One Month Cash Only Challenge

I found this intriguing thought on Dave Ramsey's web page.  A one month cash only challenge. 

I've done a noSpenduary Challenge, where I didn't buy anything we didn't need to survive for a month.  It is an interesting and effective challenge, but once the month is over, you are back to spending money again.  Sometimes the bad spending habits creep back in, and sometimes you find that most everything you own has broken in a 6 week period and needs to be replaced.

This is an interesting challenge in that it forces you to be more mindful of the money you are spending.  Because you are paying with cash, it forces you to stop and consider whether or not you have the money on hand to pay for what you are buying. 

The even bigger bonus?  Because you are paying with cash, you don't have to worry about your credit information being stolen.

I think I'm going to give this a try for the month of September.  I'm always up for fun and unique ways to save some money, as well as to be more mindful of the money I do spend. 

Dave Ramsey is not suggesting forgoing credit/debit cards completely.  He is suggesting that you use cash wherever you can in your budget for a month.

Simple but devious thought, isn't it?

I'm really curious to give this a go!  September starts tomorrow, and so does this challenge!  I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can save!

How about you?  Are you willing to give it a try?

Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball

We've been following Dave Ramsey's plan to pay off our debts for over a year now.  The "big" test of his theories came this month - the month that I had set aside to be our "No Spenduary" month.  The goal was to pay off a big bill that's been hovering over our heads for a while now.  We're so close to the end, it's not even funny.  But, this has been a month of unexpected expenses for us that has hit us hard. 

As part of Dave Ramsey's method of paying off debt, he advises readers to have an emergency fund, and that this fund should be used only in the case of emergencies.  Credit Cards are to be used as a last resort.  Once you have that safety net built up, you then concentrate your energies into paying off your bills.  You pay the lowest balance first, while making minimum payments on the others, and then once the first is paid off, you put ALL of the money that was going into the first debt into the second debt.

We had paid off one credit card, and were plugging away on the second debt when we got bamboozzled by an unexpected car repair and unexpected dental work.  Actually, this has all happened since our last paycheck.

Two years ago, we would have charged everything to a credit card and not looked back.  But, we've come so far, I really didn't want to put a charge on the credit card.  REALLY don't want to.

Thanks to the savings accounts, we were able to pay mostly cash for everything.  We ended up charging $270.  Yes, we had to charge, but it was ONLY $270, which we will be able to pay off next month without a problem.

We don't have a lot left in any account at the moment.  We've got enough cash left to put gas into the cars to get back and forth to work this week.  We're going to go sparingly on the use of the grocery money this week.  It's time for some creative cooking!  Fortunately, both husband and I are very good at cooking from scratch, and we have a decent collection of raw ingredients on hand at any given time.  No doubt about it, we're going to be eating an eclectic set of meals this week as we work our way through the freezer and pantry.  But hey!  That's what the freezer and pantry are for!

It looks as if March is also going to be a spend as little as possible month while we work to build our emergency savings back up again. 

In the meantime, I'm crossing my fingers that nothing else breaks this month! (Less than a week left!)

Dave Ramsey, thank you for your most excellent advice.  Being able to get through a major financial challenge without hitting up the credit cards was a very warm and cozy feeling.