Switching to cash if you use credit cards, even if you always pay off the balance like we do, is hard. The reason it is so hard is because chances are your credit card monthly cycle doesn't match up with when you get paid. So the first month you switch to cash you either need to take cash out of your bank account (which we fortunately were able to do), or wait until you get paid. Does that make sense?
For example, my credit card is the 23rd to the 23rd of each month. If I want to switch to cash that means that the week following the 23rd where it would normally be money that comes on the next credit card bill, I now am not doing. I need to use cash that week. But we don't get paid until the 31st. This can be tricky for some if your balance is below what you need to survive that week. So you either draw out of your savings or checking if you can, or eat only the food that is in your pantry and try not to go to a store for any reason because you need to cut the credit card use cold turkey.
I froze my credit card in my freezer so I don't have easy access to it. Like I literally put it in a giant ziploc with a bunch of water. The problem is that like so many of you, I use Amazon for a lot, and they already have my credit card info. This will be a training issue for me. Like I need to just stay off Amazon cause chances are I would be buying things that aren't necessary.
Hopefully, this will go well. We did this a few years ago using Dave Ramsey's principles on saving money and the debt snowball. The only debt we carry is our house and still some student loans. Although I would love to be completely debt-free, I am not sweating the school loans too much. The interest rate is about 1.5 %, and I would rather put saved money into the bank given the current US job instability. I have to determine what I feel is a good amount of money to have as a cushion before we start attacking school debt and ultimately our house.
Any good money saving suggestions?
No comments:
Post a Comment