Recently, I committed to spending only cash for a week.  I normally use my debit card for all my purchases which is close to cash but not true cash.   My goal was to bring me more in touch with my spending habits and listed below are things I learned during the week:

Consumption Rate is felt.
During any given day, money is in constant motion, i.e. wake up, turn on lights ($ electric bill), take a shower ($ water bill), eat breakfast ($ groceries), drive to drop kids at school ($ gas), eat lunch ($ more groceries), talk on your cell phone ($ phone bill), drive kids to practice ($ more gas), eat dinner ($ more groceries)...and so on.  When I decided to spend only cash, it put me in touch with my consumption rate on any given day. My spending limits hit hard as I burnt through cash much quicker than I expected, like speeding in a car.  When you only have let's say $100 cash to spend on groceries, then once you spend it all, then you are done.  The goal I realized is to find and maintain a safe rate of consumption, so you don't run out of money and end up having to borrow (i.e. from the bank or perhaps dip into savings).  For example, if I got to checkout and was $25 over, I simply could not ask someone in line behind me to loan me the money to cover my groceries! 

 

Cooperation happens.
Cash forces you to do the math.  If I get this and this, then this much is left...if I don't get this but get this and this, then I have this much left.   I recently went shopping with my 9 year old for school clothes and as much as she wanted to spend over the limit, she learned that she simply could not.  We only had $100, so she had to make selections adding up to our cash limit.  At checkout she ended up over the limit and had to leave some things behind.  I was very proud of how she handled this arrangement and accepted our cash limit.  I have to admit, the mental gymnastics at check out were exhausting but it engaged our brains in ways that ultimately help us both handle real money, not the illusion of money.  When we got to the car, she looked at me and said "Thanks Mom, this was fun!"  Also, we earned $20 in Kohl's Cash to come back and spend another day, so she gave it to her sister to go shopping.  I was really proud of her for this too!

Knowing my daily/weekly/monthly/yearly limits are vital to controlling my spending appetite.  Spending cash definitely helps here!  This awareness leads to contentment which is the ability to live by Mary Hunt's wisdom "Want what you have, buy what you need."