Benefits of a Cash Budget – Part 1
Benefits of a Cash Budget – Part 1
Written by Sam Getting Finances Done
In this article series of articles, I have recorded somewhat of a manifesto for using cash in your budget. You can listen to the whole thing in my podcast for week 4 of my 12 Weeks to Fiscal Fitness program, Using Cash In Your Budget.
In week 3 I talked in considerable detail about how to create a budget that works. In week 4, I’m going to talk about a tip that has been crucial in helping my wife and I stay within our budget. It has also helped us decrease the total time we spend on budgeting from month to month.
That’s right, I’m talking about using cash in your budget.
If you’ve been following this program faithfully, you’re already using cash in your budget. In week 1 I challenged you to use cash for your groceries and to choose to other problematic categories to use cash in. Now, I’ll finally go into the reasons for using cash.
Using cash in your budget is a tough topic. People shy away from it and toss it aside as being too much of a hassle. I want to challenge you to put those beliefs aside for a moment and let me make a case for using cash.
The fact is, I know how you feel. Using cash in our budget was one of the things I fought against most. We started using cash as part of Financial Peace University. It was one of those concepts I was ready to ignore and tried to convince my wife that we shouldn’t use cash. But she wanted to give it a shot and since I’d agreed to follow the program, I reluctantly went along.
I’m glad I did.
It quickly became clear how powerful using cash in your budget is. I was quickly converted and became a big advocate for using cash. In fact, I now consider it a requisite for having an effective budget. REALLY! I don’t know a single family who considers themselves successful at budgeting that doesn’t use cash.
On the flip side, I know plenty of people who struggle with their budget or struggle staying within their spending limits and are always trying to figure out why. Yet, they resist using cash. They just won’t give it a try. Or they give it a half-hearted try and quickly give up.
How We Saved $6,000 In One Year By Using Cash
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
http://www.gettingfinancesdone.com/blog/archives/2010/04/benefits-of-a-cash-budget-part-1/