Simple Budgeting: The Color Green

So the topic for this month is “The Color Green“. I figured this title went good with the Spring season, St. Patrick’s Day, and hopefully the growing grass we will see soon. The color green is all over our lives but one thing that a lot of us think about when we think about the color green is money. I have to wonder if that will change as more and more us don’t use cash but use our debit and credit cards all of the time. My kids are funny and will take coins over paper money every day. The coins are shinny and nice to hold while the paper money is blah and limp. Are these the same underlying thoughts we have behind spending money our debit or credit card versus spending cash? That pretty debit or credit card is so nice to hold and use while when you use cash you have to actually to keep track of those limp, green bills.

I know folks that reign in their spending by only using cash. They find that if they have to use, they are less likely to buy stuff and it works really well for them.

For me, this isn’t really practical. I don’t generally carry enough cash for trips to Target, Harris Teeter, or Sam’s Club. I do carry enough cash for “EXTRAS” though. What are “extras”? Extras are those items you’d like but don’t need. Maybe you want to zip through the drive through for a quick lunch, or go to Starbucks for a coffee (I totally avoid this one by not driving coffee!), or grab a new CD, or well anything extra that you don’t really need. You know you have a lunch you can eat, a bottle of water to drink, a radio to listen to while driving down the road so yes these are all extras.
If I have to spend my cash for something that sounds nice, I always take an extra second to decide if I really want it. I did this today when the girls wanted lunch on the way home from the pediatrician’s office. I had the cash and decided it was worth my sanity to get them lunch on the way home. Yes, my sanity is worth using part of my cash allotment for the month!

So the next pay day that you have coming up, take a little cash out and trying using cash for your “extras”. Maybe it will work for you, maybe it won’t. You won’t know until to you try. If it does work for you, will quickly find some extra money in your budget because those extras add up quickly. Then you can really treat yourself to an awesome extra at some point!=)