and thus when I do use it (ie in supermarket) I don't keep a running total of items in my basket and this is when I am more likely to overspend. If I know I am paying cash then I know I have to keep a running total to make sure that I don't overspend and have to return items at the checkout.

Different horses for courses!

:heartpuls CG :heartpuls