When I first started Family Friendly Frugality, I knew I wanted to approach frugal living from a very relaxed and welcoming mindset. I wanted to create a blog about frugal living that didn’t leave people feeling overwhelmed or less than when they walked away.
The main complaint I hear about saving money nowadays is that it is too darn overwhelming to know where to begin. If you have $20,000 in credit card debt, is clipping a few coupons realistically going to make much of an impact to your bottom line? If you are drowning in student loans and house payments, is living within your means even possible?
The answer to all of the above is yes. While the small things you do might not add up to financial freedom, they do make a big difference. Some of them will chip away at your debt or create more wiggle room in a tight budget. Some of them will simply give you more confidence and a self esteem boost, proving to yourself that you can save money!
So I am starting a Make a Change Monday series where I will simply give you one task to work on for the week. You might already be doing it…so you get to skip that week! If not though, try it out and see if it makes a difference! I’ll keep them small manageable changes that don’t require a lot of effort or learning the drugstore game 
.
This week’s Make A Change Task:
Use Cash instead of Debit/Credit This week
We all know that cold hard cash can be tough to part with! This week, take out your budgeted amounts in cash for groceries, gas and other misc needs from your bank. You can try an envelope system or just separate the cash within your wallet.
See if you spend less when you use cash. How do you feel when you part with your cash versus swiping your card? Do you think a cash only lifestyle would help you stay in control of your budget more?
Give your extra change to the kiddos piggy banks OR better yet, start a small vacation fund with it! Sometimes I think the only reason we use cash is so we can get change!
Previous Make A Change Monday Tasks:
We switched to a cash budget for “groceries” “kids spending money (like toys and such)” and our own “personal spending money”. We take out the cash bi-weekly when my husband gets his check and it has really helped curb our spending. I actually started using coupons when I realized just HOW much we were spending on food. I mean we still use our cards occasionally but much much less than we did.
We used to spend WAY too much money on food as well. It’s surprisingly easy to blow an entire budget just with grocery shopping!
I tried switching to cash only, and I spent more money!! I have no idea why, but when I have five dollars in my wallet, I’m more likely to go to Starbucks. But I spent more at the grocery store too. I think I’m the exception though because most people spend less money.
That’s interesting. I’m sure it’s not for everyone. We do kind of a hybrid of cash/card actually. When we start overspending though, we tend to go back to cash for a bit.