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Saving Cash

August 19th, 2007 at 03:08 pm

I just don't use cash.

I think I have said a few times that I don't use cash much and therefore don't really get a lot of the cash/coin savings. It may make more sense if you use a lot of cash and probably is somewhat psychological. But I always say I find it easier just not to take the money out of the bank in the first place so there is little cash out of the bank to save.

I was just curious after looking at LuckyRobin's Post and peeked in my Quicken. I was curious just how much cash we had used this year.

It's hard to say because we receive a lot of cash (focus groups, other income, parental gifts - they like to give us cash here and there all the time).

But from the ATM we have only taken out $350 the entire year (including the $60 I just pulled and should last us through September easy).

Comes out to an average of $39/month or $20 each to dh and I monthly. I can tell you exactly where my money goes. $10/month to eating out (exact change - I can squeeze two $1 meals a week) and $10/month generally to Bunco - or maybe a lunch out with the girls other months.

Lord knows where dh puts his money. I probably tend to spend a little more since most months I do bunco and a couple of lunches out with the girls. But I have been sticking to meeting for sodas lately and not been spending much. Dh rarely spends his cash for the most part.

The interesting thing is I have deposited around $600 cash in the bank this year and I have been pretty good about tracking it. If my mom gives me a $20 to reimburse us for something I have generally been putting it in Quicken (as a plus and a minus) just so I can track where all our money goes. Something I had never done in the past. But we mostly don't deal with cash and there is not a lot there. I have saved almost twice as much cash as we have spent this year.

For us this is really where the savings comes in. We used to consider all this cash just extra and would enjoy it on extras. I still feel somewhat that way on some of this money. But for the most part the new general rule is, unless it is going to save us a trip to the ATM anyway, all cash we get goes to the bank. We may earmark it to something fun but I guess we are trying to track everything more and stray even less from the cash. The less we use cash in general the more we know where all our money is going (just try to put it all through Quicken for a snapshot).

If I think about it - bunco and a split lunch is about the only places we NEED cash. Maybe the occasional toll and parking fees as well (Which I find more for work than dh would use).

Which means we have saved $600 this year, thus far, that we usually wouldn't.

So I guess that is how it works for this mostly cashless household.

Heck I put the kids $5 birthday cash in their investment accounts too.

So yes, it is a mindset to saving cash and I see the benefit.

I just will never get taking more cash out than I am going to use, putting it back in, and getting excited about savings. LOL.

Oooooh - to my credit I pulled out $100 this year for on hand emergency cash so that means we have only pulled $250 in cash this year for spending. Wow. Averaging $28/month. That's probably all me. Poor dh. LOL. Then again he just uses his card for everything so no biggie.

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In other news dh has utterly confused me. He LOVES music more than nothing else (Well except movies) and he talked about getting a smaller more portable MP3 player for the gym. He was going to go cheap. I told him just to get something nice. I mean cheap is like $40 but nice is $100. What difference does it really make if the nice one last twice as long? So then he told me he didn't want to buy a MP3 player because he didn't want to be "in debt" with his allowance. I know some of you are wary of my dh but he really and truly is extremely anti-debt and would never buy something he couldn't pay cash for. So much that this thinking carries over to his allowance - LOL. Which I find funny. As long as he doesn't spend more than his annual allotment, I could really care less. It's more just to give us a guideline what we can spend, the cash is there.

So we were at the gym the other day and I could not believe he did not have an MP3 player. He can't go to sleep without listening to music. HE can hardly breathe without listening to music, but here he is in the gym listening to the crappy gym music. My god!

I should have figured he would cave. He finally bought one. He is all pissed because it cost $10 more than if he just bought it originally when he was looking. But oh well. I think it was $120 with tax, and used the rest of the Target gift card.

All I have is like 70 cents on my Target gift card. Well, it was fun while it lasted (Credit card rewards).

But yeah it's the kind of purchase I don't mind. & now he'll stop using MY MP3 player. It would be one thing if we could share but I generally go to the gym straight from work so it is easier this way, since I generally just carry all my gym stuff around with me. Since his is fancier I might be borrowing his a little more often though. Wink

Of course dh is very good on keeping on top of sales so he says he will probably return this one as he keeps an eye for an internet sale. We'll see. He'll probably shave off $10 eventually.


3 Responses to “Saving Cash”

  1. Ima saver Says:
    1187536635

    Wow, I just won one of those. How much do they cost?

  2. wyozozo Says:
    1187542963

    Of course dh is very good on keeping on top of sales so he says he will probably return this one as he keeps an eye for an internet sale. We'll see. He'll probably shave off $10 eventually.
    Now see, there is where I have a problem with people saving money. You buy the item, you use the item, you return the item because you found it cheaper. Not kosher in my book. IMO when people do this they are "renting" an item for free, not buying it from the store.

    I have relatives that do this A LOT and it's all I can do not to have a meltdown around them. I'm all for shopping around and waiting for the price I'm willing to pay, but I would never return something I have used just because it went on sale somewhere else. If the store has a price matching policy that's a bonus if you find at a lower price later.

    But this is just me and perhaps a reason I don't save as much money as others.

  3. monkeymama Says:
    1187618737

    Actually my dh generally does price matching. In this case he is trying it out to see if he likes it and he saw a better deal online. If they won't price match so be it. He found a better deal. Find nothing wrong with that. He's definitely going to open the box and make sure it is worth the money. We don't as a general rule though we are not big returners. My dh has probably saved $200 in price matching this year easy.

    If the store has a return policy I don't see what the big deal is. I can't imagine doing it with clothes and such. But with electronics it is nice to try out the product. Believe me, when my husband returns products he tells them why. If they take it, rather than offer a price match or refuse to take it, I don't see what's wrong. I mean he'll say he found a better deal. Usually he gets the price match anyway.

    I am with you for the most part. I am appalled at what a lot of people return. I just have to say we are not like that at all!!!

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