I personally find cash a lot harder to spend than whipping out the debit card or check. ( I don't own a credit card).

Cash seems more like real money, hard earned money, and I am not comfortable carrying it around or spending it. I hate forking over real money!

Since i don't have any room in my spare budget for non essentials, I make cash here and there selling off something or selling scrap metal i collect. This cash goes into a stash that I hate raiding from. Therefore, my new idea is to only use this money to buy things that are not food, mortgage or utilities.

Do you think this would work for others?

Today worked well with using only cash. I needed to make a return on an item and ended up with a few dollars. I put that with a little 'kitty' i have and was able to buy something non-food that was needed.

I just have to remember not to use the debit card. Like, ever. It's for paying the bills only and cat food. If I want to go to a bar i have to use my cash kitty. I like how this makes me uber mindful.

I think it might help to put the kitty in a nice jar or container. Something that makes me happy to open.

I sold some scrap metal this week and got some cash. I used that to buy myself a few used books and a couple beers at the bar.

So far i like this using of cash for non-living expenses. It's keeping me very aware of expenses. If i don't have the cash on me, I don't buy it. Cool.

I forgot this week to use cash at a bar the other night. I actually had more to drink than i should have, as some men bought me some beverages. So then i spent $10 myself and used my debit card. I reserve my card for living expenses at this point.

I felt pretty uncomfortable about this the next day. Using just the cash is really so much more comfortable - i then know exactly what i have allotted for things each month.

Lesson learned.

An important note: Last month Wells Fargo Bank charged me almost ten dollars for not using my debit card enough! According to them, I need to make ten POS purchases a month to continue to have free checking.

I'm pretty peeved off about this. I found an excellent solution, I thought, to using only cash when not paying bills. Now I have to make sure I use the card at least ten times, which means I have to keep track and COUNT card purchases online each month, before I can put the card safely away.

I don't even think free checking exists at banks anymore without labyrinthine rules, so it's not like I need to move my account.

The point: be careful if you are going to cash for non essentials - see if your bank requires a certain number of point of sale purchases first.

I could have used that nine dollars on cat food. I am really annoyed.

Update at this point: I actually have to remind myself to pull out the debit card and make ten purchases on it each month. It still annoys me that I have to make a conscious effort to do this. I need to check and see if I've done it this month, actually, since it's been a very low-spending month.

It's weird to have to make myself spend money to save money. It turns my whole frugal system on its head, and encourages me to make frivolous expenses.

I think that might be the idea!